Uber's Hourly Guarantee Explained

(Updated for May 30-June 5, 2016 Uber Cebu Driver Incentive)
(Updated for May 2-8, 2016 Uber Cebu Driver Incentive)
(Updated for April 25 to May 1, 2016 Uber Cebu Driver Incentive)
(Updated for April 18-24, 2016 Uber Cebu Driver Incentive)
(Updated for April 11-17, 2016 Uber Cebu Driver Incentive)

Most partners/drivers I talked to found this weeks' Uber Cebu driver incentive complicated. In this post, I'll try to explain it in simple words, as well as provide you tips on how to maximize it.

Let's familiarize first with some terms.

Core Service Hours or CSH: This is Uber's claimed service hours. For Cebu:

Monday - Thursday: 6AM - 10:59 PM

Friday: 6AM - 1:59 AM of Saturday
Saturday & Sunday: 9AM - 11:59 PM 

Note: Uber's system is up 24/7, so after 11:00 PM till 5:59AM (Monday - Thursday), it's non-CSH.

Trips-Per-Hour or TPH: Total trips done during CSH divided by total core service hours online. For example,  9 trips done in 10 hours will translate to 9/10 or 0.90 TPH. Note: Trips ACCEPTED during core service hours  are counted, even if it was STARTED or COMPLETED  after core service hour. However, trips ACCEPTED during non-core service hours are not counted, even if it was STARTED or COMPLETED during core service hour.

Acceptance Rate: Total number of accepted trips divided by the total number of trip requests (or pings) that you received. For example, you had 10 pings on your phone, and you were able to accept only 8, your acceptance rate is 8/10  or 0.80 or 80%.

Guaranteed Gross Fares: On days you go online and take AT LEAST 3 trips, you’ll make a guaranteed PHP200 in fares for every core service hour you’re online (subject to service fee).

HOW HOURLY GUARANTEES WORK:

Hourly Guarantees ensure that you can earn extra cash just by staying online and taking trips! Your total gross fares take-home will be whichever is higher between fares earned from taking trips and the total guarantee (in this case, based on hours online).

Hours online are counted per minute (i.e. being online for 45 minutes between 1pm and 2pm would not entail getting the PHP 200 guarantee, but rather, 45minutes/60 x PHP200 = PHP150 in guaranteed fares for that hour.

Here are some more examples:

So how to maximize this week's incentive? Let's note two of the most important requirements: Acceptance Rate and Trips-Per-Hour or TPH.

1. At least 75% Acceptance Rate: Make sure to accept every request that comes in. If you are going for nature's call, go offline. Use the table below to know how many requests you are allowed to not accept to get 75% acceptance rate.

Note: Forward-Dispatch requests (i.e. the requests you receive while still currently on a trip) are counted towards your acceptance rate.

2. At least 0.90 Trips-Per-Hour: This is the tricky part. I summarized the details in the table below.

To use this table, look at first in the # of Trips column, then move to the second column labeled Max Hours Online. For example, if you took 12 trips during CSH, you have to be online in not more than 13 hours 20 minutes to get a TPH of 0.90. Exceeding this max hours online will make your TPH lower than 0.90, which will make you not qualify for the hourly guarantee.

How about if I go online for less than the value in the second column to be safe? You can do that. However, your hourly guarantee will not be maxed out. In the above example, if instead of 13h 20m you decided to go online for just 12h, instead of getting the maximum incentive of Php 3,332.50, you will only get Php 3,000. That's Php 332.50 difference.

By the way, the minimum # of trips to qualify for the hourly guarantee is 3 trips. That's a guaranteed Php 499.50 net per day for part-time drivers!

Here are some tips to maximize this week's incentive.
1. Start early to complete your target # of trips early.
2. Short trips are still the best.
3. Surge during core service hours will not help. Don't aim for that.

Oh, by the way, trips before 6am are a good opportunity to earn more! You'll get the fares earned during non-CSH in full (less Uber fee of course). It's a good time to chase surge!

Here's a Google Spreadsheet free to use by partners to calculate your incentive for this week.
(Select the correct tab for the week you would like to check).



Click here to access the original Google Doc