Any Grab Premium or Uber Black here? How is the demand within Klang Valley?

Ahah. Last time I did Uber was Feb this year I think. Would be interested to know how's the demand for Black now too.

before raya, yes, now to hard to get ping to klia or genting.

What sort of cars they normally provide with premium or black?

I do see many premium cars at pj area. But hardly get to contact them.

I do plan to register my another car for this though. Give it a try.

i started with uberX and then alternate every month with Black.
now, i'm driving Black again, and for the near foreseeable future, don't think i'll go back to driving uberX.

allow me to share.

uberX
pros:-
1) lots of call, average 2-3 trips/hour. especially these days (seem like less drivers) uberX drivers gets call from 20mins away and alot riders willing to wait, especially during rush hour.
2) get to earn extra trip bonus. if you drive 6 days a week full time, potential bonus alone could reach RM450 a week (morning 6-9am trip bonus, Monday to Thursday bonus, Friday to Sunday bonus)
3) more chance for tips (keep the change) as 80% uberX riders pays in cash. 50% of those will usually ask to keep the change while many will actually expect 20/30cents change.
4) during super high surge (2.5x above) the fare might be equal or even higher than uberBlack fare
5) can be 0 comms to Uber. If you're in the 1.3x guarantee fare area, uber take 25% comms but give you back 30% as bonus so, its comms free.
cons:-
1) lots of short trips. especially if you service area which is near college/uni/LRT/MRT stations. so alot of RM2, RM3, RM4 rides. you might get no more than 5 above RM10 trips per day.
2) long distance trips not feasible. way too cheap.
3) lower quality riders. don't be surprise to get african, nigerian, indon, bangla, nepal etc riders. no telling which is more nasty than the other.
4) have to offer roundup discounts - if upto 40cents, i'll usually round down the far. like RM5.20 rides, i usually just ask for RM5.
5) more to lose during traffic jam. you get RM0.1875 per minute you're stuck in traffic jam. and if its upfront fare, you get nothing extra spending 40mins to complete a 3km ride which by uber calc only requires 7mins.

uberBlack
pros:-
1) much better quality riders. 90% of my black riders are foreigners or expats. but regardless local, expats, holiday makers, businessmen, nvr had a problem with any of the black riders so far.
2) much better fare value - 95% of the trips is more than RM10 per trip. as minimum fee is RM5 per ride, my lowest fare received was RM7.25 for a really short trip.
3) fairer fare during traffic jam. i once spent 1hr15mins to complete a 3km ride but was paid RM35 after comms. not bad compared to uberX which might be RM10 or so.
4) more feasible long distance trips - one airport ride from KL is RM150 nett which for me is already 75% of my daily target. 1 genting trip is RM225 which is already above my daily target.
cons:-
1) super long waiting time in between calls - on average, it might be 1 trip per hour. If you manage 2 trips per hour you're considered damn lucky. I once waited 2.5hours without any calls and that is during Friday rush hour (maybe i was waiting at the wrong area) but also means you dont have to hold your pee cos you'll surely get the chance.
2) higher car maintenance - forget servicing, even car wash is more expensive. and as Black cars, you need to keep the car at optimum condition all the time.
3) no trips bonus - none of those trips bonus are applicable for Black drivers; not that we can hit those numbers any way.
4) almost none 'keep the change' tips - 99% trips are paid by card. only once a while the riders actually pay tips in cash while their fares are paid by card.
5) less airport trips - on average, i get 1 airport trips per week.

i now prefer to drive black purely becos of 2 main reason, better quality riders and better value fares. I can achieve my daily target driving for either black or X, but on X i needed more than 20 trips per day while with Black, maybe around 10 trips. What frustrate me the most are the super short trips and super low fare value. my shortest trip so far (1000+ trips completed) is 300m and less than RM3. and even worse these days (i believe due to fewer drivers) the pick up can be 20mins/10km away and the actual ride is 8mins/3km. what is even more crazier is uber will put me offline if too many riders cancellation due to long waiting time; as if its my bloody fault.
i also waited 8mins once for a rider to show up (didn't cancel cos its 2x surge) and the ride was only 650m/3mins long and fare was RM3.50 nett.
another time it took me 18mins thru traffic jam to get to a ride which is 400m/3mins
at times like these it makes me wonder how lazy ppl have gotten they can't bloody walk for 400m and most of them do it cos of free rides

riders quality - gone are those rude africans and nigerians or fearsome looking indon/bangla who likes to ride in group of 3-4. More than a few times i get really rude riders of those nationality. just bcos they're paying for a (cheap) ride, it makes them the boss.

As mentioned, for uberBlack, demand can be few and far in between. but if you're at the right place, it can be busy, especially in KL city or PJ hotspots. but if you're taken to say Pulau Indah or Rawang or something, then there's almost zero chance of getting a return trip. But its not that different from uberX. you drop off at Klang or Shah Alam and 90% chance you'll be there the entire day, out of high surge area, and servicing low value rides all day. You need to go offline or use up the precious destination trip to get out from there.

to conclude, based on my current experience after completing more than 1000 trips in 4 months, driving for both uberX and uberBlack, the end day earning is roughly the same. fewer high value rides vs more low value rides. at the end, you might spend more on car installment, car maintenance, petrol etc. but for me, i feel its more worth driving Black. there's this thrill of hoping for a airport/genting rides every time there's a ping

This post has been edited by wa1k3r: Oct 3 2017, 02:09 PM

Thank you for your sharing! you only doing uber?