Uber drivers take riders the long way — at Uber’s expense
‘Longhauling’ among tactics used by drivers to maximize fares in the battle over pay
When ferrying passengers to and from Phoenix’s airport, Uber driver Michelle Blandy had a decision to make: Go the short way or take the longer route.
“If they were from out of town, I would take advantage of it by going the longer route,” said Ms. Blandy, who drove for Uber for about two years before moving to Harrisburg, Pa., earlier this year. “It’s the only way I could get what I was owed.”
In a modern twist on an age-old practice from the yellow cab industry, many drivers like Ms. Blandy are employing a practice known as longhauling—taking an unnecessarily longer route to a destination in order to drive up a fare. But unlike with taxis where passengers “get taken for a ride,” it’s ride-hailing companies like Uber Technologies Inc. that are responsible for covering the bigger bill.
Longhauling is among the tactics used by some drivers of Uber and Lyft Inc. to maximize their take, reflecting the strained relationship between the contract workers and the companies over pay.
Passengers aren’t on the hook for the higher fare because they pay a fixed upfront price based on the app’s estimate of the ideal route. And while drivers are encouraged to go the most direct route, they can choose to ignore their digital navigators for a route that tacks on extra miles. The drivers’ pay is determined by the actual trip’s mileage and time, which can vary based on traffic conditions or diversions.
Uber and Lyft typically take a 25% commission from a fare, and drivers generally take the rest, not including fees and taxes. The companies are grappling with constant driver turnover, and Uber last year unleashed a series of benefits to improve relations, including extra payments for lengthy wait times and in-app tipping.
Those benefits haven’t satisfied some drivers, who complain about fare cuts in some cities, and what they say are a glut of drivers on the road, fewer incentive payments to pick up passengers and rising costs to operate their vehicles, such as fuel and insurance.
An Uber spokesman said the company estimates longhauling occurs on less than 1% of trips in the U.S. “This type of behavior— while unacceptable—is exceedingly rare,” he said. Uber doesn’t disclose how many rides it completed last year in the U.S., but it registered four billion rides globally last year and is doing about 15 million rides per day this year. Lyft, which declined to comment, completed 375 million rides in the U.S. last year.
How much drivers can make an hour is greatly disputed. Some studies put it at below minimum
wage in several big U.S. markets, with others above that amount. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study calculated median pay at $8.55 an hour after expenses, a reassessment after Uber pushed back on its initial finding of $3.37 per hour. The New York City Council last week passed a bill allowing the city to set a minimum hourly wage for drivers, among other measures.
Longhauling emerged after Uber and Lyft began implementing “upfront pricing” in 2016, replacing a system that calculated the fare for both passengers and drivers at the end of a trip, like a traditional yellow taxi meter. Upfront pricing continues to be controversial; thousands of Australian Uber drivers logged off their apps simultaneously earlier this month to protest its introduction there.
With upfront pricing, the companies
charge customers’ credit cards a fixed price at the start of a trip, based on the software’s estimate of time and distance to a destination, as well as other fees and promotions.
“At the end of the ride you can see what the passenger paid and what you’re paid,” said Ms. Blandy, 47 years old. “So we can see that huge discrepancy; the only way you can beat that is by longhauling.”
Ms. Blandy, like other drivers who discussed longhauling, said she rests easy because the companies, not the riders, pay more, and because she chooses routes that add minimal extra time and may even be faster. Many drivers discussed longhauling and other techniques only on background for fear of reprisal from Uber or Lyft.
Uber and Lyft declined to explain how they detect longhauling, beyond customer complaints. The companies can deactivate a driver for violating their service terms by choosing excessively long routes.
Sophisticated routing software in Uber and Lyft apps is meant to direct drivers along the fastest route to a destination. But that can mean fewer miles traveled, prompting drivers to use other apps like Waze that provide multiple route options.
For example, a midday trip from the Gateway Arch in St. Louis to Lambert International Airport using the most direct route would stretch 14 miles and take about 20 minutes, according to Google Maps, for a driver fare of $21.64 using Uber’s rate of $1.26 per mile and 20 cents per minute. A longer route of 19 miles adds just five minutes to the trip, but results in a $28.94 fare, not including booking, service and other fees. The longer route would net a driver an extra $5.48, compared with Uber’s suggested route.
“It definitely makes a difference. Why should drivers end up with less while doing the hard work?” said Kurt Wagner, 35, who formerly drove for Uber in San Francisco. He said he only took a longer-mileage route when a passenger authorized it.
On web forums, drivers discuss the merits of longhauling, as well as other tricks, with some bragging about particularly profitable fares. Such tricks include inducing a customer to cancel to get a $5 fee in place of a very short trip, or even faking photos of customer damage to their vehicles.
“I’ve done this haul so much, that it has a nickname... the Z haul,” wrote a Los Angeles-area driver, showing a screenshot of a roundabout trip from a Disneyland-area hotel to central Hollywood that approximates the shape of the letter. “My excuse is always construction on the 5,” he wrote, referring to Interstate 5, which runs a straight line between the two sites.