Introducing a new feature

Everyone wants to get safely from A to B, and Uber’s Community Guidelines suggest that you should take a break if you’re feeling tired.

From next week, we’re introducing a new feature to the app. We think it will help you keep track of your time and make roads safer for both drivers and riders. In introducing this feature, we have drawn on expert guidelines and looked closely at driving patterns in the UK.

From Tuesday 23 January, after spending up to 10 hours of time ‘on trip’ (from confirming a trip to completing it), the app will notify you that you need to take a 6 hour break. You’ll need to be offline for a full 6 hours before your ‘on trip’ timer is reset.

You’ll be able to spend up to a maximum of 10 hours’ time ‘on trip’ before needing to take a full 6 hour break from the app, otherwise you won’t be able to receive new trip requests. Any time you take a 6 hour break, your ‘on trip’ time counter will reset.

Your app will track your ‘on trip’ time and tell you both how much driving time you have left and, once you reach 10 hours of ‘on trip’ time, how much more time you need to spend offline before you can take trips again.

If you are on a trip that puts you over the 10 hour limit, you will be able to continue driving until the trip is completed. After the trip ends, you’ll need to take your 6 hour break.

The time that you are ‘on trip’ counts from confirming the trip to completing the trip.

If you are online but not with a passenger and not on the way to a pick up, for example waiting for a request or in the airport queue, then this time is not included into your 10 hours of time ‘on trip’.

To reset your time counter you will need to take an uninterrupted break of 6 hours from the app. Any time you take an uninterrupted break of 6 hours from the app the time counter will reset to zero. 

You can view a timer in your Uber app and will receive notifications to let you know when you are getting close to 10 hours of driving time.

You can monitor your break time in your Uber app. The app will count down the hours you have left of your 6 hour break and notify you once you can go back online and start driving.

No, if you reach 10 hours of driving time without taken an uninterrupted 6 hour break, the app will go offline for 6 hours.

You will be able to complete the trip and then be automatically switched offline until you take a 6 hour uninterrupted break from the app.

This means that if you have been driving to a pick up or on a trip for 8 hours and then take a 3 hour break, you’ll only be able to drive for another 2 hours before needing to spend a full 6 hours offline. The trip timer will only reset after a full 6 hours off the road.

Alternatively, if you have been ‘on trip’ (from when you confirm the trip and start driving to the pick up, to when you complete the trip) for 9.5 hours and takes a final trip for 1 hour, you will be able to finish that trip but won’t be able to do any further trips until you have spent 6 consecutive hours offline.