Uber has had a driver rating system that passengers use to rate their experiences with drivers and give feedback since the launch of their program in the United States and Canada.
Yet, feedback is a two-way street.
The Uber rider rating system is an extension of that.
This rating system spans the majority of the Uber services offered by the company.
It gives drivers the ability to rate their own experiences in the driver app and warn or recommend passengers to future drivers.
Let’s break down this misunderstood rating system and see why you have the score you do.
Table Of Contents
What Are Uber Rider Ratings?
Uber rider ratings use a 5-star scoring system, that’s the same number of stars as the driver ratings.
Five is the highest, and one is the minimum score.
Every time you take a trip in an Uber, you give the driver a score, and in return, they do the same for you.
The average rating on your profile uses the scores from the latest 500 trips you take.
This number on your profile gives the average experience drivers had with you.
While any driver is free to give any rating they want, Uber suggests their drivers consider three factors when rating passengers:
- Short wait times – did the passenger make the driver wait, or were they on time at the curb when the car pulled up?
- Courtesy – Was the car respected during the trip and did the passenger show courtesy by not making a mess, damaging the interior or leaving trash behind?
- Safety – During the trip, did the driver feel unsafe? Were they concerned for their safety with the passenger?
Factors can also include intoxication, changing the destination mid-trip, and adding multiple stops without discussing it with the driver first.
Why Does Uber Have Rider Ratings?
Uber has rider ratings as part of the company’s mission to be safe and respectful to all.
This mutual rating system ensures the rider’s safety as they can report unsafe drivers, while rider ratings help protect other drivers from disrespectful, dangerous, or unpredictable riders.
How To Check Your Rating
Checking your Uber rider rating is very simple, and takes very little time.
- To view your Uber Rider rating, open your Uber app and log in.
- Tap the menu icon (it’s three horizontal lines) in the top left corner.
- Shown beneath your name and picture is your rating as a score out of 5.
What is a Good Uber Rider Rating?
Any rating above 4.7 is good to excellent.
While a 5 star rating is the best you can get, it is virtually impossible to maintain.
Drivers try to rate honestly, but sometimes you get the short end of the stick and catch them on a bad day, or do something they might not like.
As such, don’t be bothered when your rating drops below 5.0 – it’s normal for that to hover a bit below a perfect rating.
What is a Bad Uber Rider Rating?
Bad would be a score below 4.7.
Some drivers may consider 4.7 to be bad as well depending on their own personal preference.
If you have a score below 4.7, consider your past few Uber experiences.
Unless you take only a few trips and somehow always have drivers that rate very harshly, you may be ignoring common courtesies and receiving a low score.
A low score tells drivers that you’ve done things in the past that have caused drivers to give you a few 1 to 3-star ratings.
While you may never do them again, a driver has to consider that before they match with you.
Why is my Uber Rider Rating Low?
You’ve had a few drivers that score riders harshly, or you have displayed behaviors that drivers felt disrespected or unsafe.
Also consider how your friends behave when they are in the vehicle with you and you request the ride.
Bad behavior from anyone in your party reflects badly on you and could lower your score.
What Different Ratings Mean
Since every driver rates passengers on their own criteria, scores are the average of many different opinions.
Averages that fall into the following brackets paint a picture of a rider who acts a certain way.
Drivers may choose to match only with a good passenger above a particular score.
5 Star Rating
The highest rating a rider can receive and the most misunderstood.
While amazing people have five-star ratings, first-time riders also start with five stars before their first trip.
4.94-4.99
This rating is one of the most challenging ratings to maintain.
Someone with this rider rating has lots of experience ordering Uber rides and has always been a fantastic rider.
This bracket requires a lot of trips with excellent reviews.
4.80-4.93
You have lots of experience, but you’ve also gotten a few less than perfect reviews.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a lousy passenger; it may just mean that a few drivers have given you an individual rating below five stars.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to guarantee you will always get a perfect rating even when you think everything has gone well because every driver has different personal criteria.
4.7-4.79
You have experience and quite a few 5-star reviews, but you’ve also had an incident or two where your driver has rated you as low as three stars.
They could have many reasons for doing so, but it’s a reminder to observe the rules and try to be as courteous as possible.
4.6-4.69
At this level, if you regularly take Ubers, you have done things that have made drivers upset, and they have responded by rating you poorly.
With a low enough rider rating, the driver won’t match with them again.
This can drop your score relatively quickly.
With this score, drivers may start to choose other fares than yours, or you may wait a little longer for a match.
4.5-4.59
A rating often seen with people who drink to excess.
Vomiting in a car or bad behavior with a driver is a surefire way of getting a score low enough that your rating drops, even with plenty of rides under your belt.
At this level, when you do get a match, make sure to follow the suggestions below for getting a high rating.
If you keep a score this low for a long-time, Uber may deactivate your account.
In 2019, Kate Parker, Uber’s head of safety, announced on their blog that riders would face deactivation or a ban if they maintained a low score.
A ban was to help protect their drivers, just as the company already bans drivers with similarly low scores to protect riders.
Below 4.59
While very uncommon, this is the worst score.
You may face removal from the app, and you should consider why you have a low rating.
If you regularly have to wait a long time for a match, this may be the reason.
How To Improve Your Uber Passenger Rating
Consider time, rules, and respect before you take your next uber trip.
1. Be on Time
Make sure you are ready to get in the vehicle when your Uber driver arrives.
Time is money for drivers, and if you will be a minute or two later than you thought, reach out to them and let them know.
Make sure your pickup location is at the correct spot, and keep your phone close by to check for any changes in the time until they arrive.
This is especially true if you are taking an Uber Pool.
Pro Tip:
Be on the lookout for vehicles with an Uber decal in the front windshield.
It’s usually on the left side, which indicates that vehicle is an Uber vehicle.
This is likely your ride, but be prepared to say your name when asked by the driver.
2. Obey the Community Guidelines
You aren’t the only one who is going to be getting a drive from your Uber driver today, so keep that in mind.
Wait to have the messy food, take earphones out to avoid shouting, and obey all other Uber community guidelines like wearing a seat belt.
Respecting the driver is the top priority but keeping your feet on the floor and taking all your trash with you when you leave is a priority, too.
3. Drinking and Uber
When you are very intoxicated, you may want to call a taxi instead of an Uber to help preserve your rider rating.
Aggression, vomiting, and just being a nasty person will harm your score because no driver should have to be uncomfortable with their passengers or their actions.
Uber drivers know that some of their passengers may have been at a party or had a few drinks at a bar, and that’s okay.
However, being so drunk that you can no longer be respectful to the person taking you home, is too much.
Being too intoxicated or being the “drunk friend” is a quick way to get a bad rider rating for you or whoever requested the car.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of the Uber rider rating frequently asked questions.
What is the average Uber rating?
The average rating according to Uber is 4.89 out of 5.
How rare is a 5 star Uber rider rating?
A 5-star rating isn’t rare because so many riders that have only taken one or two trips will automatically have a 5-star rating.
Keeping that 5-star review after hundreds of rides is the difficult part simply because drivers are human, and you may do everything right and still end up losing stars.
Final Thoughts
While there will be some unpredictability about your rating because it’s dependent on others reviewing you, improving your Uber Passenger or rider rating isn’t difficult.
It’s mostly about seeing things from the driver’s point of view and offering compliments when appropriate.
Have you looked at your uber rider rating lately?
Does it reflect how you think you are as a passenger?
Leave a comment and let us know.
Hi
I am concerned about my low rating. I think it was due to a trip I took in Ghana. The driver refused to drive me to the destination when he picked me up and we had then a disput. Is it possible to delete this entry?
Many thanks,
Peter Huegli
I have had drivers rate low because I did not tip. I know because I use Uber infrequently and I watch my rating. I wax 4.80 and was rushing into airport. I thanked the driver and when I got inside I rated and tipped. Too late. Score was already down. Uber does not enforce an Uber driver for eating based on tip.
I have been an excellent rider. Always on time, courteous, always tipped 20% + on average fares and as much as 40% + on low dollar fares (short trips). I treat driver’s vehicles as if they were my own. No slamming doors or making a mess of any kind.
Still, 2 drivers left me a 4 star rating and one left a 3 star rating. It is incomprehensible to me.
My new policy is to NOT tip right away. I now wait a period of time to see if my average rating edges down slightly after a ride. If it goes down, there will be no tipping at all for that ride. If the rating goes up, I will add the tip as I always have.
I’m not going to reward the bad behavior of drivers who are “having a bad day” and take it out on riders.
I’m never tipping a driver again. I have 4.78 and tip very frequently. My girlfriend has 4.89 and almost never tips.
I’m going to start rating my drivers honestly too.
I have had one mild dispute with a driver months ago got impatient in traffic at an event I was attending and told me to get out and walk the rest of the distance to my desired drop off point; I had baggage to carry inside so I didn’t want to have to carry all of it by hand 200 yards so she could duck back onto the roadway to her next job. I don’t know if she rated me poorly but I suspect so because I let her know I thought this was lazy. My patience with this ride was already low because I’d requested a quiet ride but instead got subjected to a loud radio station playing music of a type I just wasn’t in the mood for at that time. I’d said nothing about that but decided to use my own noise canceling earbuds to damp out the music I didn’t want to hear. I might have missed the drivers questions at some point because of this I don’t know. But no matter … a quiet ride as requested would have prevented this. Normally I tip quite generously to all in the services … this time I limited it to 5%. Still I’m almost certain my dispute about being dropped off where I requested not a place she could quickly move on to her next ride was reflected in a rating I’m still living with.
Back in 2021 and early 2022 I noted some drivers refused to pick me up when I requested the driver wear a mask. It’s a health thing for my household. A few drivers got really angry after accepting the pickup then when I messaged about the mask demanding that I be the one to cancel the trip so they wouldn’t get dinged for a cancellation. I feel the mask wearing issue was poorly handled by Uber and leaving it up to drivers and riders to argue about wasn’t the wisest idea. I’m pretty sure I may have been dinged a few stars over asking drivers to wear a mask for me back in 2021 and 2022. I almost always keep quiet on my trips and I always tip quite generously and never give any driving or route advice so … no slamming doors …