You have likely seen a spike in the number of complaints regarding Uber in South Africa. One of the primary issues we’ve seen raised by users is the frequency with which shorter trips are canceled.

We’ve experienced this ourselves on a number of occasions. We would request a trip and while a driver is quick to accept, they are just as quick to cancel the trip and this process continues until a driver eventually accepts or the rider gives up on trying to find a ride.

To find out why this was happening we spoke with Ofentse Mokwena, strategic project lead at Uber in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“When drivers in Johannesburg and Cape Town get a trip request, they will see the destination of the rider, the price point of that trip and the ETA of that trip. The driver can also see the rider’s name and other information specific to the trip such as instructions to wait at a complex gate or whether the rider has luggage,” Mokwena explains.

The information provided to drivers regarding the price point and destination of a trip is something Uber added to its app at the request of drivers.

Now, Mokwena tells us that while testing this feature Uber noticed that drivers were picking trips that were longer as this netted them more money. This is understandable as drivers need to make ends meet and a trip that is 30km seems more profitable than a 5km one.

As such, Uber introduced an incentive in which drivers who take shorter trips earn a larger percentage of the total trip’s fee. Unfortunately Uber won’t tell us how much more that incentive is, how many drivers take advantage of it nor how many drivers requested this feature.

When we pushed Mokwena about whether this incentive programme is working we were told it depends on the driver. This isn’t all that revealing, however, as some drivers do indeed take every trip they get, but we’d argue there are many more who are constantly trying to maximise their earnings.

The price of fuel, maintenance costs and general upkeep of a vehicle are all going up and as such, it’s understandable that drivers want to maximise their earnings while spending as little time as possible on the road.

“In Cape Town a lot of drivers are keen to take the relatively shorter trips and then in Johannesburg drivers are more inclined to take the longer trips because of the scope of the coverage in the area,” says Mokwena.

However, despite what Mokwena says, we regularly see complaints from riders in Cape Town that finding a driver for a short trip is a Herculean task.

Every time I've called an Uber in the last week or so I get dropped by 3 or 4 drivers before finally getting a lift. Is it me or them? 🙈

— Leigh van den Berg (@lipglossgirl) March 15, 2022

So why aren’t drivers keen on short trips? It could have something to do with car rentals.

To be clear, there are a number of factors that contribute to the success or failure of an Uber driver. We’re going to be looking at perhaps the most important factor though – the vehicle.

Over the years we have heard from some drivers that they rent vehicles from third-parties. These parties aren’t approved by Uber and rental fees can exceed R2 800 per week.

We asked Mokwena whether Uber is okay with this happening and while he told us that Uber is not okay with this taking place it’s also acting slowly when it comes to addressing this matter.

During the sign up process drivers are required to have a public drivers permit, roadworthy certificate, operating permit and they need to pass background checks. In addition, a third-party inspects the vehicle that will be used.

“If you’re renting a vehicle you don’t come into our Greenlight Hub saying ‘I’m renting this vehicle’ you would say ‘I’m here to register this vehicle’. So the ownership of the vehicle is not really the core issue here. It’s the quality of the vehicle and whether it is appropriate for our traffic laws,” Mokwena explains.

We understand that many ride-sharing drivers don’t own their vehicles and that’s not our problem here. Our problem is that there are folks taking advantage of Uber drivers and this bleeds down to affect riders.

Using Uber’s 25 percent service fee as a baseline (because Uber won’t tell us what percentage drivers make on shorter trips) we looked at a recent short trip we took that was 3.1km.

We paid R46 for this trip which means, assuming the 25 percent fee Uber takes, the driver makes R34.60 on that trip. Using the upper end of the R2 800 rental fee some renters charge, this would mean a driver would have to make 81 short trips per week just to pay their vehicle rental.

This doesn’t include the fuel they use, vehicle maintenance or indeed any sort of profitability. When it’s laid out like this, it’s no wonder drivers don’t take short trips. While the percentage they earn might be higher, the actual amount they earn is a pittance compared to their expenses.

Of course, drivers could be making use of various ride sharing apps during the day and yet, we haven’t experienced this problem with Bolt. In fact, given our frustrations with Uber over the last few months, we are opting to make use of Bolt more often as we get rides faster.

What makes this situation worse is that Uber works with fleet partners. This means that drivers don’t have to be taken advantage of and yet, vehicles which are rented at exorbitant prices still make it through Uber’s checks. The firm says this is a matter it will be addressing this year as it only recently became aware of this problem through driver engagement.

We understand that operating a platform like Uber and having to balance driver earnings with the cost of a trip for riders is no small undertaking. However, Uber seriously needs to be more proactive here.

The fact that during testing drivers were picking trips should’ve sounded alarms and the feature should have been pinned until the real issue was addressed. Instead, we now have drivers who are giving away massive portions of their earnings to greedy fleet operators.

This in turn leads to an unwillingness to take shorter trips and in the end, everybody in the Uber ecosystem loses. The firm could do with some better agility in Sub-Saharan Africa and if it continues to fail to address the core issues, riders and drivers will simply move elsewhere.