It’s frustrating when you try to make your way home after a day of driving for Uber and new rides keep pulling you farther and farther away from where you want to go. You can always sign out of the app to head home, but that makes your commute home unpaid, and every deadhead mile driven without a passenger in your car eats into your bottom line.
Drivers have been asking for a destination filter — a way to be paired only with riders who are heading where you want to go — for a long time, and it’s finally here: Uber is gradually rolling out a destination filter in the Uber partner app that will only pair you with passengers who are headed toward the destination you select. But there are limitations: You can set a destination filter six times each day, and drivers report that it takes longer to be paired with a passenger when the filter is enabled.
How to use the Uber destination filter
- Open the Uber Partner app and tap the magnifying glass icon in the upper left corner
- Enter a destination in the search bar and confirm by tapping “Set Destination”
- If you successfully set your destination, your destination will appear as a pin on the map, and the message “finding matching trips” will appear
You can use the Uber destination filter 2 times each day
You might have thought that a destination filter would enable you to pick and choose where you want to head for your entire shift, but that’s not how it works. Uber allows you to use the feature 2 times each day, which is good for commuting into and out of an area, or a strategic move or two during your shift.
Reaching your set destination counts as one use of the destination filter, so if your first trip toward your destination only takes you halfway there, the filter will stay on. Once you reach an area close to your destination, the filter will turn off.
You can set a desired arrival time
If you’d like to reach your destination by a target time, you can set that time in the destination filter interface. Uber says that you’ll get matched for more rides toward your destination as you near your set arrival time.
Uber Destination filter strategies
Use it to get rides into the city center, or a ride back toward home
The most common use of the destination filter is to use to get a paid ride into your main working area, or paid rides home.
Get a passenger faster
Uber drivers on Reddit say that it takes quite a while longer to be paired with a passenger heading toward the destination that you set, especially if you sit in one spot and wait for a passenger. To get a passenger faster, you should drive toward your destination. Play with the feature in your area, see how it works, and leave a comment here if you can figure out a way to make the destination filter work more quickly.
Use the filter to do airport runs
If you can pick up and drop off at your local airport, you can use the destination filter to guarantee that a ride will take you into an airport. Then, you can wait in the queue to get a ride out of the airport.
The Uber destination filter is available everywhere
Open your partner app and look in the upper left corner for the clipboard icon that’s in the screenshots above. If the icon is there, you can use the destination filter in your city.
Jim says
The destination feature is disabled at O’Hare or Midway airports. How can I ensure I get a rider in the direction that I want to go? I’ve been driving for about two weeks and have not discovered how to do this. I have also searched online and have not found the answer other than the destination feature that is disabled at the airport. When I do airport pick ups I am one of the last cars in and I get a rider right away, which makes me think that the other people are waiting for the ride that they want.
Thanks,
Jake says
Where in the Uber app can I see how many destination filters I have left?
DougH says
It should be visible in the destination filter area, the magnifying glass on the home screen
Justin says
I work at the airport so I’d love to do an airport drop off when I’m going into work. If I choose the airport as my destination will it give me an airport drop off or will it just get me in the direction of the airport?
DougH says
It may give you a ride to the airport, or it may give a ride in the general direction, or one that’s on the way there. There’s no guarantee you will get a ride directly to the airport
Bryce Keen says
My problem with DF is that I have pickups that are significantly far in the opposite direction of my filter, even though his ride is in the direction of my DF final destination.
MikeL says
I have the opposite problem in my area. I only want airport passengers, yet I keep getting pinged by the nearby Walmart. I’d like a filter against pickups, and a filter against dropoffs at specific businesses. I’d have 90% fewer cancelations in my app if I could do that.
Jim Wells says
So how do I get OUT of Driver Destination mode (2018 version of the app please)
LARRY G says
I wish Uber had a way to AVOID airport runs. I won’t use The waiting lot because there’s no guarantee that the Destiination filter will take you back to your homebase direction and there are always 30 to 40 cars and Q. Total waste of time.
I’d rather do 5 local runs than 1 airport run…
DougH says
You can cancel an airport ride if you’d really like, but that’s bad for your cancel rating and for the customer. After you drop off at the airport you can leave the geofence and set the destination filter back toward where you want to go.
Jason G says
That’s why I just take to the airport and if I don’t get a run right out of the airport…. I just go offline (I give it 10 mins just in case it puts me in priority queue)… And drive back towards downtown…. I’m in Houston with 2 Airports