There are essentially two strategies rideshare drivers use to maximize their time. Some drivers will perch, while other drivers will hunt. Each strategy has advantages and disadvantages. Perching is the practice of finding a good spot to park and wait for ride requests (pings) to come in. A good spot might be a parking lot in the central business district, or near a busy shopping center, or near a large movie theater. The chances that someone might need a ride from such spots are fairly good. A perching driver isn't wasting fuel by driving around without a passenger. A hunting driver stays in motion, driving through the central business district, driving past busy shopping centers, and driving past apartment complexes and condos. The hunting driver is trying to catch passengers who would likely be missed by perching drivers by being in the right place at the right time.
Which strategy works best? It's hotly debated among drivers. Some drivers hate wasting fuel by going on the hunt. They would rather find a good location, park, and wait however long it takes for a ride request to come through. Other drivers would rather take their chances with being in the right place at the right time to pounce on ride requests. Perching drivers will have different places to perch depending on the time of day or local events. Hunting drivers will drive through areas during times when ride requests are likely.
One driver gets up every morning at 4:30, gets dressed, and goes out to sit in his car at 5AM. He sits there for 15 minutes waiting on a ping. If he doesn't get a ping within 15 minutes he goes back in his house and works on household chores until he gets a ping. Once he gets a ping, he stays out for the rest of the day driving from perch to perch to handle ride requests as they come in. He ends his day around 5PM and goes home. Another driver starts his day at 5AM by driving through the suburbs hoping to catch riders who need a ride into the city. Once he gets a ride he takes them into the city and then drives back out into the suburbs to catch the next fare. He's constantly on the move as long as he's meeting his goal of making $25 per hour. When he's no longer meeting his goal, he goes home. In the afternoon he drives into the city and begins to ferry riders out into the suburbs, continuing to go back and forth until he's no longer making $25 per hour.
Some drivers combine perching and hunting. That's generally how I work. Once I'm dressed for the day, I log into the rideshare apps. I stay home, however, until I get my first ping. That first ping is usually someone who lives within 5 minutes of home. After I drop them off at their destination, I will go on the hunt for a few minutes, driving through areas where I know people might need a ride. If I don't get anything quickly, I find a place to perch. I like to perch in places where I'm close to areas that might need service but I'm also in a place where a parked car with someone sitting inside it isn't going to draw unwanted attention. My perches are often shopping centers, large gas stations, and movie theater parking lots. Once I get settled into my perch, I start a timer and I will remain parked there until I get a ride request or my timer expires. When the timer expires, I go on the hunt again until I reach my next perch. It seems to be a strategy that generally works. My area doesn't have a dense enough population to make full-time hunting worthwhile yet it is spread out too much to warrant full-time perching either.
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