My First UBER Experience

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Okay, I believe I’m not the only one who commutes here. Whether you ride taxi / MRT / Jeepney / UV Express towards your destination – you can’t deny that it’s one hell of a hassle.

Well, one convenient and fast transportation available are the private taxis. But they are a bit pricey and most of the time - in my experience - was always been rejected by the drivers.

Happily, there are new arising mobile taxi apps such as GrabTaxi and Easy Taxi that somehow solves these issue. They are very simple to use as you’ll just specify your pickup location and destination. If the driver is in favor of your trip, they will accept you with no hesitation.

However, in my situation especially during rush hours those apps didn’t work well. I have no grudge against the app or the driver here, all I say is that instead of having this applications works on most people – it seems to be more beneficial to those who are in good location.

So when an officemate introduce this new App - Uber, I gave it a try. Uber is a known-international mobile transportation service app where private cars owners can “carpool” or “car share” their own cars to other commuters. It’s pretty easy and accurate as well.

Steps:

1. Download the app on your Mobile’s Marketplace (Google Play, App Store)
2. Sign up using Facebook or your email address. I would suggest using your own email account as this will send receipt after your trip. Fill up your credit card details as payment method.
3. Once signed up, you just need to input or search your pickup location or click the pin (you’re required to enable your google location services)
4. Choose if you want to use UberX or Uber Black. Uber Black are the high end car models but they have higher flat rate compared to UberX.
5. Specify the destination and wait until Uber assigns you a driver
6. Wait for your driver and you’re ready to go!

Advantages:

• The driver will only see your destination once they started the trip. Which means they have no choice but to give you a ride.
• Cash out are not needed as your payment will automatically deducted to your credit card
• If you’ve decided to use toll such as Skyway and Expressway, the driver will be the one to pay it during the trip, Uber will add it to your bill later.
• You’ll be able to locate their direction on the app and the estimated time of their arrival.
• You’ll be able to see the driver’s profile, performance ranked by other passengers, type of vehicle and the car's plate number.

Disadvantage:

• If you’re alone, you’ll be a bit hesitant to ride or use as for security purposes.
• You can only use this if you only have credit card
• There are cars that are small enough to accommodate your needs such as big luggage that needs ample space of compartment.

There are times where Uber apply surcharge depending on the road situation (instances where it rains or if there are high demand of riders and there are only less drivers). But this will not take long, just wait for a few minutes and the surcharge will surely end.

If for instance, you’ve already booked a driver but for some reasons you wanted to cancel it. Do it 5 minutes after you place your booking - It will be free of charge, but after 5 minutes Uber will bill you 100 pesos.

At the end of each ride, the rider will rank the driver depending on the satisfaction of their service. In return, the driver will also rank the riders based on their behavior as well. If the driver has a lower ranking, Uber might not give them passengers at all. It applies as well to the passengers.

Receipt and ride summary details will be emailed to your account. How cool is that!

I got 0 peso on my first ride because of the promo by BPI. But if you don’t have BPI, you can get free rides as well! Use my promo code on your first ride and you will get 200 pesos off. Once you use my code, i’ll be getting 200 pesos off too!

BPI Promo Code: BPIRIDE

My code: uberpotpot