The Uber driver app has come a long way over the years! In the early days, all you could do was accept ride requests. If you needed to change your account settings or get help from Uber support, you had to use tools outside of the app.
Now, the app is a massive portal that allows you to do everything you need to manage your account and get help from Uber—but it isn’t always obvious how to do what you want to do.
Read on to learn every major feature inside the driver app, and how to navigate the challenges that many drivers experience when using the app.
How to download the Uber Driver app
You can download the Uber driver app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Play Store. The requirements to run the driver app on your phone are:
- Iphone: Running iOs 14.8 or higher.
- Android: Running Android 7.0 or higher
The home screen: See earnings, set preferences, find surges
Go Online button
Tap the large button labeled ‘Go’ on the app home screen to go online. Being online enables you to begin receiving trip requests.
If you don’t have notifications enabled for the driver app, you’ll get a popup that tells you to enable notifications. If your account is deactivated, you’ll get an error message when you try to go online.
Map with surge areas, airport queue
The map on the home screen shows your current location, the location of nearby surge areas, and the shaded regions that represent ride demand & volume.
You can also see nearby airport queues, which will show how many drivers are waiting at the airport and an estimated way time to get a ride.
The map shows surges, busy areas, and airport queues
See how many drivers are waiting in nearby airport queues
Destination filters
If you only want trip requests heading toward a specific destination, you can enable the Destination Filter twice daily—or more, depending on your Uber Pro level.
Destination filters are helpful if you want to get paid rides when you’re commuting in and out of a city or if you want to get paid rides heading toward a busy area, such as an airport.
To enable the Destination Filter, tap on the magnifying glass icon in the upper right corner of the screen. Then enter a destination address and tap Set Destination.
Use a destination filter to get rides to your desired area
The Trip Planner and Preferences
The bottom of the home screen contains a tab that launches the Trip Planner. In the Trip Planner, you can:
- See upcoming promotions
- Set your Preferences: Enable or disable different services, like Uber Eats delivery requests
Use preferences to enable or disable ride types
App Menu: Access earnings info, account settings, help, and more
Many of the features of the Uber Driver app can be located by tapping the menu icon (☰) in the upper left corner of the home screen. Tapping the menu button (☰) opens a new screen that contains buttons for Inbox, Opportunities, Earnings, Uber Pro, Wallet, Account, Help and the Learning Center.
Inbox
The Inbox is where Uber sends you information about your account, updates about new features, and opportunities to get earnings promotions.
Opportunities
The Opportunities area lists available earnings promotions like Quest and Boost. You can also see upcoming events that might drive higher ride demand, like concerts and sporting events.
See upcoming bonus opportunities and events in Opportunities
Earnings – See current and past earnings reports
The Earnings area of the app contains complete information about your recent trips and earnings for the week.
Earnings Details – Shows daily earnings, time online, trips completed, earnings, and your expected daily deposit for the week
Trip history – The Earnings page displays a list of your recent trip history. You’ll see how much you’ve earned from each trip and you can tap on each trip to get more info. Tapping on a trip is the best place to report issues with individual rides and get help from Uber support.
To report an issue on an individual ride, find the ride and tap it, then scroll down to the “Help” button. You can report an issue with the fare amount, report your rider for inappropriate behavior, let Uber know a rider left an item, or let Uber know that you were in an accident on that specific ride.
More ways to earn – This section lists upcoming promotions, like Boost and Quest promos.
Uber Pro
Uber Pro is a rewards system that unlocks benefits as you give more rides. Tap Uber Pro in the app menu to see your current point status, star rating, cancellation rate, and benefits. You will also see the benefits of higher Uber Pro levels.
Wallet: How to cash out your Uber earnings on demand
Most Uber drivers are eligible for Instant Pay, a feature that allows you to cash out your earnings whenever you want. The fee for each transfer is $1.25.
The Wallet is also where you can manage the Uber Pro card, a debit card that offers instant payments after every ride.
How to view past pay statements in the Uber Driver app
To view past statements in the driver app, go to the Earnings area, tap See Details, then tap the arrows (< & >) to view the earnings details for a previous week.
Profile – View your ratings & more
When you tap your image at the top of the menu screen, a page will show your profile details and your driver rating. This area contains two key features: Your profile and your ratings.
Tap the pencil icon in the upper right corner to edit basic profile details. That will allow you to change your photo and add details about yourself.
Your driver ratings – The Profile area displays your current average star rating. Tap it to bring up more detail. After you tap your ratings, the rating page displays a graph showing your last 500 ratings. A graph shows the distribution of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5-star ratings.
Feedback from riders who rated you less than 4 stars is also displayed on this page. When a passenger rates a driver less than 5 stars, Uber asks for a reason why.
Rider compliments and achievements – The profile page also lists compliments from riders and Achievements you have received.
Account – View vehicle and document info, change app settings, change app settings, and more
The Account area of the Uber driver app is where you can view and change settings related to your documents, vehicle, payment methods, account settings, insurance, and driver perks.
The Account area is where you can update documents and change settings
Vehicles – Shows eligible vehicles on your profile and has options to add a vehicle or view rental options.
Work Hub – See other earnings opportunities on Uber, like adding Uber Eats delivery or signing up for a ride service like Uber Pet.
Documents – View and manage your driver documents in this area. Tap the document to upload an updated image. This area also lists expiration dates with color-coded warnings.
Payment – The Payment section lets you view your active payout method, and set up instant pay. You can edit or delete your current payout method by tapping on it in the Payment area. I find that a better way to view and edit payout account information is at partners.uber.com.
Tax info – Change your tax settings (like adding an LLC EIN), see tax summaries, and find tax forms like the 1099-K or 1099-MISC.
Manage Uber account – Update your basic info, like your name, phone number, email, security, and privacy settings.
Insurance – This is where you can view insurance info you would need in an accident. This area also shows insurance coverage for different scenarios. There are three sections: Liability Coverage, Contingent Physical Damage Coverage, and Driver Injury Protection.
The Liability Coverage section provides your Certificate of Insurance, displays other pertinent policy info, and details liability coverage. The Contingent Physical Damage Coverage section also provides a Certificate of Insurance and collision coverage details.
The Driver Injury Protection area leads you to an offer to get additional coverage for disability payments, medical expenses, and survivor benefits.
App Settings – This area allows you to manage app settings, most importantly preferred navigation and sound settings.
The options in App Settings are:
- Sounds and Voice – Toggle accessibility features like Screen flash for requests, Vibration for requests, or let riders know you are deaf or hard of hearing.
- Navigation – Select your preferred navigation experience: Use Uber’s in-app navigation, or select a third-party app like Google Maps or Waze. You can also enable or disable the Uber navigation voice features.
- Accessibility – Toggle features to make the app more accessible, such as ‘screen flash for requests’ and ‘vibration for requests’
- Communication – Set your preferences for communicating with customers: Choose whether you want to call or chat
- Night Mode – Select whether or not you want the app to be in a darker Night Mode
- Follow my ride – A safety feature that allows you to share your location with a contact
- Emergency contact – Set emergency contacts. Uber will call them if a safety incident is reported and you are unreachable
- Speed Limit – A safety feature that shows an in-app warning when you exceed speed limits
- 911 data sharing – Choose if you want your vehicle location and details to be shared with authorities when you call 911 via the app
- RideCheck – Uber will send extra help if they detect you are having a problem (such as a crash)
- Video recording – Register a dashcam so passengers get notified when they match with you
About – This displays the version of the app you’re using, and an Acknowledgements section that lists third party software libraries that the app uses.
Help – Contact Uber, read help articles
The Help section is where you can chat with Uber or read articles in a library covering almost every issue you might face as a driver.
You can chat with support or read articles
Use the search feature at the top of the page to find relevant options, or browse the list of All Topics to find links to the most common issues.
You’ll see these Help categories in the driver app
- Trips – Report issues with a trip, ask Uber to review or adjust a fare
- Account & app – Sign-in issues, updating documents, background checks, ratings, etc
- Earnings – Get general earnings info, learn about fees, promotions referrals, taxes, and more
- Guides – Learn how to get started, tips for pickup and drop-off, information about airport trips, and more
- Appointment – Book an in-person appointment at a Greenlight Hub
The Support Center: Chat with driver support and view messages
The support center lets you instantly chat with Uber driver support and view previous message threads.
Some areas may have a Call Us button to directly call driver support, or you can request a phone call by chatting with support.
Have any questions? Comment below!
The Uber Driver app is a massive piece of software that has tons of features. Let me know in the comments if I missed anything!
Trevor says
Yes my question is about follow my ride I click it to enable it and I select my contacts but then nothing sends to them like no link or anything how do you activate it on the other person’s phone do they have to download the Uber app as well ??or should they just receive some kind of Link in a text message ???because they’re not receiving anything right now and they don’t have the app downloaded???????
Doug H says
It’s hard to say exactly what’s going wrong. The other person does not need to have the Uber app. When you activate it and select the contact, the app should send a link to the contacts. You might want to take a test ride with another person and test it during the ride