If you’re an avid user of cab hailing apps like Uber, chances are that a cab driver has asked you your drop location before pick-up, there’s even a chance that a couple of them have asked you to cancel after learning your destination? why does this happen?
While going through my socials today, I stumbled upon a topic trending on popular platform Twitter, a client who had ordered an Uber had posted a tweet complaining of their driver asking for their destination, “…Si you just turn off your app kama hutaki kazi.” The tweet read.
However, Uber drivers can not see the final destination of the rider until they start the ride. Uber does this to prevent drivers from cherry-picking the rides they accept. Yes, Uber drivers should not be asking you for your destination.
The policy prevents drivers from only accepting their preferred trips, like longer trips over shorter trips because of the profit margin or trips to certain neighborhoods they dislike, trips that would, or trips that involve traffic congestions.
Because of this policy, the drivers opt to directly ask the riders their destinations then proceed to decline. Uber doesn’t want this as it inconveniences the rider, every ignored or declined request causes a delay and increases the wait time for them.
While cherry-picking rides is against Uber policy, there are certain more reasons which may lead to your driver asking for your drop location, these include the amount of fuel available, the distance to and fro considering the time, and newly imposed curfew restrictions due to the novel coronavirus.
In these special circumstances, you might want to cut the driver some slack as canceling a trip after accepting it would negatively affect the driver’s rating.
However, some really dishonest drivers will wait until the cancellation period has passed so that you are charged a cancel fee, you might want to report such to Uber.
Sources – Twitter, Quora
