Strategies for Staying Busy as a Rideshare Driver (Uber Lyft Doordash)
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Luckily, I live and work in Atlanta, GA where rideshare drivers stay fairly busy all day long. But there are times when there are not many rides to be had. So, I do employ some strategies for dealing with this.
Know Your City and the Surrounding Areas
My first strategy is to know my city and when and where the rides are. Popular wisdom would say to be in the downtown area of a city for the most rides. And this is generally true during working hours and when large events are happening in-town. But sometimes the in-town areas can be very slow, either because of a lack of riders needing rides OR too many drivers looking for riders.
Sporting and Concert Events — People will need rides to and from those events, so be in the general area of the event at least two hours ahead of time. People will likely be using rideshare to go to the event, and the restaurants around the event, two to three hours before the event starts. The one negative to sporting events and concerts is the traffic, especially AFTER the event. Before the event, people arrive at different times, but at the END of the event, everyone leaves at exactly the same time. There are some venues in Atlanta, like Mercedes Benz stadium, where I don’t want to be anywhere around it when an event ends, because the way they block off the streets cause massive traffic jams. On the flip side, Truist Stadium really handles the traffic well and has a very large road with signs for rideshare pickups and drop-offs.
Universities — We have over 10 universities in Atlanta. As a rideshare driver it is good to know when those universities are in session and when they are not. I live very close to Emory University, so if school is in session, I often drive close to the university to start my day driving. These areas are also good in the evenings as students go out to bars, clubs, restaurants, and parties. Often, students don’t have lots of money so these trips are short, but if you are looking to get in a lot of quick drives, because you are working on a Quest then Universities are perfect.
Suburbs- Often when the in-town areas are slow OR the traffic is very bad, I will head to a suburb that I know has lots of demand for drivers. There are some pluses and minuses to driving in the suburbs or more rural areas. Some of the pluses might be: demand is high, traffic is lighter, the roads are often better maintained, and tips are sometimes higher. The main negative is that pickup times are often longer. In-town my average pickup times might range from 3 to 7minutes, but in the suburbs that might increase to 7 to 10 minutes.
Grocery Stores- I find that most people do their weekday grocery shopping on Sunday afternoons and their weekend shopping on Friday evenings.
Popular Date Spots and Restaurants- These are more for the Friday and Saturday night drivers. They have to know where the popular date areas are. These riders are often some of the best tippers. People are happy when they are going out and are often more generous. But be careful after it gets too late, as the seriously drunk people will be looking for rides and might get sick in your car.
Late Night Workers- The hour or two after most restaurants, bars, etc. close are going to be busy times for giving employees rides home.
Factory and Fulfillment Center Shift Changes- If you live in an area where there is a major factory that employs lots of people, you might want to know when the shift changes are, so that you can be in the area and available an hour or two before and after each shift change to give people rides to and from work.
Uber Eats and Uber Connect- If you drive for Uber, you can also turn on Uber Eats to accept food deliver orders as well. They will come in just like a regular ride and you can choose to accept or decline them. But accepting passenger, package delivery, and food delivery is a good way to stay busy. Under normal conditions, I do not have Uber Eats turned on, unless I am not busy, or it is a nice day and I want to get in and out of the car and exercise.
I always have passenger rides and Uber Connect turned out. Uber Connect is where you drive to a location, pickup a package, and deliver it to someone. These rides are very similar to passenger rides, except you don’t have to deal with someone in your car during the trip. But in general, you don’t even have to get out of your car. They bring the package out to you and someone meets you to pickup the package.
What if I have done all of this and things are still slow?
The number one strategy that most drivers use for slow times is called multi-apping. Multi-apping is when you work for more than one rideshare or delivery service and you turn on all of those apps at the same time. This way you can accept the first ride you get from a particular company and then shut the other apps off. When you are done with that ride you can turn the other apps back on and start again. This way you are not waiting for just rides from Uber. You can be waiting for rides from Uber, Uber Eats, Lyft, and/or Doordash, etc.
I personally find this pretty stressful, but it does work, and many people swear by it. And again, I am very lucky that I live in a popular city for rideshare. But there have been times when I needed to have the Uber and Lyft apps on at the same time in order to stay busy enough.
Don’t Chase Surges
I know it is tempting, but it is not always a good idea to drive towards surge areas when they light up. Again, you have to know your city, but if I am not VERY close to a surge area then I ignore it, because if I start driving towards it, it will keep getting smaller and smaller as I get closer and will disappear before I can get there. AND LOTS of other drivers have done the exact same thing, so now that area is oversaturated with drivers.
Of course, this varies based on other criteria. Did a concert just let out? Is it rush hour? There are certain times, when I know that surge is a going to last a long time and there is no amount of drivers that will cover it. In that case, I will turn my app off and drive well into it before turning the app back on.
If All Else Fails
I always have a podcast or audible book that I am listening to. So, I just pull over in a popular area, and wait!
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