Introduction
If you are ever considering driving professionally these tips can help you in your success. I drove for rideshare companies for several months until I decided to become more focused on developing websites and working online. I learned a few things through my experience and also from listening to my passengers. Lyft and Uber are two great companies to consider although there are others out there to choose from depending on what your preference is.
Behavior
When you are on the road driving, safety is priority. The first thing to think about is not to be in a hurry. Aggressive driving causes a person to tailgate and many times results in accidents. If you have ever been in the Nashville, Tennessee area you’ll know what I’m talking about. Most all people tailgate and many are in a hurry and some in an extreme hurry. I call the area, Crashville.
Be in control of your emotions. Don’t allow other people’s driving to affect you, otherwise you will end up being their victim. Never try to get even or react with any level of road rage. Try not to incite anger either, even by blowing your horn. If a driver in front of you doesn’t go when the light turns green, relax. A friendly, short toot may be in order to get their attention but don’t lay on the horn or toot repeatedly.
Car Care & Safety
Buy a nice clean car and maintain it regularly. Passengers prefer a clean car and one that is comfortable. I advise purchasing a car that gets great gas mileage. If you are serious about making money in this line of work you will be driving hundreds of miles every day that you work.
Make sure you have good tires and brakes. If you can’t do the work yourself, hire a trusted mechanic who will take care of your car and make recommendations.
Keep a good amount of money in your bank account. I recommend keeping at least $3,000.00 in it. I recently had about $3,000 in repairs on my car and fortunately I had the money to pay for the repairs. It required some extensive mechanical work since the car was sluggish when accelerating and would stall when idling sometimes. If you don’t have a road side service you will need to keep enough money so that you can pay for a tow truck and any repairs you need to do on your car.
The overhead in this business is high and so you will need to keep at least half your earnings in your bank account. If at the end of a year you have over $3,000.00 still in the bank, you might be able to give yourself a bonus. Be smart and be wise, don’t be anxious to spend money that you need for your car payments and maintenance.
Financing Tips
You can find a decent used car without a lot of trouble. I recommend searching carfax.com for auto’s in your area. If you have poor credit and worried about buying a car then try and locate a dealer that works with CAC (Credit Acceptance Corp). I’ve had to use them in the past and made my payments on time and paid every car off that I got through them. The last time I had to use them the dealer said I came up gold in the system. I was able to buy the car I wanted because of this.
Before buying a car, make sure you check reviews about the dealer. Not that this is always a guarantee, but it is a safeguard to help you find reliable and honest car dealers.
THINK
We can prevent a lot of accidents on the road if we think before we act. I see many people in a big hurry while driving and I think, there they go, in a hurry for an accident. Aggressive driving kills people, why would we want to behave in a way that hurts or even kills people?
Tailgating is a major problem on the road. Stay one car length behind the vehicle in front of you for every 10 miles per hour you are driving. If you are driving 70 mph then you need to stay at least 7 car lengths behind the car in front of you.
Remember that when entering the interstate, the people already on the interstate have the right of way. Be humble and be careful. I see so many drivers entering the interstate who punch their gas pedal barely squeezing in front of a vehicle already on the interstate making for a dangerous situation. If they were to apply their brake instead and merge in behind the vehicle it would have been a much safer situation. I saw one driver in particular trying to merge onto the interstate and got angry at a vehicle already on the interstate because he couldn’t merge in front of him while there was room behind them and all he had to do was use his brakes to adjust. I see many people who don’t consider braking as an option when in many cases it is a safer alternative than accelerating.