Tales of the Uber/Lyft Driver: Who Needs a Location Anyway?

It should go without saying, but some things just need to be said. If you're using a ride-hailing service such as Uber or Lyft, in spite of your privacy concerns, you need to turn your location service on. Your driver needs to know where to pick you up. When you request a ride, your options are to use your current location, use an address, or use a landmark. If you choose to use your current location and you don't have location services turn on for your phone, sometimes the app will use your most recent known location instead of your current location. This happens most often when your phone has been turned off or was in airplane mode before you hail the ride. If your last known location was 50 miles from your actual location, a driver at your last known location will be pinged to go to your former location instead of to your current location. That driver will likely arrive, find that you're not there, wait a few minutes, and cancel the trip. You will have to pay a cancellation fee. When you open the ride-hailing app, make certain the dot is located at your current position, not where you were some time ago.

A great feature of both the Uber and Lyft apps is being able to indicate exactly where you want to be picked up. Most people ignore this and just use their current location or an address, but you can be much more specific by moving the map pin to the pickup spot. Let's say you're in an office building that has an east entrance and a south entrance. You would rather be picked up at the south entrance. Move the map pin to the south entrance. Your driver will know to arrive on that side instead of the east side. This also works great for apartment complexes with multiple buildings. If you only use the address, the driver will not know which building to drive to. If you move the map pin to your building, the driver will know exactly where to go.

If you use a landmark as your pickup spot, move the map pointer to indicate where you will be in relation to the landmark. Keep an eye on the driver's progress and make sure you're in a clearly-visible location when the driver arrives.