Uber / Lyft Driver Essentials to Buy
Introduction
Like any job or skill, driving rideshare has it’s learning curve. Whether it’s making sure your car is clean to maximize tips and perceived value, to keeping barf-bags on hand for those riders that might get motion sickness.
Keep reading to find out what the best options are for maximizing your rideshare earnings and experience.
(Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I only recommend product I use myself, however.)
Dash Cam
A good dashcam is essential, and can be a lifesaver.
Rear-ended, and not your fault? Send the dashcam footage as proof.
Passenger saying you stole their bag, when you didn’t? Send the dashcam footage.
Passenger was causing an issue, and filed a complaint against you, when it was their fault? Send the dashcam footage.
Dashcams are essential. They can truly save you from a much larger (and more expensive) issue. So investing a bit into one is highly recommended.
After investigating on the best dash camera to get, I recommend the COXPAL A11T. Here are it’s features:
- Supports up to 512GB microSD card
- Records front, inside, rear simultaneously based on TRUE video resolution 2K+1080+1080, by Sony image sensor
- GPS capable
- WiFi capable
- Infrared night vision
- Very large heat sink inside and very good heat dissipation design
Also:
- An extra COXPAL hardwire kit can be installed for parking monitor.
- If you don’t want to leave the camera in the car you can also take it home. It’s very convenient and easy to take off the camera from the mount.
Pro Tip: It’s recommended to get the special “endurance” microSD cards for your dash cam (see below).
“Endurance” microSD Card for Dash Cam
It’s important to buy a “Endurance” type microSD card for your dashcam, as it’ll otherwise quickly reach it’s max read/write limit quickly. Dash Cams are known to eat up regular SD cards at a rapid rate – you don’t want to be spending hundreds of $ a year on buying new SD cards.
SD cards have a limit to the amount of read/write cycles they can go through, meaning a regular SD card can quickly fail, if you’re driving everyday and constantly overwriting old dashcam footage.
Don’t use a regular SanDisk Ultra or other common microSD card for your dash cam, get one rated as an “endurance” card specifically, to save money (and headache) in the long run.
The cards I’ve researched that are highest-rated and best for this type of work are: 1
- 256 GB Samsung Pro Endurance (#1 recommendation)
- 512 GB SanDisk High Endurance (Lower TBW cycle rating, Higher capacity)
- 256 GB SanDisk Max Endurance (Higher TBW cycle rating, Lower capacity)
Pro Tip: Make sure to get the max-rated capacity for your dash cam, to cut down on the headache of backing up / removing data. (For example, I got a 512GB SD card for my COXPAL A11T, since 512GB is the max rating for that dash cam).
Pro Tip 2: Confirm you don’t have a counterfeit Samsung SD card by downloading Samsungs tool here.
Barf Bags
Nothing can ruin a profitable night out driving quite like a hot steaming pile of vomit all over your seats.
Barf in your car means you have to stop working, find a place to clean your car, and potentially even end the night if the damage is bad enough.
You don’t even have to drive on Saturday nights to experience this, some people get carsick or might have food poisoning, so it’s good to have them on hand, even if you’re driving during the day.
I just bought a cheaper option for these, a 15 pack. They have 20, 30+ packs for just a few dollars more, but I don’t expect to have 15 people barfing in my car anytime soon, so I’d rather not have a bunch of vomit bags taking up space in my car / house.
I keep one or two beneath my seat for easy access, and the rest in my garage.
Faraday Bag (For Lost Cell Phones)
Faraday Bags are small bags made of special material that block any radio or electromagnetic signals going into or out of the bag.
Essentially it’s for putting cell phones inside, so that you can’t track the phone, and so that the phone can’t communicate with the local network.
Why would this ever be something that an Uber driver needs?
Because sometimes passengers forget their cell phones in your car, and…
- Sometimes passengers are drunk when they do so, and forget they even took an Uber / Lyft the night before.
- Or just drunk college students that want their phone back, and can’t get a hold of you, so they show up at your driveway and try to break into your car to get it.
So a Faraday Bag is insurance against one of those passengers showing up at your front door the next day at 7am, pounding on your door to confront you about their phone you “stole”, or otherwise tracking you down at times / places that are inconvenient to you.
Of course you need to get their belongings back to them, you can be reimbursed by Uber to drop it off to their location, but you don’t want to interrupt a profitable ride session to do so, or might realize that the person that left their phone is 100 miles away, and it’s already 4am and you just got home. So you’ll get it back to them the next morning, and don’t want to be disturbed in the meanwhile.
When I started driving rideshare, I never thought of ever needing a Faraday Bag, but it’s a cheap investment that can save a lot of headache (and money).
(Another good bag I was recommended is the Faraday Defense bag, which is more expensive but seems to offer more insulation / protection).
Pro Tip: These bags can also double as passport, credit card, smart car key, and your own phone or tablet holder, to avoid people hacking into or stealing your data. Or tracking you. I use my Faraday Bag outside of Uber all the time to avoid my passport being scanned to track my location, for my phone, it can even prevent newer car keys from being spoofed and having your car stolen (a common new carjacking scheme).
Portable Handheld Vacuum
Conclusion
(Featured Image: Jackson David @ Pexels)