Day 5 (Surge: Low)

Day 5. I haven't quit this thing yet. Wow! It's been a few days since I've driven at this point, so I'm excited to be going out. Liz needs to go to Kendall Square, and is leaving later than planned, so I offer to take her over there and start somewhere different for once.

Before we get started though, I ask for some Ben Franklin's World bookmarks to put in the car. Ben Franklin's World is Liz' popular podcast about early American history, and I figured it wouldn't hurt to have some bookmarks (her awesome swag - made from recycled tires, and functional to boot) for people to grab if they happen to notice them.

Liz has suggested a few times (including again on this occasion) that I should play the podcast while driving for my riders. So far I have been somewhat resistant to this suggestion; I'm really not sure that people would react well to that. So far I've primarily kept my usual station, Mix 104.1, or WEEI when the Red Sox are playing, on the radio.

What do you think, dear readers? What type of music/content do you prefer to have on the radio as an Uber rider? Would you ask the driver to change, or just be unhappy and possibly give a lower rating if you didn't like what was on?

Anyway, on to the driving. I got Liz over to Kendall Square, and went online. Quickly there was a ping, right outside Legal Seafoods Kendall. I was a little unclear on the location from app, and after waiting a couple of minutes turned around, only to then see my rider waving from right where I was. Fortunately Ames St was quiet so I just turned around in the street again and picked her up.

Amusingly enough, as the rider was getting in I saw her badge, which immediately identified her to me as a Google intern. Too funny, though not surprising, since that corner is right by the Google Cambridge office (where I work). I wouldn't have guessed that my first pick-up there would happen to be a Googler, though I did consider it a possibility.

We went out to Allston, no major conversation, so it didn't come up that I was also a Googler. I didn't exactly volunteer it, but it was a quiet trip, so I wasn't really hiding it either. After all, I'm posting all of this publicly. :) If you happen to read this and you're the intern I picked up - hi!

Trip 1 earnings: $6.74

Next pickup was not far from my drop-off, in Allston. The destination, much to my dismay, was in Eastie. I have nothing against Eastie on principle, but as a driver it's a bit problematic, because you have to pay a toll to get back, and if you don't get a rider coming back, that's on you. This was another quiet trip, nothing to report.

Trip 2 earnings: $14.28

I tried to cruise around Eastie a bit for riders, but it didn't seem particularly hot, so I started heading back towards downtown where things were a bit hotter. I popped out in Government Center and got a request outside one of the big towers in the State St area. It was a bit of an intimidating pick-up, because it was along a busy street without anywhere to really pull over effectively, but fortunately the rider was on the ball and was right there.

Pro tip: drivers will be much happier with you if you're there waiting, especially when you're doing downtown-type requests without good places for them to pull over. It's much less painful for a driver to wait when you're doing a residential pick-up, because there are usually places they can pull over and less traffic to block/contend with.

Confirmed destination, and we were off to JP. This was my first chatty ride of the night. The rider was a lawyer, but doing consulting work rather than big legal firm trial law practice. I guess she had done that, but the 80+ hour week expectations were too much. In the field she was in now, apparently 60 hours was still pretty common, but it was less stressful and demanding than big firms/corporate law. Note to self: don't become a lawyer.

Eventually we got to our destination, and I was a little unsure about its suitability for a drop-off - it was a kind of sketchy looking building that wasn't clearly open in any way. I expressed this concern to the rider ("does this look right to you?") and as we pulled up a bit further we did see a courtyard opening - I guess it was a trendy loft in the end, it just didn't look that way from the outside (maybe that's what makes it trendy?). Rider was okay with getting out, so we had a successful and happy trip.

Trip 3 earnings: $8.67

Next pickup was on Huntington Ave in JP. It turns out this was my first UberPOOL trip! I didn't realize it at the time though, because I generally hit accept without looking closely at anything other than the location - the incentives are really to accept ASAP, plus I don't want to distract myself too much if I'm driving.

I picked up the first passenger, and as we were heading to our destination, the alert came up for another pickup, which is when I realized it was an UberPOOL trip. I informed the rider that she had apparently used UberPOOL, and she grunted somewhat non-committally - a good start, right? Anyway, I explained that we wouldn't wait long for a pool pickup, and it shouldn't take her too far off the route. I accepted the pickup, and hit navigate to get to the next segment.

We arrived, and after a short wait, got our second passenger. Uber informed me that the first passenger would be dropping off first, so we were back on our way to her destination, in the Fens.

Along the way a pool miracle happened, and the riders started chatting. It turns out that they were both Northeastern students, and even in the same major! They were just one year apart but didn't know each other. It was interesting to hear their bonding experience. Hopefully that took a bit of the discomfort in the pool experience out for the first passenger.

Both drop-offs went okay with no intervening pool requests. But boy was it not a money maker!

Trip 4 and 5 earnings: $6.15

I figured I had a bit of time left, so I headed back towards the South End, and managed to find a bit of surge, with a pickup not too far from my place. It was one of the small dead-end streets up against the Southwest Corridor Park, an area I know well, so I figured it wouldn't be too much trouble. Well, it wasn't TERRIBLE, but it was a bit crazy.

Turns out a company's event at one of the houses there was getting out, so there were a ton of rideshare drivers arriving and waiting to pick people up. I was about the second one to arrive, and more kept arriving. This is on a tiny dead-end street with parking on both sides, making it pretty narrow. As you can guess. it made navigating to actually get out a little exciting.

Thankfully most of the folks leaving were doing so together/at the same time, so the waiting wasn't too bad. Just had to do a little three-point turn, then chill a few moments while another pick-up happened in front of us, and we made our way out to JP with no other shenanigans.

Trip 6 earnings: $8.30 (not much of a surge)

That was all I had time for for the night, so it was offline and back home for me! See you next time!

Day 5 trips: 6
Day 6 earnings: $44.14