Uber Rideshare Driver: It’s all about timing, timing, timing
Smiley Ridesharing: Pretrip Mental Checks and 5 Star Service (PMCS)
It’s another Marvelous Monday, and we’re up at 4am going through the pretrip mental checklist. Michael wants to drive from 5am-9am because his research has shown that it’s a great time to be offering rideshare services. Knowing the patterns of your community helps you make the most of your time working as a rideshare driver, whether it be for Uber or another company.
As a driver or anyone who takes money for services, you are a professional. It doesn’t matter how many hours you work or where in the area you stage—you’re still a professional. Every professional has a different routine that works for them, and it’s important for you to find a routine that works for you and makes the most of your time and energy.
Michael happens to live in Arnold, which is one county away from where he can turn on his app. Once he enters St. Louis County, he turns on his app and makes his way to his first staging area. During his early morning shifts, Michael likes to stage downtown near the hotels. His reasoning for doing that is that it brings him closer to people heading to the airport for early flights, and it helps him avoid morning rush hour traffic while he’s waiting for pings. In addition, he sometimes gets pings from commuters who are choosing rideshare services over public transportation or walking in inclement weather.
Smiley Sharing: Rideshare Driving, 5 Star Service and Diversity
Our first ping took us across the river to Pops. Pops is a bar that is popular with service workers, and we got to provide a ride to one of the people who worked there overnight and needed to get home.
On a side note, as a rideshare driver, Michael drives a variety of people to a variety of neighborhoods. If there are certain groups of people you don’t want to encounter while you’re working for one reason or another (different beliefs, different socioeconomic levels, professions you don’t personally like), then you rideshare driving is a bad fit, because if there’s one thing you’ll encounter as a rideshare driver, it’s diversity! If you’re open to new experiences, want to be a service to your community, and are willing to help a wide variety of people no matter who they are or what they do to make ends meet, then driving for a rideshare service is a good fit for you. This is a service industry, and when you’re a rideshare driver, you get the opportunity to provide five-star service to anyone who gives you a ping.
Smiley Mental Health: Negative Speech and Feelings
Our next ping took us to Belleville, and Michael was worried that it was just going to be a long trip just to give someone a short ride. Fortunately, the rider needed to get to the airport. It dawned on Michael that he was letting negative perceptions and worry creep in, and it was having an impact on his attitude. No one’s perfect, and even the most positive person who is determined to provide good service can get ambushed by lurking insecurities. It’s important to keep negative feelings such and insecurity and worry in check; otherwise, they will poison your attitude and stymie your ability to provide consistent five-star service.
Before he starts his day and between pings, Michael likes to read or listen to his daily devotions. One of his favorite devotional writers is Abbot Tryphon (Read his daily Devotional Here: The Morning Offering). Abbot Tryphon’s devotional for today (read it here: Guarding Our Attitude) sums this up the main idea of this blog nicely when he writes,
“Negative speech contributes nothing to the heart but death, whereas receiving everything that comes our way with joy is the only way to bring about the healing of the heart. Negative speech is a reflection of a heart that is in need of healing, but joyful speech is like water for a thirsty plant that brings forth fruit for all around.”
The negative thoughts were the results of negative speech Michael both spoke and heard in his life. The negativity within in the rideshare communities is precisely why we’ve started Smiley Sharing. We want to bring our readers the lighter side of ridesharing and a dose of positivity every day.
Take Me With You!
I hope you know that with me you’re never riding alone and that I may bring a smile to your face. 🙂