I had my first full Uber experience today. Snow was forecast and I knew it would paralyze Nashville as it does most southern cities. Plus demand would go up, surge pricing would go into effect, my 4WD truck would have no trouble, so a perfect scenario for me.
Uber has a pretty sophisticated system. The app shows the metro area map and it becomes color coded as demand exceeds driver supply in a given area. So a given area might suddenly yield charges of say 1.5 times normal until all customer demand has been met. On New Year's Eve for example it went as high as 5X normal pricing.
So I started at 5AM this morning and went until about 9AM, then went again at 3PM until about 730PM.
It was a fairly busy day.
I learned that morning Uber is very different from evening Uber. This morning was all single passengers, people going to work or the airport. This evening was couples or groups of girls going out.
The morning people were easily engaged in conversation, the evening people engaged each other. In the morning I felt like a driver, in the evening I felt like a cabbie. I didn't care for it.
I made 3 trips to the airport. Guys going to Orlando, Palm Springs, and Vietnam.
I wondered if it would make me envious, these high flyers off to do battle again in the world of commerce. Nope. It reminded me of how ridiculous my travel schedule was. I wished them well and gladly drove away.
In some cases the conversation led to my history. One guy led a sales team for a medical device company and of course instantly wanted to talk business with me which was fine, I kind of enjoyed the freedom of the discussion. I enjoyed my anonymity. Here's who I am, here's what I used to do, here's what I think, without ever worrying about who might hear it, what they might think, would it get back to the wrong people, etc. I loved being just some guy driving a truck who happens to know some things about some things if you care to talk to him.
The same thing happened when I went to Starbucks and McDonalds. I felt some sort of commonality with the staff that I hadn't felt before. We were probably serving the same customers. I hope that doesn't come off as haughty or elitist, as if I finally came down from the mountaintop to be with the commoners. It was more like a good reminder to me that I didn't start life off with a suit and a tie and a big job and it's probably good for me not to finish that way either.
Uber suits me, at least for right now.
I am responsible for myself.
I'm working or not working and the two don't mix.
I see my success in getting the customer where they want to go.
I think I will stay with this for awhile.
Uber has a pretty sophisticated system. The app shows the metro area map and it becomes color coded as demand exceeds driver supply in a given area. So a given area might suddenly yield charges of say 1.5 times normal until all customer demand has been met. On New Year's Eve for example it went as high as 5X normal pricing.
So I started at 5AM this morning and went until about 9AM, then went again at 3PM until about 730PM.
It was a fairly busy day.
I learned that morning Uber is very different from evening Uber. This morning was all single passengers, people going to work or the airport. This evening was couples or groups of girls going out.
The morning people were easily engaged in conversation, the evening people engaged each other. In the morning I felt like a driver, in the evening I felt like a cabbie. I didn't care for it.
I made 3 trips to the airport. Guys going to Orlando, Palm Springs, and Vietnam.
I wondered if it would make me envious, these high flyers off to do battle again in the world of commerce. Nope. It reminded me of how ridiculous my travel schedule was. I wished them well and gladly drove away.
In some cases the conversation led to my history. One guy led a sales team for a medical device company and of course instantly wanted to talk business with me which was fine, I kind of enjoyed the freedom of the discussion. I enjoyed my anonymity. Here's who I am, here's what I used to do, here's what I think, without ever worrying about who might hear it, what they might think, would it get back to the wrong people, etc. I loved being just some guy driving a truck who happens to know some things about some things if you care to talk to him.
The same thing happened when I went to Starbucks and McDonalds. I felt some sort of commonality with the staff that I hadn't felt before. We were probably serving the same customers. I hope that doesn't come off as haughty or elitist, as if I finally came down from the mountaintop to be with the commoners. It was more like a good reminder to me that I didn't start life off with a suit and a tie and a big job and it's probably good for me not to finish that way either.
Uber suits me, at least for right now.
I am responsible for myself.
I'm working or not working and the two don't mix.
I see my success in getting the customer where they want to go.
I think I will stay with this for awhile.
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