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Is Uber now useless outside Central london?

Cloo

Cloo

Banana for scale
I resisted Uber for a long time but then minicabs started quoting hour+ waits late at night pre covid, so I bit the bullet, and I think I quickly got a ride every time I requested.

Buy since covid I'd say 80% of the time in suburban London I've tried to get a ride, no one's accepted, and the other 20% it was a bit of a wait and multiple goes to get someone. I haven't tried in centre of town, so don't know what situation is.

Clearly numbers have gone down, but even when I see quite a few drivers about they seldom accept requests these days. I'm not complaining as long as I can get alternatives, as clearly it's a shitty deal for drivers, but interested it's changed so much.
 
Cloo said:
I resisted Uber for a long time but then minicabs started quoting hour+ waits late at night pre covid, so I bit the bullet, and I think I quickly got a ride every time I requested.

Buy since covid I'd say 80% of the time in suburban London I've tried to get a ride, no one's accepted, and the other 20% it was a bit of a wait and multiple goes to get someone. I haven't tried in centre of town, so don't know what situation is.

Clearly numbers have gone down, but even when I see quite a few drivers about they seldom accept requests these days. I'm not complaining as long as I can get alternatives, as clearly it's a shitty deal for drivers, but interested it's changed so much.
Click to expand...

Same in town. The move to being treated as (sort of) employees has meant Uber has put the commission up by quite a bit so drivers are very selective as to what they ride. We’ve been caught out a couple of times. Nearly missed a train for a holiday.

This was what was told to me by a driver.
 
Yeah, I don't use it for anything time urgent anymore as you probably won't get anyone.
 
I don't really have any idea, but I wonder if the various ways in which Uber has had to adapt has made taxiing less profitable, and so they are now more focussed on delivering food.
 
Cloo said:
I resisted Uber for a long time but then minicabs started quoting hour+ waits late at night pre covid, so I bit the bullet, and I think I quickly got a ride every time I requested.

Buy since covid I'd say 80% of the time in suburban London I've tried to get a ride, no one's accepted, and the other 20% it was a bit of a wait and multiple goes to get someone. I haven't tried in centre of town, so don't know what situation is.

Clearly numbers have gone down, but even when I see quite a few drivers about they seldom accept requests these days. I'm not complaining as long as I can get alternatives, as clearly it's a shitty deal for drivers, but interested it's changed so much.
Click to expand...
It got much, much worse in Leeds post-Covid, in terms of actually being able to get a lift, but it's started to improve again.

It seems more expensive now, but I can at least get a lift relatively easily now.
 
Same experience here (London). Numerous times 'waiting to find a driver' and then failing, or accepted ride, waiting for ages and then the driver cancels sending me back to square one. Rubbish.

Seems the barrier to entry to be an Uber driver is a lot harder in the UK. Only authorized vehicles with a carriage license/insurance etc. Not actually a bad thing when considering female safety etc. but I'm sure that plays into why the service is less reliable than other places. E.g. when I'm in LA and dial an Uber I seem to get picked up by any old random doing it as a side gig.
 
I believe they used to not show the drivers the route before they accepted the journey. Now they do show the route, which leads to drivers rejecting routes they don't want a lot more. The cost of rides has gone up quite a bit in London, presumably because of the increased costs. It's certainly no longer a cheap option, and they only advantage over a local cab company now is if they can arrive relatively quickly.
 
Out of airports they are particularly diabolical. On most occasions the first driver who accepts the ride cancels it after 10 minutes for reasons that remain a mystery to me, and when someone finally honours the ride they've accepted, they don't move at all for 8-9 minutes even though they're invariably parked a few hundred yards from the entrance to the car park.
 
Can report similar difficulties here in Cardiff. To the extent that it's my third choice behind the taxi co-op (would use them more, but they are often not available) and the local pre uber behemoth.
 
T & P said:
Out of airports they are particularly diabolical. On most occasions the first driver who accepts the ride cancels it after 10 minutes for reasons that remain a mystery to me, and when someone finally honours the ride they've accepted, they don't move at all for 8-9 minutes even though they're invariably parked a few hundred yards from the entrance to the car park.
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Odd, have the exact opposite experience to this. Addison Lee charge waiting time at Heathrow and with the lottery that is passports and baggage reclaim the waiting time can be more than the ride itself. So we get the baggage in our hand, summon an Uber and by the time we have got to the short stay car park (via Costa) the car's pulling in.

Would never rely on it to take us to the airport though, Addison Lee do that and are very reliable...
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
Odd, have the exact opposite experience to this. Addison Lee charge waiting time at Heathrow and with the lottery that is passports and baggage reclaim the waiting time can be more than the ride itself. So we get the baggage in our hand, summon an Uber and by the time we have got to the short stay car park (via Costa) the car's pulling in.

Would never rely on it to take us to the airport though, Addison Lee do that and are very reliable...
Click to expand...
Maybe it’s a Gatwick thing. I drive myself home in a Zipcar when flying to LHR, so seldom use Uber there.
 
I use them quite often for early starts and they're generally pretty good.

They seem OK outside central London too.

Had a nice cross London trip the other week in a Tesla for the first time, that was pretty cool. :)
 
T & P said:
Maybe it’s a Gatwick thing. I drive myself home in a Zipcar when flying to LHR, so seldom use Uber there.
Click to expand...

I sent one to Gatwick to pick up BB1 last week, he was a miserable fucker, but showed up quickly (too quickly in fact, which is why he was so miserable!). But that's the the only time there, so maybe got lucky.
 
Never used them - in Central London or other bits of London, I walk or get public transport most of the time - occasionally book a local cab.
 
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I’ve used them twice recently, in Croydon - the first time was in the middle of the night because A&E released me then and no-one was coming to get me. And the cab company on the wall of the waiting room didn’t answer the phone. It was fine - amazingly fast.

The other time was a few days ago to collect my car from the garage. Perfectly fine.

I had some rubbish experiences with them pre-covid.
 
I generally only use cabs when I have to lug around speakers/drum kits etc, but Uber is as frustrating as fuck: it gives you a time for drivers who promptly disappear and then defies the laws of physics as time starts to run backwards ("the cab will be here in 4 minutes, the cab will be here in 9 minutes"... and eight minutes later: "the cab will be here in 11 minutes."

Bolt seems marginally better.
 
Have noticed that friends seem to have switched from Uber to Bolt (they got me one the other morning which arrived in a few minutes; was a 5am trip along the zone 1/2 boundary). Only ever used Uber myself once, in NZ, and they are still pestering me to use up my 'first ever ride' free NZ$ Uber Eats 'gift voucher' 3 years later. Almost always walk or use a Santander bike.
 
We tried to use it in Bath recently and it was a nightmare and hard to get cars but we had that experience with all the cab firms.
Last year in Brighton Uber worked brilliantly. I haven’t used it in London for years.
 
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