Is this the worst Uber driver on the road?

A run-in with an angry driver who couldn’t follow directions ended with me booted from his car and finishing my journey on foot. But someone else may be to blame, writes Mike O’Connor.

As a callow youth I decided that in order to save sufficient funds to travel overseas, I’d get a second job as a taxi driver.

I drove nights and weekends and only once did I ever eject someone from the cab.

Actually, I didn’t so much eject as drag his mumbling, dribbling, highly-intoxicated body from the passenger seat, haul it on to the footpath and prop it against a power pole.

I then drove off which seemed like a better idea than waiting for him to sober up enough to be able to tell me his intended destination.

I therefore felt some empathy with Uber and other ride share drivers on seeing the results of a survey conducted by the Ride Share Drivers Association of Australia that showed 50 per cent of them suffered burnout and quit after three months.

Perhaps the Uber driver who picked up my wife and I last week was entering the burnout zone as headed off in the opposite direction to which we wished to travel.

“He’ll turn around in a moment,” I thought, but several moments passed and he continued on course.

I repeated the address and he nodded and continued driving.

Drivers working for Uber and other ride-share services are complaining of burnout after just a few months on the job. Picture: AFP/Getty/Justin Sullivan

Several more moments passed and my wife and I exchanged concerned looks. “Mate,” I finally said in a calm but firm voice, “you’re going the wrong way.”

His reaction was spectacular. “I am the driver! You cannot tell me what to do!” he shrieked and stopped the car in the middle of the street.

“Mate,” I said, “it’s my money and I can tell you what to do. You’re going the wrong way.”

Sweet reason, as it happened, was not going to carry the day. “Get out! Get out of my car! I will not drive you!” he yelled, eyes bulging and giving every appearance of a man about to suffer a seizure.

At this point I concede that my reserves of patience, which have never been particularly bountiful, became depleted and I told him what he could with his car and his career as an Uber driver.

We exited the vehicle and he roared off into the distance, leaving us standing in the middle of a street in suburban New Farm on a sunny weekday afternoon.

“I’ve been kicked out of a few pubs in my life” I said to my wife as we started to walk, “but never an Uber.”

The driver wasn’t going to get a five star rating. Picture: iStock

“I’ll say one thing about life with you,” she said. “It’s never dull.”

I gave the driver a one star Terrible rating and contacted Uber which apologised and refunded the money and by the time we arrived at our destination, still on foot, we were laughing at the experience.

The thing is, however, that if Uber is going to squeeze its drivers until as has been claimed they can’t get a reasonable return for their labour, everyone will suffer.

The drivers will be unhappy and may, as happened with us, take out on their frustrations on their passengers.

The passengers will be unhappy and stop using the service which will make Uber unhappy.

I’ve been an advocate of ride sharing services but if they’re not going to do the right thing by their drivers, they risk the heavy hand of government regulation.

Uber has said it will do its best to ensure we never get paired with the driver in question again. That’s probably a good idea.

Mike O’Connor is a Courier-Mail columnist.