What happened when a media exec decided to become an Uber driver for a week

Towards the end of April, Deepak Abbot, an executive from one of India's biggest media houses, decided to try his hand at becoming an Uber driver in Delhi. Over the new few days, he learnt the trials and tribulations of being behind the wheel and chauffeuring other people.

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Abbott was using a new model introduced by Uber earlier this year, which encourages people to use their personal cars for carpooling. (In India only drives with commercial licenses and taxi car number plates can get on Uber and other ride hailing services.) It took him just two days to get approved, yet finding co-riders who were willing to try out his carpool proved to be more difficult.

Like regular carpooling, Uber matches co-riders based on similar pickup locations and destinations. Abbot only managed to complete three of the 16 rides that were booked in his first week, because most of the people cancelled after discovering that he wasn’t the usual Uber driver.

“At one point, I even reached the pick-up location, but the passenger cancelled the request after seeing that I had a private car,” Abbot told Mashable. “Most rides got cancelled people were not comfortable. Uber has to educate people and prepare them in advance that they need to expect co-rider and not a conventional driver.”

Besides the high number of cancellations, Abbot also got a first-hand experience of negotiating Delhi’s winding roads and faulty GPS. “Uber’s algorithm needs to change,” Abbot says. “For shorter trips, I would often be matched with a rider whose location I had already crossed. I would need to take a U-turn and go back, so while it looks like 100 meters on GPS, it actually amounts to 500 meters. It is a hard job.”

The GPS wasn’t always accurate either — passengers wouldn’t mark their exact location, making Abbot realise why drivers had to call for directions and why local knowledge of the area’s streets was a necessity. “The worst part was when you drive towards the direction and the passenger cancels it,” Abbot says. “That must happen with a lot of drivers as well.”

Abbot continues to carpool with his car during his morning and evening commute, and says that the best part of the experience was earning his first income from Uber. “Making money was not my priority, but when I finally earned my first income, it felt nice,” Abbot says.

He also argues that barring the middle-class stigma surrounding the profession in India, taxi apps like Uber and Ola haven’t just opened an avenue of employment, but also made it lucrative to be a driver. “With their own car, drivers can earn Rs 50,000 a month, without incentives,” Abbot says. “I met a driver who bought another car after a year, and even hired a driver. Somebody who is enterprising can use these apps not just to make a living, but a business.”