But she said a few weeks ago the cancellations seemed to get more frequent, and perplexing.
“I was trying to Uber to work from Herne Bay. I had a bad run. The first Uber driver that accepted messaged me asking me to cancel it and I asked him why he couldn’t do it. He said he didn’t have the option to do that ...so I just stopped responding until he eventually cancelled.
“The next Uber driver who accepted my ride ended up driving straight past me and I thought he was going to turn around but he just kept driving and driving until eventually he cancelled,” she added.
“And then, finally, my ride got accepted for a third time and I was able to get to work.”
She said that happened at 10.45am one day - not an expected rush hour.
Some Billy Joel concertgoers said Uber drivers were dropping shorter fares during the December 3 event for more distant ones, and it ended up being easier to walk from Eden Park to a Ponsonby hotel 50 minutes away.
“I think I got cancelled on twice and they didn’t give me a reason,” another Uber rider said.
“They just text me to say: ‘Please cancel your ride’. Maybe because the fare wouldn’t have been that big and they got another one?”
The Herald asked Uber how cancellation rates recently compared with previous rates, and what steps the company took if drivers had high cancellation rates.
“As Aucklanders get back to pre-pandemic patterns of travel, demand for rides on the Uber platform has increased,” the company said.
“We are conscious of the impact increased demand has on the rider experience, and we’re focused on doing more to make sure the platform meets rider expectations,” an Uber spokeswoman added.
“This includes addressing situations where a ride did not go as smoothly as they would have liked.”
They did not say how current cancellation rates might compare to previous ones but said drivers earned no money from a trip if they accepted then rejected the ride.
“If a driver-partner cancels a trip, for example because after accepting they realise they’re driving in the opposite direction to the pick-up location, Uber’s platform matches a new driver-partner with the rider.”
Uber’s global website said riders and drivers could cancel a trip for any reason consistent with Uber’s community guidelines.
The guidelines for the US and Canada run to about 6100 words.
Those guidelines said drivers should not intentionally refuse or cancel requests, or using Uber Marketplace platform features to avoid an area due to “characteristics of the people or businesses” in an area.
Overseas, supply and demand issues, and some tweaking, were reportedly behind some cancellations.
In Australia, a local Uber and DiDi driver told the ABC his peers tended to cancel “low-value” trips or anything below A$15.
The ABC said Uber drivers with high cancellation rates were threatened with “deactivation” and loss of incentives.
Some Queensland drivers told the ABC the app did not show most of them a fare estimate until they accepted the trip.
In the UK, Time Out magazine reported on similar issues late last month.
“The short answer is: the demand for Uber currently outweighs the supply,” Time Out reported.
And it said the UK’s cost of living crisis and rising fuel costs meant drivers were making less money than before, leading them to “tweak” the app.
Similar cost of living pressures and labour shortages have been a feature of New Zealand’s economy for months.
