The type of passengers picked up while driving for Uber tends to become a gamble: You don’t know if you’re opening your door to a raging party queen set to take over Boston bars or a couple wanting some alone time under a moonlit backseat.
“I take whatever I can get,” said North Shore Uber driver, David, who preferred not to reveal his last name.
For those unfamiliar with Uber, it is a ridesharing service launched in March 2009. The mobile app, which connects independent drivers using their personal vehicles to passengers seeking rides and transports them to their desired location, has a net value of $51 billion and more than 8 million users worldwide, according to an infographic on rideshareapps.com.
It’s led drivers, like David, to meet some crazy passengers and have even crazier experiences on the road.
Having provided more than 10,000 rides in two years since joining the ride-share company, David said he’s seen just about everything.
The wildest ride he’s given thus far involved an amorous couple he picked up during a snowstorm on New Year’s Eve who couldn’t “contain their affections.”
During their journey, David momentarily stepped away from the car to pay for gas and upon return found the two having sex in the backseat of his car.
“We only had about a half of a mile until their destination so I didn’t say anything,” he said, intent on keeping his eyes off of the activity in the backseat and instead focusing on the snowy road.
He now drives a newer Subaru Outback, but at the time owned a much smaller car.
While the couple playing hanky panky was the most extreme behavior exhibited by any of his passengers, David said among the usual nightlife activity he sees includes drunks rambling in the backseat and girls climbing into the front seat to hang out his sunroof.
David works about 50 hours a week driving for several ridesharing services. To make the most money behind the wheel, he also drives for Lyft and Fasten — companies almost identical to Uber. David said he makes at minimum $800 a week.
The most the 68-year-old driver made in one week was $1,800 around the holiday season.
Another driver cruising the North Shore waiting for potential passengers on Tuesday was Brunel Platel, of Waltham, who accepts rides on Uber when he isn’t working for his full-time job driving for “The Ride.”
He works anywhere from 5 to 20 hours a week with Uber at average rate between $20 and $25 an hour, he said.
During peak, or “surge” times when prices for riders are higher, or when he does multiple rides in Boston, Platel said he can make more than that.
He said he hasn’t had many crazy experiences, but he does remember the time a customer vomited on the floor of the backseat of his Nissan Pathfinder.
“I’m not qualified to say if they were drunk. I didn’t test them,” Platel said. “One of the people she was with said it was from excessive drinking.”
He said he’s also gotten phone calls from riders before picking them up where they would ask if he could also make multiple stops to get more passengers, or do errands for them along the ride.
He always answers no, he said.
Despite picking up those who have had too much to drink and unloaded on his car’s leather interior, he says the best time to drive is during the weekend after dark in downtown Boston, when the nightlife scene is alive.
Lynn Uber driver, Sokcheath Sor, agreed with Platel, saying the best time to make money is by giving rides in downtown Boston on Friday and Saturday nights. However, he said he’s never had riders who’ve put him in sticky situations, like David or Platel.
The kind of behavior a night on the town brings for Uber drivers has taught some, like David, to avoid the headaches of dealing with people who have been drinking, which is one reason he drives during the day, he said.
“There are girls that get in your car and say ‘oh you’re a nice guy,’ and stuff like that who are drunk,” he said. “They want to hug you and touch you. That’s why I like people sitting in the back. It stops that.”
