I’m beginning to think this obsession with ratings is a disease that infects more than just me. Maybe even most the minds of rideshare drivers across the land. It’s a sickness that eats away at sanity, driving them to constantly refresh their app, hoping for a bump in their score. And I, dearest reader, am no exception.
Every time a ride ends, I feel a twinge of anxiety as I wait for the notification to pop up on my phone, telling me what my passenger thought of me. Did they appreciate my friendly banter? Did they find my choice of music to their liking? Or did they think I was a complete and utter wanker?
And then there’s the complaints button, that cursed portal to the underworld of ride-hailing. I know full well what’s waiting for me on the other side – a litany of gripes and grievances, ranging from the legitimate to the utterly absurd. But still, I can’t resist the urge to click it, to see what new horrors await.
It’s a constant battle to maintain that perfect five-star rating, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a few disgruntled passengers ruin it for me. So I’m always thinking of new ways to win them over, to ensure that they walk away from my car feeling like they’ve just experienced the ride of their lives.
Maybe it’s offering them a complimentary bottle of water, or turning the AC up to max on a hot summer’s day. Maybe it’s cracking a joke to break the ice, or taking a detour to avoid the worst of the traffic. Whatever it takes, I’m willing to do it.
But here’s the thing – for all my obsessing over my ratings, I know deep down that they don’t really matter. Sure, they might affect my ability to get rides in the future, or even my chances of keeping this job. But in the grand scheme of things, they’re just numbers on a screen. It’s not like I can spend stars and nice messages from riders.
What really matters is the experience that I’m providing to my passengers. Am I making them feel safe, comfortable, and respected? Am I giving them a little slice of joy on an otherwise mundane day? Am I treating them like human beings, rather than just another fare to be picked up and dropped off?
That’s the real challenge of being a rideshare driver – not just racking up high ratings, but creating an experience that people will remember. It’s a challenge that I relish, even as I curse the constant pressure of maintaining my score.
So to all my fellow drivers out there, I say this – yes, obsess over your ratings if you must. But don’t forget that they’re just one small part of what it means to be a good driver. Focus on the experience, and the ratings will take care of themselves.
There he was, a man with a mission. A man with a singular focus. A man obsessed with one thing and one thing only: his ratings. You could see it in his eyes, the way they darted back and forth across his phone screen, the way he clicked frantically on the rating tab, hoping against hope that his ratings had gone up. But they never did. Not really.
This man is me, a rideshare driver. A modern-day road warrior, fighting against the tide of one-star ratings and bitter complaints from the hipsters of Echo Park. I lived and breathed my ratings, thinking about them every minute of every day. I counted them up, tallied them, analyzed them, trying to decipher what I could have done differently to earn just one more star.
And yet, despite my obsession, my ratings never seemed to go up as quickly as they’ve been going down. Every day is a struggle, a battle against the man, Travis Kalinik, and his system. I would do everything I could to make my passengers happy, going above and beyond the call of duty, but it never seemed enough. The complaints kept rolling in, the one-star ratings piling up like a mountain of disappointment on a boulevard of broken driving dreams.
But I never gave up. No, sir. I am a fighter, a survivor. I would do whatever it took to get those five-star ratings. I was like a man possessed, a man on a mission. I would work all day and drive all night, eyes fixed firmly on the prize.
And yet, for all my efforts, I could never quite shake the feeling of despair. The feeling that it would never be enough no matter what I did. That I was doomed to forever be trapped in this cycle of low ratings and bitter complaints fueled by caffeine. It was a vicious cycle, one that threatened to consume me.
But I refused to let it. I refused to give up. I would keep fighting, keep striving and keep pushing forward. Because I just knew that one day, maybe, just maybe, I would finally get that elusive five-star rating. And when I did, oh, it would ever be glorious. I would shout it from the rooftops, and proclaim it to the world. I would have finally achieved my goal, fulfilling my destiny.
And so, I continued on this quest, driving through the dimly lit city streets of L.A. County, my eyes fixed firmly on the road ahead. I was a man with a purpose and a singular focus. I was a rideshare driver and would do whatever it took to get those five-star ratings. Well, almost anything.