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RSG Mobility Report: The Regulators Strike Back

The Rideshare Guy Mobility Report is a monthly piece that explores the world of rideshare & mobility through the lens of its workers. Written by Harry Campbell, author of The Rideshare Guide, and Tom Mourmouras, founder of Naxos Mobility.

The Regulators Strike Back

In the beginning, hot startups like Uber and Airbnb followed cliched Silicon Valley tropes: move fast and break things. Ask for forgiveness, not permission. And though it hurts to hear those phrases now, for many of these fast-moving startups, the bulldozer strategy worked well.

Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s disruptive style made him and his early buddies a lot of money, but eventually proved incompatible with the rest of “society.” Now, Uber 2.0 is led by adults who appear to be running a much tighter ship…all while building scooters and flying taxis where 19th-century Californians once built ships.

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How Can a Daily Ritual Help You Earn More?

As drivers, it’s easy to let driving be the main and only focus – letting things like getting enough food, water, sleep and self-care fall by the wayside. After all, there are bonuses/goals/surges to chase, right? Senior RSG contributor Jay Cradeur makes the case for why establishing a daily ritual is good for drivers, and how it helps him earn more.

One thing a full time driver must contend with is the grind of the job.  Like any job, we have to get up and do the same thing day after day.  But unlike most jobs, we are not paid a regular salary.  We do not have a boss making sure we get to work on time.

We, the drivers, are the ones who instill and enforce the discipline into our life.  Without self-discipline, we won’t be successful drivers.  Without self-discipline, it is too easy to blow off a day here and a day there and before you know it, you have lost your edge.  You forget why you signed up to drive in the first place.  Priorities get lost.

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Why Are So Many Drivers Having Trouble with Background Checks?

Over the past few months, we’ve heard from numerous drivers who were running into problems with the Uber background check. In some cases, new Uber drivers were experiencing issues getting approved, but for the most part, a lot of the issues we’ve been hearing about stem from the updated annual background checks that Uber is now running on existing drivers.

There’s never been much transparency with this process, and I’ve always disliked the fact that drivers have no idea when these checks are going to be run, what Uber is looking for and what the appeal process is, if the check turns up something that disqualifies you from driving.

Earlier in the year, we documented Jay’s experience getting accidentally deactivated from Uber for 6 weeks due to a simple clerical error. If a false positive can happen to a driver with 20,000 rides under his belt and a 4.9 star rating, it can happen to anyone.

Fortunately, Jay was able to drive for Lyft during that down time (and he actually hasn’t driven for Uber since), but it was a real PITA getting straight information from Uber and Checkr (the background check company).

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Earn Even More Shop Your Way Points by Using the GasBuddy App

Join us for our September YouTube live on Tuesday September 11 at 5pm PT!  You can subscribe to our Youtube channel here and be sure to turn on notifications (instructions here) so you know when we go live.

Today we have a sponsored post from Shop Your Way. From now until 10/7, anyone who signs up for Pay With GasBuddy using our link will get 50 cents CASHBACK in points from their first fillup and then 30 cents CASHBACK in points per gallon of gas for the next 60 days afterwards.

Shop Your Way and GasBuddy just launched a powerful new partnership that will allow drivers to earn rewards for every gallon of gas they put in their tank while using the Pay With GasBuddy card. That’s in addition to the $2 CASHBACK in points for every ride they give as an Uber driver. The combination of the two programs creates opportunity to stack rewards passively by doing what we already do: Drive a lot.

For those unfamiliar, Shop Your Way is a rewards program owned by Sears that rewards “CASHBACK in points” that can be used dollar-for-dollar at Sears, Kmart, Lands’ End, and online at ShopYourWay.com to buy millions of everyday products, while GasBuddy is an app that helps drivers find the cheapest gas stations nearby.

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