June 2025: I started earning at $20/hour, it’s now up to $25. Gradually learning this system.
July 2025: I go into a housing complex. I text the passenger for the gate code. (This is an ongoing frustration. I’ll idle at the gate waiting for a response so I can pick them up. The clock isn’t running because I’m outside the gates, Uber just sees I’m not at the pin yet. Wasting time and money.) This fare says to drive in through the exit gate when someone leaves, don’t worry there’s enough time. Right… I’m not doing that. Enter the code or walk your ass out here.
July: Cruising down Peachtree near the hotels, some kid in an SUV in the next lane rolls down their window and throws a bunch of food and soda on my hood. Unbelievable. Control your kids, lady.
August: I am no longer working a real full time job. With more ability to pick my hours, I’m actually at $35/hour. Not bad!
August: I go to a housing complex in the pouring rain, stop right on the pin. (As a driver, I go to wherever the pin is set.) The rider contacts me, the pickup isn’t at the pin, it’s at building 21. Annoying, but fine, whatever I try to be flexible, I start driving to 21. There is no building 21. I’ve been in this complex before. The speedbumps are brutal and frequent. She calls me yelling to come to the front. I was just in the front! I ask her why she isn’t at the pin. She has no coherent answer, and yells to come get her by the pool. I’ve been all over this complex, I haven’t seen any pool. I feel bad for her. It’s raining and she’s stuck in the rain, but nope. If you can’t tell me where you are clearly, I’m not going to ruin my suspension trying to find you. Learn how to set the pin (hint – use “current location”).
August: It’s 5:30 a.m. Monday morning. Normally the calmest of times outside of airport rides. Not today. I pick up two loud women from Waffle House. They are still drunk from the Sunday night birthday celebration. I drop off one of them. On the way to the other’s house, driving in the dark, I run right over a huge construction hole on Piedmont road that wasn’t been covered or marked. Bam, my two right tires go flat — instantly. Well dang. I slowly drive towards her house since we are only a mile away (to get rid of her and deal with this), but after 1/4 mile I have to stop. The tires are 100% flat. I’m not going to drive on rims and wreck the car even more.
The passenger calls for another Uber. She isn’t mad at me. In fact she’s mad for me. Excessively so. She’s yelling that I should sue gdmn Uber, sue the motherfn city, sue the motherfn Waffle House etc. Okay, calm down drunky. I get a tow to Discount Tire and spend $573 for two new tires.
For the first time in my life I initiated legal action. I filed a notice of claim against the city to get my money back. I figured they are negligent because they didn’t cover their work up properly. I hand delivered it to the office of the city council. My main takeaway was – gee the City of Atlanta town hall is really very nice. We’ll see what happens. I’m glad my car is always automatically recording video. I have perfect documented evidence. When I went back to the intersection later, the plates had been moved to a proper location and warning cones had been added.
(What happened in the end? It took five months to resolve. They offered $500. I took it. To fight for more would have meant actually appearing in front of the entire City Council during their monthly meeting. Maybe a fun blog post, but not worth my time.)