After being stuck behind a guard rail on my first international Uber, I decided to learn more about my driver’s experience with the Uber application — both highs and lows. Here are my findings(and potential solutions) to make Uber an even better international experience.
Goal
Discover new ways to make the international Uber driver-rider experience seamless and simple
Discover
Kuala Lumpur
15 of the 24 drivers work in IT, the rest work in finance or banking
All discovered Uber via a friend
Majority of passengers are foreigners
All work part-time
Let's learn more about Sasindran.
Like many drivers in Kuala Lumpur(KL), Sasindran learned about Uber from his friend, who had suddenly bought a new house.
“I said where did you get money from for second house? And he showed me Uber company statement so I joined!”
Sasindran leased a vehicle from Uber for the first four months, but he then reinvested his earnings and bought a brand new car — along with a second house in just under 6 months.
“I earn 2000 to 3000 ringget from bank job but Uber give me extra 6000 to 8000 ringget. So now I rent out first house and stay with family in second house!”
Uber is empowering drivers in KL by letting them be“own boss of company” — as Sasindran puts it. These drivers are truly appreciative of Uber, but certainly have recommendations to further improve the ride-sharing experience.
Key Issues
“I try calling you but then I saw +1 area code and was afraid that you would get charged or something.”
This what Julian, our first Uber driver, told my family when he tried to pick us up from our hotel. All of our Uber drivers tried to call me upon arriving to my pin — which didn’t help the drivers in any way due to my foreign number.
“Uber only gives me a radius of where you are. Then I have to drive around and figure out where you are.”
Here's where that can become a real problem.
Since Julian couldn’t call me, and because Waze doesn’t tell drivers which side of the street I’m on, Julian was left to win a guessing game.
In San Francisco, Dallas, New York, or any other Western city, this may not seem like a big deal. Just make a U-turn, and you’re good to go. Not in KL. With three-way one-ways, one wrong turn could send the driver in a one-way frenzy — easily creating an additional ten minute wait.
Even when Julian came on the wrong side of the street, we were able to cross over a bridge to meet him on the other side. But here’s the guard rail we were met with:
We yelled over the passing traffic to meet on the original side of the street and Julian eventually made his way around to the hotel’s street, which was much more accessible.
Other drivers expressed a similar sentiment about the difficulty in finding and contacting riders — especially those who are foreign.
Singapore
Whereas the drivers in Kuala Lumpur worked in IT or Finance, the drivers from Singapore came from the service industry(such as flight attendants or warehouse operators)
Uber
Overview
Goal
Discover