Everyone knows it's risky to mess with Uber's incentive program, one false move and you get kicked out with little chance of ever getting reactivated. I've been driving around for over a year now and I know what it takes to hit Gold on the payout, 15 hours on the road with a few snack breaks in between is no joke and is something I would reserve only for the most desperate of times. What you need to realize is that Uber is a global company that tends to implement programs uniformly across market areas, one program recently launched here in Manila is the Destinations feature. Although thorough research goes into each and every product launch, applying western fundamentals in this country will always be a challenge because of obvious cultural and system based reasons. This driver app feature is no exception, designed for carpooling, again a Western concept that many pinoys are reluctant to adapt, allows the driver to pin a destination of choice taking only riders headed the same direction. Guess what? It doesn't work over here or shall I say it works to well and is perhaps the only element within their system that can be abused with impunity! Let me break down why:
1. Global Implementation. Since it works in other countries they're likely forced to implement the feature over here even with all the holes in it.
2. Traffic. I rarely get riders willing to Uber it for an entire 21 kilometres (ex. Caloocan to BGC). It simply doesn't make sense to shell out that much money just to crawl through Edsa making #3 possible.
3. Drivers Can Be Selective. Because of Manila traffic you can practically use Destinations all day accommodating only riders heading a certain direction. Once you drop a rider off you can turn back to get another one, repeating the same process until you get a rider that takes you straight to the location pinned on the app. In theory it goes against Uber's protocol to be selective but ironically this feature legally permits such activity which can be leveraged to optimize profit.
Just to be clear this tip isn't recommended for those chasing incentives since we all know that Destination trips do not count toward incentives but those looking to make easy call center grade money are gonna love this. So how much are we talking about? I'm in no way saying this will make you rich but if you do it right we're looking at the ballpark of 800-1,000 for 6 hours of driving.
If you'd like to share relevant thoughts, questions, or suggestions about this topic feel free to comment below. Uber on!
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