Manners are free, rides cost extra…
Is saying “please and thank you” really so hard? Apparently, yes. Uber is looking to weed out the 1%, not necessarily those with the largest checkbooks, but the most attitude, by eliminating Uber passengers with bad ratings. The moves started last year, and are now slowly expanding around the globe, with the first English language countries joining the rude ban. If your rating teeters around the 4.0 mark, you may want to begin a charm offensive.
4.0 Cutoff
Australia and New Zealand are the two latest countries to issue 6 month bans to riders with 4.0 ratings and below, according to the BBC. Generally speaking, issue free riders are given a 5.0 on each journey. According to driver feedback, riders may encounter a 4 star trip review rather than a 5 star, if they fail to appear at the scheduled time, display aggressive or drunk behavior, or if they fail to adhere to minimally acceptable standards of “hello”. Uber has 2.8 million riders in Australia and New Zealand, and cites only 1,000’s being weeded out via the new program.
Improved Behavior
The Uber move aims to improve passenger behavior, and passenger behavior only. Uber and other ride sharing solutions rely on mutual trust and basic standards of human decency between drivers and riders, and while it’s always been “easy” for drivers to be booted out of the crowd sourced feedback program, this is an important first step in improving passenger behavior too.
Where’s Next?
Uber started this passenger standards journey in Brazil, and with Australia and New Zealand now on the list, there’s no telling where it will go next. The only thing that’s for sure: even in the world we presently live in, manners still matter, or at least they may soon. Is the USA next? Or perhaps the UK? To be continued…
Except when drivers leave you scratching your head when they give you a less than 5 star rating. I wish I got feedback to understand why. I rode twice last week and it took me from 4.97 to 4.90.
It brings me back to this eposide https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5497778/
“Nosedive” where your ratings are essentially your credit scores.
Hello. Great article
Hope I get a 4.0 or better so I do not get banned here 😉
Cheers
The only negative to this to me are the drivers who rate people low for not tipping. Ever since Uber has added tipping to the app drivers can give a lower score if they aren’t tipped. That’s BS to me.
The ratings are total BS. I’ve had an issue where the driver went to the WRONG BUILDING, kept me waiting, eventually found the correct building, and in the end she wound up giving me a low rating. I can’t believe that they can justify banning people over the rating obtained from some of their DRIVERS. I’ve encountered drivers that were horrible, yet I try to always give them a decent rating and tip at least $1. If the start banning people, I will go back to taxi’s. Some taxi services now have apps and they are comparable in price.