Do you enjoy taking passengers on longer rides? Do you like travelling from town to town in your region? Uber has a new service will let you end the constant start-and-stop, gas-and-brake routine of city and suburban driving and start making big money driving down the highway. There’s lots to like about Uber Intercity.
Here's what we cover:
What is Uber Intercity?
Passengers who need to go from one city to another by car like having a driver all to themselves. Maybe it was the atmosphere of the COVID-era that made people less interested in taking buses and trains to neighboring cities. Or a reluctance to do their own driving and avoid paying for city parking might make it more appealing for passengers to get an Uber driver to take them from one urban area to another.
Uber Intercity is a way to cater to these customers. With this feature, passengers book rides that get them where they’re going in safety and comfort, and as quickly as traffic patterns will allow.
Drivers everywhere love this idea because longer trips pay more and take less effort than regular rides. However, at least for now, Uber Intercity is available only for trips between certain cities in select locations.
US options include trips between:
- Los Angeles and Orange County
- Los Angeles and Palm Springs
- Los Angeles and Inland Empire
- Orlando and Central Atlantic Coast, FL
Canadian drivers can make trips between these locations:
- Toronto and Hamilton
- Toronto and Kitchener Waterloo
- Toronto and Niagara
- Toronto and London (Ontario)
- Kitchener Waterloo and Hamilton
- Niagara and Hamilton
- Vancouver suburbs and downtown Vancouver
What does Uber Intercity offer drivers?
Uber Intercity is a sweet deal for passengers, but what is Uber Intercity for drivers like? Turns out that there are lots of advantages. Long trips mean not as many passenger personalities to manage with conversations of greater depth and quality with the riders you do take onboard. You can also expect:
Increased earnings
- Longer trips yield higher earnings per trip.
- Out-of-town surcharges are added to driver earnings on most intercity trips.
- Passengers tip better after spending more time with you.
- Promotions apply to intercity trips.
- You are free to drive in the destination city after discharging your passenger(s).
- You will be prioritized for a return trip to your city of origin.
Improved driver experience
- Enjoy a break from urban traffic jams.
- Get better gas mileage due to more highway driving.
- Experience driving in different cities.
- Determine if a trip is worth your time and energy with up-front pricing.
How does Uber Intercity work?
If you want to take these long rides, and Uber Intercity is available in your area, you can opt in to accepting rides by going to your Preferences setting in the app. Switch on INTERCITY, and you’ll start getting requests for Uber Intercity rides. You can choose to accept or reject them based on the information on the trip card.
If you decide to accept a trip, keep in mind that Uber won’t guarantee you a return passenger. But, as we said earlier, you can either drive around in the new city, or allow the app to prioritize you for a return ride.
Uber Intercity isn’t for everyone, and even if you use it, there are times when you’ll want to stay close to home. Let’s say you have to go offline at a certain time, or you’re tired and don’t want to be out much longer. Or if a lot of profitable short rides are popping up in your area, you might want to keep driving right where you are. In these cases a trip to another city won’t be on your agenda.
If the app has you pegged as an Intercity Uber, meaning to send you to another city, and you don’t want to leave your area, you can decline the ride and change your settings by deselecting INTERCITY. You would also naturally do this when you’re ready to finish the Uber Intercity portion of your shift.
How can drivers make the most of all their trips and other gigs?
The short answer is, use Gridwise! Gridwise is the app every gig worker needs to boost earnings and organize a gig-centric business.
How Gridwise works
Track your tax deductible mileage, get discounts, deals, weather, traffic, and event updates, plus
- earnings tracking
- expense recording and reporting
- graphs to compare what you’re earning for all your gigs
- insights into where and when to drive for best earnings
- access to no- and low-cost healthcare and insurance
Gridwise Plus
Earn more and keep more. Try free for 14 days.
Plus members earn 30% more on average within their first month.
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