The now valued $50 billion ride-hailing company Uber started operating in Jackson, MS back in December 2014 . Now going on for 8 months, there is still a lot of people who doesn’t know about Uber.
As summer continues on and the colleges are gearing up to start the Fall Semester soon, there are still several popular spots in Jackson that patrons frequent. Many being in the Fondren area such as Babalu or Fondren Public. There is a few in the southern Jackson area such as Eclipse Gentlemen’s Club (Defunct) and Pop’s Saloon. Buffalo Wild Wings and Shucker’s (mobile app available, website down) are popular places in the Ridgeland area. If you drive in the Jackson area and know of any hot spots, please feel free to comment below. I know where more nightclubs and bars are but it seems that there are not many pings from those locations even though there are popular hangouts in Jackson.
I am only one person and I do as much marketing as I can. I have given out almost 1,000 referral cards from Brandon to Canton, from Richland to Ridgeland, and everywhere in between. If you drive in Jackson and have received the email from Uber for your free referral cards, they are a great way of getting more fares, for other drivers as well as yourself. Your referral code can be used once by new passengers and they can pass your card to a friend or can use their own referral code which is available in their Uber app.
The more people who know about Uber the more we can do our part to keep drunk drivers off the road. A Uber ride costs way less than a DUI/DWI and a Suspended License in the long run!
If you are a driver, you may have noticed on our Weekly Update email, the hourly guarantees was cut down to only 11pm-3am Thursday and 8pm-3am Friday and Saturday this past week. While this may be okay for me, because I mostly drive on Saturdays and Mondays, other drivers that are driving for Uber full-time, trying to make a living, it may have set your settlement back a bit. Since I started driving for Uber about 3 months ago, drivers has been guaranteed at least $10 hr for all hours we accepted at least 1 fare each hour. When the guarantee is higher there has always been extra requirements to receive the higher guarantee, such as, for $12-$16 2 fares p/hr, $16-$20 2.5 fares p/hr (example only). This is the first I’ve noticed of any sort of cut for drivers in Jackson.
For those who doesn’t understand the guarantees, here’s how they work. For instance, if you receive the minimum fare requirements but the fares received doesn’t equal or exceed the guarantee, you will receive at least that amount in that particular hour. The guarantee doesn’t mean that you will receive an additional $X ($10,$12,$16) for that hour if you meet or exceed the guarantee. For instance, if you receive 2 fares between 11pm-12pm on Friday. Both fares was only $5 each which gives us only $10 for that hour. We were guaranteed $20 for that hour. Uber will take the guarantee, subtract what we made that hour, and pay us the difference along with what we made. ($20 guarantee – $10 actual fare = $10 what Uber will pay us + $10 what we made = $20 fare guarantee with actual fares.)
I have also noticed that even after the news article in the local newspaper with a quote from a Councilman in Jackson that states that drivers are not allowed to sit on airport property (waiting areas or cell phone lot) at the Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport. It was said in the article that it is ultimately up to the airport but in the meantime we are still allowed to pick up and drop off passengers at the airport. However, there are still driver(s) that may not know about this rule and are still parking there. I do not condone nor condone doing this, but if you are ever discovered, your actions will make it harder on the rest of us if the airport bans Uber. I have written Uber about possibly geo-fencing the airport so that drivers would be required to be off the airport property in order to receive a request, as done at other airports, but have yet to hear anything from Uber other than a canned message.
