Uber rolls destination setting back to 2 per day in more cities.

A few weeks ago, Uber, in an attempt to repair its reputation with drivers, instituted a number of changes under its “180 Day of Change program.” One of these changes was to allow drivers to use the destination setting six times a day, up from two. The destination setting allows the driver to set a destination and then only receive ride requests towards that destination. Both of these were great changes.

Over the weekend, Uber rolled back the number of times drivers can use the destination setting to two in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Seattle. This morning, drivers in San Diego and Los Angeles received the news that they will only be allowed to use the destination setting twice per day. So much for 180 days of change.

Photo by cc_icon

The reason Uber made the switch back to two per day is that too many drivers were setting their destination for the airport and waiting for a request. As a consequence, riders going a shorter distance were waiting longer. This is a legitimate issue, but instead of going back to a limit of two uses per day, Uber could have changed it to three or four.

See, a lot of full time drivers use the destination setting once in the morning, and then once in the evening to get home. However, during the day, drivers often get a ride that takes them to the middle of nowhere. When that happens, it was very helpful to be able to set a destination back to a populated area, where the rider requests are. It would actually make sense from Uber’s point of view since it doesn’t do Uber any good if its drivers are stuck in the sticks where they won’t get many requests.