Uber Drivers Can Now Leave Feedback on You, Negative Feedback Gets You Warnings

Riders and drivers have rated each other on Uber for a long time. In the beginning customers didn’t see their rating. Now it’s in the app. A customer’s rating though rarely mattered much, drivers on the other hand who didn’t maintain minimum ratings could get kicked off the platform. (And required minimum ratings would go up as Uber established itself in a city and had a critical mass of drivers.)

Riders have been able to leave comments about drivers for a long time. Now drivers can leave comments about riders, too. UberX and UberPOOL drivers can now leave feedback on customers when they don’t rate the passenger five stars.

And if you get the same negative mark three times in a month you’re going to get a warning popup the next time you open Uber.

This new update to the Uber app allows drivers to offer feedback when giving a passenger a rating of less than five stars, in the same way riders can leave comments about their trips. The feature is meant to provide riders with constructive criticism and to inform passengers what’s expected of them when getting into someone else’s car using Uber. The categories for which drivers can provide constructive feedback include: the passenger’s attitude, how long it took for the rider to show up, the number of riders, patience, wanting a new route, and cleanliness.

If a rider gets a tag from the same category three times in a 30-day period, a notification will pop up on the screen the next time he or she opens the app. It’s not clear if this is simply a warning or if it does major damage to your Uber rating. But this new feature could definitely answer any pressing questions you have about how to be a better Uber rider. According to Uber, the purpose of this new addition to the app is to create a more respectful community that provides feedback from both sides of the exchange between rider and passenger.

You won’t even know you’re getting dinged for your cleanliness unless it happens three times in a month. But it will make drivers feel like they have more control and more voice, something Uber is desperately going for as they try to remake their imagine in the post-Travis Kalanick era.

(HT: One Mile at a Time)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Combined this with culture of compulsory tipping, uber just boosted sense of sense entitlement on its driver.

    Oh well, its a subtle way to keep their driver from running away maybe….

  2. The founder’s imperialism is starting to rub off. Who do they think they are? They seem to forget there’s Lyft which is cheaper and more reliable most places I go. This sounds like a SNL skit where NYC Taxi drivers provide ratings for their riders. What’s next, if you try UberEats you have to take the driver with you?

  3. Wow, even changing the destination—a perfectly normal activity when you’re in the car with a group of indecisive people—and an activity that ends up increasing the fare—is a black mark? This is driver entitlement at its most heinous.

    Self driving cars please be here soon

  4. “Wanting a new route” This surprises me because when Uber began, the driver was to ask the Rider if there is a preferred route. I use Uber weekly for business travel and knowing local traffic patterns, I frequently ask the Driver to use a different route than showing on the map app. Part of the problem is they use different mapping apps and some are not efficient.

    I can see some justification for rating riders. Talking with a few drivers on rides near Arizona State, they tell me students are frequently bad riders. Maybe this is a way to fix that.

  5. Indeed, the mapping apps are often very wrong or give an inferior option, and if it’s a place I know, I always tell the Uber driver which roads I want to take. It will save both of us time. So what’s to prevent them from rating down people who don’t give tips, and rating highly those who do? Or maybe that’s the whole point?

  6. So I’m guessing Uber corporate doesn’t have any MBA’s working for them who would share the insights of the endless case studies they make you do in B-school. Giving your paying customers ratings and warnings sounds like an awesome idea…Nothing a paying customer with a choice in providers loves more than being scolded by the people he just paid to serve him.

  7. I’m a miser, always trying to save a buck and willing to walk quite a way rather than pay for a ride, yet even I always tip my Uber or Lyft driver at least 10% provided I’ve received good service, as one usually does. This is when I’m on personal travel. If traveling on business, I tip 20-25% — and the client is still saving a bundle compared to when we used to take taxis, let alone black cars. Anyone who thinks they shouldn’t tip one of these drivers except in a rare case of receiving poor service either doesn’t know how little the drivers make or well deserves a bad rating. I used to prefer Lyft when traveling on business as I could tip in the app and the tip would show on a receipt I could include with expenses, whereas with Uber I had to manually add a cash tip to the expense report (and I know colleagues who didn’t tip Uber drivers solely because they didn’t want to hassle with remembering the cash tip amount and adding it to the report), but now that we can tip within the Uber app, there’s no excuse to stiff these guys.

  8. I’m a miser, always trying to save a buck and willing to walk far instead of paying for a ride, yet even I always tip my Uber or Lyft driver at least 10% provided I get good service, as I usually do. This is on personal travel. If on business, I tip 20-25% — and my client is still saving a bundle compared to when we used to take taxis, let alone black cars. Anyone who thinks they shouldn’t tip these drivers either doesn’t know how little they make or deserves a bad rating. I used to prefer Lyft for business travel as I could tip in the app and the tip would show on a receipt that I could include with expenses, whereas with Uber I had to manually add a cash tip to the expense report (and I know colleagues who didn’t tip Uber drivers solely because they didn’t want to hassle with remembering the tip amount and adding it to the report), but now that we can tip within the Uber app, there’s no excuse to stiff these guys. I’m skeptical, though, that drivers are going to give passengers bad ratings for not tipping. How would that work? I could see it when the only way to tip was cash and I’d give my driver the tip once we arrived but before I’d exited the car (or after the driver had handed me my luggage) — but now that I can tip in the app, I’m out of the car, the ride is over, and the driver has already rated me before I add the tip. You think a driver is going to somehow ask Uber to go back to lower your rating if he notices later that you didn’t tip him? He’d be spending all his time corresponding with Uber instead of being out there earning. I don’t buy it.

  9. Lately Uber cabs have shown up and the cab number does not match the number on my app. When I question them, they tend to become belligerent. So I cancel and switch. We customers even get a warning in the app to make sure the number matches the app. So of course that driver will give me a bad rating because I am questioning the discrepancy. What do I do in this situation? When I submit this question it won’t submit because it says I have already asked this question and I haven’t.

  10. I know I have medicade
    I was in the hostipal with a broke leg the hostipal order the uber driver

    THE DRIVER GOT THERE LATE
    WOULD NOT HELP ME GET IN THE CAR WOUND NOT GET OFF HIS (BUT)
    VERY NASTY,RUB,RUSHES YOU ALL HE DID WAS COMPLAIN ALL THE WAY HOME TRYING TO REACH MY MOM TO BRING OUT MY WHEEL CHAIR THE LINE WAS BUSY I TRYED OVER AND OVER AND WAS RUSHING ME,I THOUHT SHE WAS ON THE PHONE WITH MY SISTER,I TEX HER TELLING HER TO BRING OUT THE CHARLIE
    EVEN KNOW HE HAD THE GPS ON HE KEEP ASKING ME WHERE TO GO I TOLD THE HOUSE WAS ON THE LEFT AND WE PASS ANTHER HOUSE ON THE ROAD THAT WAS PINK THE TOLD HIME WE HAD A TINY HOUSE ON TRAILER AND STILL ASK ME WHERE IT I TOLD HIME JUST AROUND THE CURVE
    I HAD A HARD TIME GETTING OUT OF THE CAR AND WOULD NOT HELO
    SO HE GOT OUT OF THE CAR AND RUSH MY MOM (84) WITH A PACE MAKER MY MOM HAD A HARD TIME OPENING THE DOUBLE DOOR HE WOULD NOT HELP MY MOM KEPT TRYING AND FINALKY HE HELP AND I GOT IN
    BLACK 4 DOOR CADILLAC HE WAS 84
    MARTIN COUNTY AROUND BETWEEN3 3 AND 5
    NO ON SHOULD USE HIM

    And I am call my case worker from the hostipal

  11. I’ve been driving for uber a full year now and have encountered several different situations. I have rated all but one passenger 5 stars (even the rude ones) The only exception was a guy that used me for a drug deal. Needless to say he got 1 star.
    The point being that I end the ride and rate the passenger before I know if their going to tip. Not that it matters, my rating is based solely on the riders attitude.

  12. I was offered a ride by Uber, saying it was inexpensive to carry. I tried. It doesn’t matter that you drive inexpensively, but you are rude. Immediately you arrive in a bad mood. I had one suitcase. The suitcase has a large volume but only about 15 kg. The driver immediately says, without even trying to lift the suitcase that hard. I loaded the suitcase alone. But he, nervous of you, took my suitcase outside and drove away. Oh, raised very easily. A real man, strong.
    You say your back hurts, then sit at home and don’t spoil the festive mood. Or, upon arrival, immediately notify the customer that the suitcase is not being carried. I would have loaded the suitcase myself, and Christmas Eve would have been unspoiled. Know that a woman wants to be a woman.
    Maybe be Uber drivers, you should accept drivers who lift at least 30kg. And they should know that the passenger is not responsible for damaging his car. Accident. Maybe I have a coordination disorder. The suitcase can slip, ops …. the lamp has broken ….
    The second driver was older but tried to lift himself though. Thank you!

  13. I’m a delivery driver and I’m here to say in 4?days I made zero money with this lying completely red face lie to you then look at you. Sure they suck. Where’s the 300 in 45 minutes first day? I believe that you meant ito ssy zero in 4 days and no more there. Afterwards

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