It’s been a while since I wrote the blog post about my intention of doing an Uber business. At the time of that writing, I was just getting my car loan papers ready and obviously a lot has happened since then. That being said, I figured a quick update or recap blog post would be perfect at this point.
So I guess to those who don’t know what Uber is, it’s a transport network company that essentially just develops, markets and operates a smartphone app which allows consumers to book private cars similar to how they would ride cabs. In this country, the experience of riding cabs is downright atrocious and old school which makes Uber or other similar services super handy to daily commuters. The basic structure of the business would be me becoming an operator and then hiring a driver to carry out the daily operations
If you read the previous blog post on this subject then you would’ve probably correctly guessed that I’ve gotten a car by now. I got an entry level Mitsubishi Mirage G4 and so I moved ahead as fast as I can with the papers and the onboarding of my driver and whatnot. Very far from what I was hoping, it was NEVER smooth sailing from the beginning at all.
Rocky Roads Ahead
It all began with the crackdown of our local government here on Uber (and similar services) and it came just after I got my car for pick up. How nice is that eh!
Thankfully Uber got it sorted out and they became accredited. But because of all the paper works that the company had to endure, processing time for driver and operator activation became painstakingly slow not to mention the additional requirements that we have to submit so we can become accredited as well as operators and drivers. A normal 7-day approval turned to 4 weeks and that delay in itself caused even more headaches which I will just enumerate below instead of going in-depth on each of them.
- Driver asked for money in advanced because it was the debut of his daughter. I wanted to gain his trust here and imply I’m a good man so I catered to his request
- We had to follow up our application and spend 4 hours inside their office.
- Driver asked for money again since he was driving a cab at the time and spending 4 hours affected his operation during the day badly (or that’s what he said at least).
- Finally, we got approved. I told him to pass by our house to tell him that he can now begin. I did that only for him to tell me he wasn’t ready during that day. So yeah, we moved it to a different day but contracts were signed and basic stuff were explained so we can begin right away.
- A day before the operation day, he sent a text message saying he doesn’t want to do it anymore due to him not potentially making enough money. It was mostly a misunderstanding on his end (he signed the contract w/o asking any questions!). Could you imagine how much it broke my heart thinking of all the work that we’ve done as well time that we’ve waited?
- The day after, I explained the contract again and he finally understood it! We’re about to begin now right? No as he had some foot problems and begged to begin on a different day anew.
- And we finally began! On first day, he incurred a traffic violation already. Geeze!
- On second day, he took a sick leave! Yes you read it right!
- On our 6th day, he was not dressed to drive. He said he wanted to talk to me so I entertained it even though I was very very sleepy as it was early in the morning. He was teary-eyed and said he couldn’t do this anymore as it was not sufficient for their livelihood. He specifically mentioned that his kids are starving and he simply couldn’t take this. I asked him several questions but he did not respond anymore and left our house politely. We were 6 trips away from reaching an incentive which would’ve allowed us to earn way more but to him that was not sufficient for him to drive that day.
- On the first day of the succeeding week, he changed his mind and said he wanted to drive again. All of that and an assurance that he was determined and committed this time to meet the incentives and drive with more consistency. I obviously didn’t easily say “yes you can begin driving again” but long story short, we began our operation again as we reached a consensus.
- He hasn’t paid for his traffic incursion yet and the ticket was about to expire. That means I had to pay for his traffic violation and so that’s what I did during the second day of the week.
So yeah, a lot of things have happened already and we’re not even done yet with our 2nd week. Obviously this has taken a toll on me but that’s understandable! I just hope it’ll be more smooth sailing for us going forward,
