Most of the time, they work great.
Whether you’re on Uber, Lyft, Postmates, DoorDash, Grubhub, Instacart, or another, the apps we use usually work well.
They know where we are, who wants a ride or a delivery, how much it will cost, how much we’ll get, how we should get to where we’re going, and then… they give us reviews on how well the customer thought we did.
But there are times when we drivers run into the dark side of depending on apps for our driving business.
Have your tolls always been reimbursed? Has your app ever been hacked? And how about those glitches? Why is it, really, that you’re not getting your tips until three or four days later if you get them at all?
In this post, we’ll look at real stories from drivers who’ve put us onto some dastardly defects in the automated systems, and offer suggestions about what to do when the crossed wires somewhere in the system happen to affect you.
Here’s what we’ll feature:
- The glitches that get us
- Tolls
- Hacks and scams
- Phantom and random tips
- Outages and bugs in apps
- How to get a glitch fixed
The glitches that get us
Let’s start by recounting stories we’ve collected from the Gridwise community and cyberspace in general, by category.
Tolls
The apps claim they will cover the cost of our tolls, and to do our jobs efficiently, we just have to trust them.
As an example, here is Uber’s toll policy. It tells us that tolls will be paid by the customer and added to the cost of the ride.
Note, though, that if there’s a discount for electronic tolls, they’ll pay that lower price. If you want to avoid paying the difference, you’ll want to have one of those toll-paying transponders handy.
Yet even with the electronic pass, more than a few drivers have reported missing reimbursements for tolls. We got word from some Gridwise drivers that Uber wasn’t paying the tolls at all.
When the drivers noticed the omission, they had to call Uber, engage in long-winded explanations (one driver likened it to “arduous dentistry”), all to have the person with whom they spoke blame it on a “glitch in the software.”
Uber did eventually pay them back, but at what cost? Another driver said the average phone call he placed, after many incidents of disappearing tolls, took 15 minutes out of his day. That’s a rude waste of a driver’s time.
Uber’s not alone in the missing toll game. Our sources tell us that Lyft is equally culpable. The glitch seems to pop up in places like New York, where the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) regulates the cost of crossing from New York into New Jersey. The drivers involved had to prove this with screenshots, and complain to the TLC.
In another case, we heard about a Lyft driver who got a bill for $5,000—for tolls, although this time it wasn’t Lyft’s fault. The driver had gone without her transponder, and the cute little camera captured her license plate and sent her a charge that she didn’t even know she had to pay.
The driver never got the notice, but as we know, the DMV never forgets. Over two years the costs continued to mount, and when she finally received the bill, it was humongous. When she went to the media to get help, the DMV responded quickly. They told her she never got the original notice due to a glitch between their system and the highway’s system, because they didn’t get her apartment number.
Fortunately, that massive amount is uncommon, but it reinforces some of the things we should keep in mind when dealing with tolls.
Toll Tips
- Don’t leave home without a toll-paying transponder. If you don’t have one, understand that you’ll have to pay more than your company will reimburse you.
- Check your earnings after each toll trip, or at least at the end of your shift, for missing tolls.
- If something’s amiss, contact the company in writing, as well as by phone. They might make a quick fix during your conversation, but a written record can build a case for forcing the company to effect a lasting solution.
- Take screenshots of your toll payments (from your electronic payment account), for proof of payment.
Hacks and scams
The apps we use have huge databases, with customer information as well as ours. While customers might get the last four digits of their credit cards exposed to nasty hackers, we also have our driver’s licenses, registration, and insurance info up there on the cloud.
If you listen to the news at all, you’ve probably heard of a hack happening to a company you use a lot. But what about the ones you don’t hear about? On August 24, 2020, the former chief security officer for Uber was hit with federal charges for allegedly covering up a hack that occurred in 2016.
This incident involved two hackers who demanded a six-figure payment in exchange for his silence. What did they have? A lot, including personally identifiable information (PII) for 57 million Uber users—and DRIVERS. Yes, it did include the driver’s license numbers for 600,000 drivers. Because the former security officer concealed and misled the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), he’s in big trouble.
In September 2019, a hack of the DoorDash app exposed the data of 4.9 million customers, and 100,000 delivery drivers—also including driver’s license numbers.
Criminal activity that homes in on data the apps collect isn’t restricted to this kind of hacking. There’s a common scam that’s been reported by almost all the apps, and it has to do with nasty people who want to get something that’s essential to us drivers … our earnings.
Here’s how it happens: You get a call, ostensibly from the customer support division of your app. They tell you it’s necessary to change your password immediately, and they offer to do it for you. Then … they get into your settings, and change the bank account from yours to theirs. After that, they hit “instant pay” to send your hard-earned dough to their bank account, and …
It might be hard to believe that a driver would fall for this, but an amazing number of them do. Check the social media groups, and you’re bound to see one or two innocent souls asking what happened, and an army of fellow drivers coming to the rescue with an explanation and instructions to change the password back immediately.
In that same spirit, we’re offering some suggestions here:
Un-hack and de-scam yourself
- Protect your PII. If you’re worried about identity theft after a hack like the one Uber covered up, check the safety of your information and secure your identity.
- Do NOT change your password for anyone on the phone. The companies will not take the time to contact you that way, so anyone who calls you for the purpose of getting you to change information in the account is likely up to no good.
Phantom and random tips
Tipping is a perk of driving that often makes the job feel more worthwhile. We like to know when we get tips, how much they are, and most of all, we want to make sure they get added to our earnings.
Alas, this doesn’t always happen. Whether it’s less-than-admirable practices by the companies, as they try to withhold drivers’ tips to increase their take, or plain missteps in apps, it’s a pain for drivers when their tips don’t get delivered.
Slippery stuff
Instacart, Postmates, Grubhub and Seamless have all been caught taking portions of driver tips to make up the hourly pay they promise to drivers. The driver winds up receiving only part of the tip, and the company puts the other part of the tip toward the driver’s base pay. If you’re wondering how they got (or in some cases, may still get) away with this, you’re not alone.
The good news is, many cases like this have been exposed, and the companies have had to stop these unfair practices. Still, it pays to look out for it. Watch closely to make sure you’re getting all of your tips as well as your base pay.
Not so able apps
Glitches in the apps can also cause tips to be delayed or lost in cyberspace. A quick read of reports on Facebook pages for drivers and several Reddit threads will give you lots of evidence of the kinds of incidents that happen. In one case, the Uber Eats app removed the tip option for drivers on the customer side. The customer care specialist advised the driver that he should be patient, and that tips were not a guarantee. (Wonder if that person ever tried living on Uber Eats driving with no tips.)
For the most part, apps appear to be getting tips flowing within a few days, or even a few hours in some cases. Still, it’s frustrating. What can you do to protect yourself?
Keep track of your tips
- Don’t automatically assume that everything is correct. Check and make sure your company is acting responsibly, ethically, and that the app is working the way it should.
- Join social media groups that bring the driver community together. You can learn a lot by keeping an eye on what’s going on around the country, and the world, and join with other drivers to ensure you’re getting your tips, and fair treatment in general.
Outages and app bugs (payment, surges, customer contact, GPS)
There are times, of course, when technology just doesn’t work. Let’s look at the various ways this can happen, and how they can impact your driving gigs.
Payment glitches
This one hurts. Bad. In one case, an Instacart shopper in Tampa saw all his earnings “bounce back” from his bank to the company, due to a glitch in the system. He got some assistance from his local TV station, which helped him investigate the situation and get Instacart to fix the glitch. Needless to say, he didn’t go running back to work for Instacart after that happened.
Another form of payment glitch is the “not getting pinged” issue. An Instacart driver says that she got tricked by the system when she was told an order she wanted to pick up was already claimed by another driver. She turned off the app, and lo and behold: several more batches made a pileup on her dashboard. Unable to take the calls due to her schedule, she had to cancel a bunch of orders, which is never a good thing for a driver’s status with a company.
Surge glitches
Okay. We’re supposed to be savvy enough to know it’s not cool to follow the surge, but sometimes we do. It’s also fair to say that not all surge “glitches” are for real. While a surge is going on, for instance, Uber, tells you that a certain amount will be added to your next ride. Exciting! But then, the surge ends, or you leave the surge area, and it still says you’re getting that extra money—but you probably won’t.
Because that’s just the way the app works, it’s hard to say it’s really a “glitch,” although there are surge glitches. Once again, you’ll usually find them posted in social driver communities. For the best information, make sure you’re tuned in to social media that’s specific to your area. You can do the community a favor by posting there, too.
Customer contact and GPS issues
Probably too often, we have to get in touch with customers in order to complete a ride or delivery. This usually involves a text, because so many won’t pick up their phones, and sometimes the texting system just doesn’t work. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if customers didn’t have the ability to rate drivers, and potentially threaten their status with the company.
Lyft’s system insists that the driver be at the location of the pin in the app before the ride can start or end. Obviously, this can often cause problems. You get to where you think the customer is, but the person might not be there, or the pin might not even be accessible by car.
You have a few work-arounds here. By driving to the “real” pickup or drop off location, you can get the system to work for you. Or, you can enter the pickup manually, to override the pin situation. Just don’t do what one driver did—call Lyft every time it happened so he could still get paid.That could really ruin a good night out on the town.
Outages
Sometimes the system is just DOWN. Lyft is famous for freezing and locking out drivers. Maybe that’s why they have a whole page dedicated to what to do when the app freezes posted on their site. You might want to take some of these suggestions even if you don’t drive for Lyft, because other apps can freeze and shut down too.
You can always check the status of your app, to find out if it’s just you, or if the whole system is down by checking in with Downdetector. This link takes you to GrubHub’s status, but you can enter the app of your choice to find out what’s going on. And face it, apps and networks are run by humans, and robots, that make mistakes. There are some things we just have to live with—but we can’t live with these mistakes for very long, right?
How to get a glitch fixed
It’s a lot easier to forgive a mistake if you get at least some inkling that the people responsible are willing to fix it. Here are some suggestions for reporting and/or publicizing the kinds of problems you might have with your driving and delivery apps.
Call customer support. Always a good first move. Put your issue in writing to create a paper trail, and if all else fails, write a letter to the corporate office.
Call on your community. Check social sites to find out what other drivers are experiencing. As noted in some of the issues we covered here, there are times when a “glitch” is just a misapprehension about how the app might work. When the glitch is real, other drivers will be your best allies.
Call on the media. Although it’s unfair to accuse a company of deliberately messing up your chances for making a decent living, when you’re pretty sure you’re getting the shaft, trial by media is an effective option.
Call on us! As you can see, we at Gridwise are always eager to know what’s going on in the world drivers navigate on a daily basis. If you have an issue, just contact us. We’ll get our researchers on the case, and hopefully help you find solutions to all your rideshare and delivery driving issues.
Go with Gridwise
To keep earning all the money you can through your driving gig, use Gridwise to track and optimize your time and energy. Download the app for airport information, events in your town, weather, and the best and most comprehensive earnings and mileage tracker you can imagine.
On the Perks tap you’ll get easy access to our informative blog and our awesome YouTube channel, plus deals and special offers just for drivers. Join us on Facebook for camaraderie with your fellow drivers, and participate in gas card giveaways.
Comment below if you have any questions or reports related to the problems apps can bring, and be assured that at Gridwise … we’re always on your side.
