I've asked my ex for rides to the airport and she barks out "use Uber", and hangs up the phone, quicker than when she gets a telemarketer!
Finally I use my smart phone as an internet site, besides as a simple phone, and load up the Uber mobile app. I fill out a questionnaire, including name, address, credit card number, e-mail, cell phone number, and a code when finalizing the app on the cell phone.
I use Uber is for a ride to San Jose airport at 9am Friday. I open up the app, with the built in GPS already knowing my location, select my type of transportation: uber-pool, uber-x, uber-suv, or uber-black, cheapest to most expensive. Being a cheapskate, I select uber-pool, enter my destination, see the fare, and confirm the ride.
Uber comes back with a driver first name and picture, his vehicle make-model-license plate number, and time of arrival. Late model Toyota Corolla driven by a white dude in his 50s. The driver has my name and picture on his GPS screen mounted on an attachment on the steering column.
Car comes to my home within 3 minutes, with driver getting out to help the wife and I with the luggage, 2 carry on and 2 under seat pieces. Uber logo on the front dashboard.
In New York city in the rain, the driver of a taxi never got out of the car to help us with our luggage in his interior stained Prius.
The Corolla is spotless, with no cigarette odors, no stains, and no ripped upholstery.
I get in the front seat, and the wife in the back. Since it is an Uber pool ride, we make another stop in Sunnyvale, a bit of a detour, adding at least 8 minutes time to get to our destination. It's another Asian dude going to San Jose State, and he gets to sit with my wife. No hanky panky to worry about as my wife is twice his age!
Brisk traffic on the freeway, with the driver safely dropping us at the departures area, helping us unload the luggage, while I tip him $4 to add to the $7 fare, for the 13 mile ride, getting us there in one piece!
Why so much of a tip? The Uber-pool rides lose money for the drivers, and they have to eat just like anyone else.
Taxi ride to the airport is $39 from Sunnyvale, and Wingz is $27, and Uber-X is $14 during non surge periods.
Fast forward a week. We are going from San Jose airport to Sunnyvale on a Saturday afternoon. Wife and I are at the arrivals area outside, when I punch in the Uber app. The app GPS zeroes in on my location, and says the driver will pick us up at ride share area 8 in the center island across from arrivals.
No problem except that I'm waiting an eternity for the traffic light to change to green so that I can cross the 20 feet to the center island. Heavy traffic, with police everywhere, so no jay walking with luggage, and I don't want to end up as road kill!
Uber has a policy of only waiting 2 minutes maximum for a customer, before leaving and billing the client $5.
Light turns green, and I'm across the street, and flying down the 100 yard center island, with two pieces of luggage in tow, past stations 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8. Not up to NFL 0-40 standards, but not shabby for a 64 year old obese geezer! In the middle of the run, my cell phone rings with the driver confirming that I'm the crazy dude running like mad toward him, abandoning the wife in the dust.
Older Indian dude helps us with the luggage in a Prius V, with the front seat filled with a solo passenger in his 20s. Another Uber-pool ride, in a spanking clean vehicle. We have to drive up 280 north, let the front passenger off at Lawrence Expressway, who leaves no tip, get back onto 280, and head north on Sunnyvale Saratoga Road.
One disadvantage of Uber-pool is that the driver can pick up passengers along the way, even if it requires two left turns, which it did in our case, adding more time and potential discomfort -3 passengers in the back, and 1 passenger in the front after picking up 2 people in Sunnyvale blocks from my house. Tight squeeze in a Prius V with 3 people in the back, and of course yours truly stuck in the center!
This time the Uber Pool ride from the airport to my house costs $13.46. I tip the aging Indian driver $5 for the trouble of driving in the rain. I would have been better off taking Uber-X with all the delays.
Not many drivers on a rainy day, so the demand is up. And just try taking Uber at 1:30am in the morning, like Dennis T, where there is a scarcity of Uber drivers, when the rate can triple to match that of taxis' $3 per mile. Surge pricing not only during rush hours, but also during rainy periods, or very late in the evenings. read more