Uber Drivers Embrace Instant Pay

Last year Uber, the ride-hailing app, rolled out Instant Pay in an effort to get drivers to get paid right away, and after opening the program up to all Mastercard, Visa and Discover debit cards, usage has increased greatly, with the service accounting for more than $1.3 billion in cash-outs to drivers.

According to a report in TechCrunch, Uber said “hundreds of thousands” of U.S.-based drivers are taking advantage of the program following on the heels of the initial group of roughly 80,000 drivers who had signed up before Uber opened the program to all Mastercard, Visa and Discover debit cards. Uber is now expanding the program to all of its drivers as well as UberEATS and delivery couriers that have one trip or more on file, noted the report. The program is available only to drivers in the U.S., noted the report.

Despite the Instant Pay service, Uber acknowledged in the report it has to do more to improve the business for its drivers. The churn rate for drivers at Uber is high, according to the report, although the firm is taking steps to improve that. Some of those efforts include improving the in-app navigation and providing more support to its legion of drivers. The new Uber navigation app includes an update to the iOS driver version of it and is completely new for the Android version of its navigation app. The upgrades to the app are designed to improve service by providing better routes to get from one location to the next and improve pickups, drop-offs and the driver experience, Uber Maps Product Team Lead Manik Gupta and Driver App Senior Product Manager Maya Choksi told TechCrunch. Previously Uber used external mapping apps such as Google Maps and Waze to help drivers get to locations. The drivers would hit “Navigate” on the app and would be sent directly to Waze or Google Maps or other routing apps.