Trip Radar & upfront fares: Are they good for Uber drivers?

It used to be that Uber drivers accepted a ride without knowing where the passenger is going or how much the ride would pay.

Now, upfront fares have come to most major US cities.

Trip requests now show you the passengers destination and how much the ride will pay.

More upfront information is a good thing, right?

There may also be some downsides with upfront payouts: Pay for short trips has increased, but pay for longer trips is decreased and you are no longer paid according to a predictable rate card.

Another addition is Trip Radar, a feature that lets drivers select nearby rides from a list.

Read on to learn how upfront fares and Trip Radar works, how drivers feel about it, and how you can maximize your earnings under this system.

Article contents

• What are upfront fares?
• Trip Radar: Pick nearby rides from a list
• Upsides and downsides of upfront fares
• Drivers react to upfront fares
• Driving strategies for upfront fares

Upfront fares: See trip payout and passenger destination

Under upfront pricing, the trip request screen shows an upfront payout amount and the passenger’s destination.

Here’s what the upfront ride request screen looks like:

Notice the upfront payout amount, the surge amount listed separately, and the passenger destination with estimated time and mileage.

Here’s what Uber says about upfront fares: “Upfront fares are not based on fixed time and distance rates alone. They include all of the earnings components you already know, and then some more. Even the Surge value is included in the fare you see up front.

If the trip gets a lot longer, you will see a new increased fare on the trip receipt. As always, tips are 100% yours.”

Upfront fares for drivers is similar to upfront pricing for passengers: Passengers see an upfront price that isn’t connected to a specific rate card calculation.

Related: See How Much Uber Drivers Make, According to Top Data Sources

No more rate card

One of the biggest changes about the upfront pay system is that ride payouts are not based on time and distance rates. No more rate card!

In the past, you knew exactly how much you were paid per mile and per minute. Now, you will know your total payment for the ride, but you won’t know how Uber calculated the payout.

You will still see how much the customer paid on each ride receipt, so you can calculate how much Uber is taking from your rides.

But there won’t be a place in the app or online to look up time and distance rates.

The upfront payout is what you’ll get. If the ride ends up longer than expected, Uber will increase the payout, but not according to any predictable measure.

Short trips get a pay boost, long trips get a pay cut

Uber says that payouts for shorter trips will increase so that drivers have more incentive to take them.

That’s a welcome change, because drivers in the past didn’t like having to drive 10 minutes to a passenger only to get a low-paying, short ride.

But to balance out that increased payment, drivers in markets where this system is active report that payouts for longer trips have been slashed.

Airport drivers and other drivers who target long trips may not like the changes to long trip payouts.

• Upfront pricing is killing pay for long rides!

Trip Radar: Select nearby rides from a list

Trip Radar is a list of nearby rides that all drivers can see at the same time. The first to accept gets the ride.

If multiple drivers accept the ride at the same time, typically the driver closest to the passenger will get the ride.

Trip Radar rides show the same upfront info as other rides: Payout, customer destination, and estimated ride duration.

When and how Trip Radar requests appear depends on the city you’re in. In some cities, you can only see Trip Radar rides when you’re not currently on a ride.

In others, Trip Radar requests can pop up automatically while you’re on a ride.

If your market has upfront fares and Trip Radar, you’ll have to get used to quickly evaluating a request and accepting it as fast as you can.

That could mean more focus on your phone and less on the road. And you may have to keep the app active and open because it takes too long to tap a notification and open the app.

It’s a similar system to other first-come-first-served gig apps like Instacart. On Instacart, shoppers have to closely monitor their phone and quickly swipe to get the best rides.

Can you opt out of Trip Radar or turn off Trip Radar requests?

Currently you can’t opt out of Trip Radar. To prevent Trip Radar rides from popping up while you are on a ride, select ‘stop new requests’ after you pick up a passenger. Then after the ride is over, re-enable ride requests.

Does this change Uber Eats payouts?

Uber Eats already uses an upfront system that shows an estimated payout and the delivery location. This change for Uber rideshare brings the pay system more in line with Uber Eats.

One difference is that Uber Eats includes some or all of the customer’s tip in the upfront payout estimate. Upfront payouts for Uber rides don’t include tip information.

Another difference is that Uber Eats sometimes limits upfront information for delivery drivers who don’t accept enough deliveries. There’s no minimum acceptance rate for the upfront system on rideshareing.

• What it’s Like Delivering Food for Uber Eats

Upfront info in rate card markets

For cities that don’t use the upfront pricing system, drivers are paid according to a rate card and only get upfront info as an Uber Pro reward.

In rate card markets, you won’t see the passenger’s destination or the estimated ride duration on the trip acceptance screen. You will only see the passenger’s destination after you arrive at their pickup location.

You may be able to unlock upfront destination info if you level up your Uber Pro and maintain the required acceptance rate.

Below is an example from a rate card market where upfront trip duration is unlocked if you reach the Gold level and maintain an acceptance rating of at least 85%.

What’s good about upfront fares

No more uncertainty about ride earnings. You will finally know how much you’ll make before you accept a request. What you see is what you’ll get, so you’ll have enough info to decline rides that don’t pay enough for your standards.

You get to know the ride distance and time. Knowing whether a trip will be short or long is powerful. In the past, you could show up to a passenger only to find that they wanted to go too far, or not nearly far enough. Now you’ll have complete information, no guesswork required.

Pay boost for short trips. Upfront fares give a small boost to short trips, which is a big advantage if you prefer that type or ride. Extra payouts for short rides are especially profitable if you’re doing a Quest, where it’s smartest to do lots of short trips to quickly get the bonus.

What’s bad about upfront fares

Less transparency about your pay. Without a rate card, you won’t know how Uber calculated your pay. Some drivers prefer the transparency of a rate card. Even if rates are low, you at least know exactly what your time and miles is worth.

Long trip pay cut. With the short trip boost comes a long trip pay cut. Long trips used to be the most lucrative, so smart drivers would try to target longer rides. It was worth it to drive way out of your working area for a long trip. Now, you might want to avoid long rides.

Drivers react to upfront fares

Upfront fares are live in many cities. Here’s how drivers are reacting.

“Welcome to raffle rides. Hope you can read all that info in a split second”

“We’ve had this in Detroit for months now, I much prefer it to the other system”

“Now there will be more incentive to stay in surge zones and consecutive trip areas”

“For airport drivers it’s been a real nightmare”

“Call me a cynic but it seems to me with every change they just take more for themselves and make it worse for drivers”

“I love long rides. And this would definitely change my tactics. We will adapt as we always do”

Sources: Thread 1 and 2

Earnings strategies for the upfront payout system

Like it or not, the upfront payout system may be coming to your city. Just like any other changes to Uber, there are new strategies to max out your earnings.

An important skill is to instantly evaluate a trip request. Check the payout, the time to pickup and dropoff as quickly as you can, then accept the ride before someone else does.

Experiment with keeping the app running in the foreground. You may get fewer requests if the app is in the background.

Now that shorter rides have a pay boost, it’s smart to target them. Focus on rides in downtown areas where riders may only need to go a short distance. Focus less on airport rides, which are typically longer and don’t pay as well as they used to.

You can also use the destination information to target areas of the city that you find more lucrative, or that will target short rides.