Rideshare, Overshare, Get Out Of There!

I just started driving for a rideshare/food delivery company to make some extra cash. I live in a small town. It’s not so small that everyone knows each other, but it’s small enough that there isn’t much crime to speak of. But as a smaller female, I was still nervous about giving rides to people at night, because people in my town are heavy and frequent drinkers. I considered getting a dash cam as a safety precaution, but I didn’t have the money to invest in a good one just yet, and I felt like I probably wouldn’t need one, anyway.

Once I started getting the hang of rideshare driving, I felt more comfortable driving into the night a little bit, because I found that most people were just trying to get from Point A to Point B without incident, and I had some very fun conversations and interactions with most passengers.

However… there’s always one bad apple in the barrel, right?

I arrived at the pick-up destination for a rider one night, which was (I assume) his home, way on the outskirts of town, in the middle of nowhere, where it’s very dark. I didn’t pull fully into the driveway because I didn’t trust myself to back up all the way back onto the road in the dark (and snow), with sharp ditches on either side of the rural driveway, but I was completely off the road just fine.

My rider stumbled out of his house (uh-oh), and on his way to my car (staggering the whole way), he made dramatic sarcastic gestures to showcase how much of the driveway was there that I could have pulled into. Great.

He got in the car and immediately got on my case for not pulling as far into his driveway as he felt like I should have. I stated my reason for not doing so and began the navigation to his destination, which was to a bar back in town, about fifteen minutes away.

He looked at my navigation screen from the back seat.

Rider: “Oh… Are we going to [Bar]?!”

Me: “Yep, it looks like it.”

He clapped his hands like a child and squealed:

Rider: “Yay!”

Yeah, this guy was already fall-down drunk. He was slurring his words and acting drunkenly obnoxious and loud. I was annoyed but didn’t feel unsafe.

As I started driving, he called his friend to let him know he was on the way to the bar.

Rider: *On the phone* “Yeah, I’m on my way. Have you gotten kicked out yet?” *Pauses* “Well, don’t get kicked out. Get me a [Beer #1]. Oh! And get one for the [Rideshare] driver, too.”

Me: “I’m on the clock, sir. I can’t have a beer with you.”

He ignored me.

Rider: “Yeah, she wants a [Beer #2]. Yeah, that’s what she wants.” *Pauses* “You get a [Beer #1] for me and a [Beer #2] for the driver. Yep.”

I rolled my eyes but just stayed quiet. I’ve learned from experience that you can’t win an argument with someone that drunk. But then, he said this…

Rider: “Yeah, we’re gonna make babies! Haha! Yep! Me and the [Rideshare] driver are gonna make babies!” *Laughs obnoxiously*

Oh, God.

Once he got off the phone, my hope was that he was so drunk that he’d already forgotten he’d said that, or maybe he was just making a crass “guy joke” to seem cool to his friend.

Nope.

Rider: *To me* “So… we’re gonna do that, right?”

Me: *Playing dumb* “Do what, sir?”

Rider: “Make babies! You’ll make babies with me, right? I wanna make babies with you!”

Yes, I know I was within my rights to stop the car and kick him out right then and there. However, it was the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, and very cold outside. My conscience wouldn’t allow me to abandon a person this drunk in such circumstances. I was very annoyed and uncomfortable, but I didn’t feel like I was in danger, so I just figured I’d get him to the bar and that would be that.

Me: “No, sir, I’m afraid I’m spoken for.”

Rider: “Awww… d*** it. What’s his name?”

Me: “[Boyfriend].”

Rider: “Oh… Yeah, I can’t compete with [Boyfriend].”

Me: “No, you can’t.”

Rider: “He must have a huge d**k!” *Laughs obnoxiously*

Me: “He is a big dude — as in he benches 300 pounds, has muscles as big as my head, and could knock someone out with a single punch.”

This was actually true. My boyfriend has been on the bodybuilder path for a couple of years, and he is remarkably muscular and strong. And he used to do martial arts and never lost a match. He absolutely could have stomped this guy just by looking at him. Unfortunately, he’s a trucker and was at work at the time, about 200 miles away. I had activated the “share my ride” feature in the app the second I’d seen my rider stumbling to the car, so my boyfriend was aware of my location. I had told him that I would activate that if I ever felt nervous on a ride, so in some way, he was “there” with me.

Rider: “Oh. Well, if you ever get tired of him, you call me! Then we can make babies!”

Me: “Uh-huh.”

Rider: “So, your boyfriend has a huge d**k. I have a small d**k, but I can still make you laugh!”

Me: “Uh-huh.”

Rider: “We can have a good time together, even though I have a small d**k. I can make you laugh, and we can have a good time.”

I tried to change the subject.

Me: “I hope your friend didn’t get kicked out of the bar.”

Rider: “If he did, you’ll just drive us to another bar, right? And come and drink with us, and then drive us to the next bar!” *Obnoxious laugh*

Me: “No, sir, I won’t do that.”

Rider: “Awww, come on! We’ll have fun together. Hey! You’ll call me when you break up with your boyfriend, right?”

Cripes…

I finally got to the bar and parked on the street to let him out. He took an annoyingly long time to exit my car.

Me: “Okay, sir, here we are. You have a good night, okay?”

Rider: *Not leaving the car* “Hey… hey… If you and your boyfriend don’t work out, you’ll call me, right? We’ll have a good time.”

I just wanted him out of my car.

Me: “Sure. Have a good night, sir.”

Rider: “Hey! Will you be my driver when I leave?”

Me: “If you call for a [Rideshare] and I’m still on duty, maybe.”

Not a chance, my dude.

Rider: “Oh, I hope so. Hey, you call me, okay?”

He finally opened the car door to leave.

Me: “Have a good night.”

I watched him cross the street to the bar and immediately rated him one star in the app, citing “Disrespectful, Conversation, and Other” as the reasons for my rating. I clocked out of the app and went home. That had done me in for the night.

Once I got home, I called my boyfriend and told him what happened. Though my boyfriend is an excellent fighter and enormous (muscle-wise), he’s a gentle giant and not violent in any way, nor does he have a temper, so I knew telling him about this guy wasn’t going to send him on an “I’m gonna find him and kick his a**!” rampage. He simply sighed heavily listening to my ordeal and agreed that this guy was totally out of line, and he said he thought I handled it well.

Then, I went back into the [Rideshare] app and officially reported the rider for sexual harassment. The help team responded a little while later saying that he had absolutely violated the Community Guidelines, and they temporarily suspended his account.

I was fairly certain that was an isolated event… but I did buy a dash cam the next day.