well, as a weekend uber driver that drives only when prices go up I have to tell you that those 7-8 dollar trips pay us only 3 dollars and some change. Driving 7-10 minutes to pick you up and then drive for 7-10 minutes to your destination is not worth it because that comes to $10 per hour minus gas and maintenance and depreciation. Drivers have to pay for lease/finance, maintenance, insurance and still pay rent on the apt and put food on the table.
Expect the quality of service to go down, not up, if you you think $15 is too much for a trip to the mall.
1. If the rider isn't sensitive about when they leave home, then they can happily wait until a driver who happens to have dropped someone off nearby is willing to take them for $7, because they don't need to drive more than 1 minute for the pickup.
2. Lease/finance, insurance, rent and food don't go up with the number of rides or distance. If a driver has the option to take someone right now, without driving far to pick them up, vs. waiting for a higher rate, then in some cases they'd maximise marginal profit by taking the 'low rate' ride.
Right, but in the situation described (going to the mall on the weekend), OP is willing to wait, and willing to walk if nothing available.
(Of course if Uber were to introduce some 'limit price' feature, there would have to be some time-out/expiry (set by the system or by the rider). It doesn't make sense for a driver to pick up a rider days, weeks or months after the request was made.)
Stop with this already. You are basically sending a letter to Uber, saying "hey, I think it's ok for you to pay drivers like crap, because I'm absolutely willing to subsidize them instead! Thanks!"
