Even More Flexibility for Drivers in California

On the Uber platform, you decide when and how often you drive. You can set your own hours and make money on your own schedule, by choosing when and where driving is convenient for you.

How to Start Taking UberX Trips

When you’re ready to start driving, it only takes a few steps to start driving on the Uber app:

First, open the driver app.
Then Tap GO. When you tap GO, the app will start looking for requests from riders near you. (source) It should only take a few seconds to get a trip request.
When you get a trip request from a rider, the app will show you details about the trip. This information will help you decide whether or not to accept the trip.
To accept the trip, all you have to do is tap the grey box before the timer runs out.
If you do not want to accept the trip request, you can let the timer run out or tap the “x” icon in the top left corner of the screen. Doing either will send the ride request to a different driver.

The driver app gives you lots of details about the trip requests you receive. This information helps you choose which trips you want to accept, and which you want to decline. Everytime you get a trip request in California, you will see the following information:

Trip Type: UberX, Uber Pool, etc
Estimated earnings
Trip length, including both time & distance
Pick up location
Drop off location
Rider Rating

Even more flexibility for California Drivers

In California, drivers have even more flexibility. For example, the driver app provides you with more information about trip requests you get from riders, so you can make a decision about which to accept and which to decline. This includes:

Upfront Fare: Before you accept a trip, you can see a fare estimate, so you can have more control over the trips you take and how much you earn.
Pick-Up & Drop Off Locations: Beforeyou accept, you can see where a trip will take you, so you can choose the areas that you want to drive in.

Driving on Uber gives you the flexibility to choose the trips you want to take, be your own boss, and make money on your own schedule. You don’t have to maintain an acceptance rate minimum in order to have access to Uber. And you can reject as many trips as you’d like. It’s completely up to you to determine which trips you want and which you don’t.

Setting Your Fares On Uber

California drivers also have the option to set their own fares when they use the Uber platform, which increases your flexibility and gives you control over how much you earn. You can change your fares at any time, by changing your settings in Driving Preferences in the app.

Drivers in California can choose to set a multiplier on the standard time and distance rates or keep on Auto-pricing. If they choose to set a multiplier, this gives them more control over the prices shown to riders and how much money they earn while using the Uber app.

How to Set Your Own Trip Fares

Start by turning off ‘Auto-pricing’ in the ‘Driving preferences’ menu in your driver app
Tap + or – choose your new multiplier.
Riders must accept your fare before they start their trip
You can change your fare and surge settings as frequently as you like.

If you choose to set a multiplier, this change will apply to all your trips, unless you decide to change your multiplier at a later point in time. Once you complete a trip, the full fare paid by the rider goes directly to you, minus any applicable service fees.

You can always choose to keep Auto-pricing On
You always have the choice to keep Auto-pricing on while you drive on the Uber app. If you choose to not change your multiplier, there will still be default time and distance rates, as well as surge fares. Here’s how you can check if Auto-pricing is turned on:

Go to the Driving Preferences menu in your driver app.
Make sure that Auto-pricing is switched to On, which will appear in green.

With Auto-pricing, you can use Uber’s technology to determine the market price for a ride. The market price is determined based on several variables, including time of day, number of riders looking for a trip at the same time, and several other variables.

Buy a Drive Pass in CA for 0% Service Fee

Drivers in California can choose not to pay normal service fees (25% for Uber X) when they buy a Drive Pass. If you choose to buy a Drive Pass, you will not pay standard service fees during the next 7 days (capped at the number of UberX trips purchased) giving you more flexibility & control over your earnings.

How to buy a Drive Pass

Start by tapping Drive Pass in the menu of your driver app
Select a pack, based on the number of trips
Agree to terms and buy pass

How Drive Pass works
After you purchase your Drive Pass, you will have 7 days to use the number of 0% service fee trip requests that you’ve purchased. Once you’ve received all of the requests that you’ve purchased, you will go back to paying the UberX 25% service fee. You can always buy another Drive Pass at any time, though you cannot have two Drive Passes at once.

Save more with more trips
The more trip requests you accept while using Drive Pass, the more you will save. Check out this example of the $7 Drive Pass to better understand how it works:

	Without Drive Pass	With Drive Pass
Number of requests	10	10
Requests accepted	8	8
Fare per completed trip	$15	$15
Total Fare	$120	$120
Service Fee	25%	0%
Total Earnings	$90	$120