Tips and Guide for Beginner Uber & Lyft Drivers

Dec 24, 2018

If you made it to this blog, you're probably thinking about or have considered driving for rideshare services such as UBER or lyft. If that is the case, here are some tips and guides for those that are thinking about becoming a driver, or a beginner drivers.

1. Stay Alert and Be Aware of Your Surroundings

I can't stress this enough, as you are becoming accustomed to rideshare APPS, you as a driver could get easily distracted when receiving a ride request. As beginners, you may be eager to get to the customer's location right away, and make sudden movements to get to the customer. However, I highly recommend to take a moment beforehand. After accepting a ride, stay in your lane, and make sure of your surroundings first and upon checking that you are in the clear, then gradually start your way to your customer's location.

Also, driving in locations that you are familiar with, so that you are more comfortable in driving others safely and smoothly. Time of the day that you drive is also another factor to think about. Busy times guarantee more rides, but you are also having to fight with the traffic and dealing with different kinds customers. Quieter times may result in fewer rides, but there's less traffic ultimately with less possibilities of incident while on the road.

2. Vehicle Choice

Although we maybe limited with the vehicle that we drive, however, it is always wise to drive something that is economical with the gas and maintenance costs. If you have a gas guzzler, maybe ridesharing maybe not a thing for you. Gasoline prices is one of the main costs in ridesharing, and saving on gas means more money in the pocket. 20 mpg vehicle yields twice as much gasoline costs as 40 mpg vehicle.

Hybrids like Prius are popular choices, and other compacts such as Corollas or Civics are not a bad choices as well. Reliability is another thing to think about, you don't want to be stuck in the road during your shift.

3. Prepping Your Vehicle

Keeping your vehicle clean is a must for ridesharing. Check the exterior and interior for cleanliness prior to driving for the day, as well as checking to see if the customer has left anything in the car after each fare.

Riders are also sensitive to the smell of your vehicle as well, so keeping a bottle of air sanitizer is useful for removing odors after a rider that has been smoking or drinking. Just don't over do it with the smell. Perfumes or colognes are not recommended, and neutral and odor free environment is always effective.

Providing the customers with water bottles in the car is recommended, as well as chargers for cellphone and electronic devices is a plus as well.

4. How You Treat Your Customer

This is an obvious one, but treat your customer the way you'd like to be treated. Greet your customer with an eye contact at the beginning and end of the ride, as well as thanking them at the end. When you first greet your customer, you can get a feel of if they are either talkative or quiet kind. You don't want to bombard them with numbers of questions, or have that weird awkward quiet moments. It is important to find a great balance.

Your appearance is important as well. Gearing up in a tuxedo is not an necessity, but don't go out in a tank tops and flip flops, or something that you just got out of the bed. I'm not saying that you need to wear a suit or slacks, but wear something that you wouldn't mind wearing on a first date. Just use your best judgment in making that great first impression.

5. Don't Quit Your Day Job

You maybe eager to turn ridesharing as your full time job, however, start off part-time, and feel the market out before deciding to do so. Ridesharing has become very competitive compared to just couple of years ago.

Also, don't go out buying a new car just for ridesharing. New car = car payments. Try it out with your existing car first, and if you feel that you will be comfortable in making a new car payments, then you can take it from there.

Thanks for making it this far. Hopefully you've felt that these five points were somewhat helpful. Happy riding!

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