After a long night spent bar hopping in The Village, it’s too dangerous to drive home or to stumble through Muncie streets.
That’s where David Fletcher, a driver for rideshare service Uber, comes in.
“Mostly my business has been college people that have been drinking and have the intelligence not to try to get in a car themselves and drive,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher is only one of a few Uber drivers in Muncie. The majority of his business is carting college kids home from the bars in The Village or downtown Muncie on the weekend.
“It’s great because I get to make my own hours,” he said.
Plus, with a usual hourly pay of around $20, it helps supplement his income before his pension kicks in.
Uber is one of the more popular apps that work like an on-call taxi service, allowing people who are looking for rides to call a driver for a small fee. The company operates in more than 200 cities across the globe.
Although there are only three drivers operating in the Muncie now, Fletcher said he thinks it’s only a matter of time until more drivers and riders sign on.
“There just aren’t enough people doing it in Muncie,” he said. “Like, in Indy, there are always drivers because people know about it.”
Jack Smith, a former Ball State student, recently applied to be a driver. After passing a background check and submitting insurance information he was cleared to drive.
Smith said he is going to use Uber to make a little cash before he heads back to school. Unlike Fletcher, Smith said he doesn’t feel like Muncie is a great place to Uber—he plans to go to Indianapolis instead.
“I just don’t think people know it’s a thing,” Smith said, echoing Fletcher.
Prospective drivers have to go through a background check and prove that they have a driver’s license and up-to-date insurance.
Uber charges a base fare of $2 with an additional $1.50 per mile and $.20 per minute. A ride from campus to Walmart is about $6.
Rideshare services are growing in popularity, especially in large cities or college towns where people don’t own a car or don’t want to designate a friend to stay sober and drive them home.
A report conducted by Uber and Mothers Against Drunk Driving showed ride requests across the country spike around midnight and 2 a.m., the time when most alcohol-related crash fatalities take place.
Furthermore, 78 percent of people said after Uber arrived in their city, their friends were less likely to drive after drinking and 57 percent of ride share users said without Uber they would probably drive home more after drinking.
The company has come under fire recently after numerous drivers were accused of robbery, assault and rape.
The company requires “rigorous” background checks, according to its website.
Fletcher said he received an email from a company telling him that they were doing a background check on him.
Men in Philadelphia and Boston acting as Uber drivers have been charged with rape.
To prevent this, Uber provides each customer with a photo, vehicle make and model and license plate number for the driver who is going to pick them up. The company cautions riders to check that these match the person picking them up before getting in the car.
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