Uber

This review is as a driver.
The pros: 1. Good passengers, most are nice and prompt about jumping in to your car.
2.Flexible– You can pick your own hours.
3. Super easy, nothing hard here, just log in, follow google maps and drive
The cons: 1. Low pay
2. Not enough surge pricing, just logged in and there was not a single car out. I would have logged in to help make service reliable, but with out a surge it isn’t worth it, especially since odds I will get called 10 minutes away for a 5 dollar trip. Über pays driver about 2 to 3 dollars on a trip like this.
3. Most customers don’t tip, doesn’t help that über doesn’t add the option on the ap to tip and that they say there is no need to tip on their site. To those that do, you rock, to those that don’t.consider that you tip a bar tender all night 1 or 2 bucks for spending 2 minutes getting you a drink, why not tip a driver that uses their own car to haul you across town at any hour for about 10 bucks (6 bucks after ubers cut) especially on a short trip with no surge pricing 5 dollar tip will make you a hero.
4. customers request you at the wrong location, I’ll agree to go to the real location and start the meter where you told me to arrive on the ap, but after jerk passengers rating me a 1 because they screwed up and didn’t pay attention makes me want to process a 5 dollar no show fee and make you try again. We need a 4.6 rating to drive for über so your 1 rating can really hurt. If you plan to give less than a 5 please let the driver know what they did wrong at least, although ¾ of the time I know it is the wrong location requested people rating like this.

I’ve done Über in a lot of cities and it usually saves you money. Über in Des Moines didn’t save me any money. My cab on the way back to the hotel cost exactly the same as my Über.
I will say that my driver was so friendly and he was talking about how he did this as a part time job to pay for some bills. I was glad we chose über to help him out but we’d probably think twice before taking Über again in this market.

Über is a joke. They can change their rates whenever they deem necessary. The drivers are not bonded by the city and are not legally permitted to pick up in the City of Des Moines. The vehicles that Über utilize are private personal vehicles and do not get inspected.