I have a couple friends that are Uber drivers for some extra cash. It's not too bad of a gig apparently. There are also other services like Lyft and some other startups that may be paying more / giving bonuses that Uber doesn't do anymore. I would check around. If you don't get the 2am Saturday crowd, I assume people will be relatively well behaved. Invest in a couple things though: a multi USB car charger (one with the cigarette lighter on one end and 2-3 USB holes on the other) and an iPhone 4, iPhone 5, and microUSB charger. Get the 5-6 foot ones and keep them plugged into the front so they don't go disappearing on you. Also, figure out what the kids are listening to these days and have it. Or have a long aux cable so your passengers can put their own music on. Make sure to have the classic karaokes (Afternoon Delight, Don't Stop Believing, etc). Those two things will shoot your reviews through the roof for the party crowd. For the non-partiers just be nice, respectful, and if the passenger feels like talking, talk, and if they don't, put on some music quietly and shut up. Man I hate when I'm feeling antisocial and my drivers are like "so where are you going? why? where are you from?" etc.
This should be illegal. Best part of taking cabs in foreign countries is you can't really have conversations. Worst part of course is having no idea where they're taking you.I hate when I'm feeling antisocial and my drivers are like "so where are you going? why? where are you from?" etc.
When I was in Virginia on business trips this summer I always felt like my cab driver got bothered when I was silent at him. Not non-conversational, just - "when I have nothing to say, my lips are sealed." Numsayin'? I had to use a different guy once and he was asking me how to get to the train station. I was like "dude, I don't know, I clearly neither live here nor drive to the train station myself."
I took Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver once. BNSF said "double eagles, bitchez, this be our track today" so my train turned into a chartered bus. The bus driver got lost in Vancouver on the way to the train station. And all of us were American with no Canadian data plan. And none of us wanted to pay $1.42/MB to fire up Google Maps. We ended up voting on where to go. Somehow, crowdsourcing navigation worked in the end, albeit not very efficiently.