New York: A woman driver has clocked up what is believed to be the longest Uber ride on record when a customer who wanted to meet her boyfriend undertook a nearly 650 km-long journey from Virginia to Brooklyn.
Uber driver Janis Rogers picked up the customer from Williamsburg, Virginia, and drove her nearly eight hours and 644 km to Brooklyn, New York. The average Uber ride of 8.7 km.
After reaching Brooklyn, the 64-year-old driver turned right around and drove back to her home in Newport News, Virginia.
Even more impressive, she did it all without stopping to use the restroom.
“I was wide awake and kept on going. I don’t have a problem with going for a long time,” Rogers was quoted as saying by the New York Post.
The journey was undertaken in June and is believed to be the longest Uber ride on record. The bill for the gruelling over 600 km, 7-hour-42-minute ride, however, was just USD 294.09.
A New York City yellow cab making the same trip in reverse would cost USD 1,182, the report said.
Rogers said she was happy for the long-distance haul. She said her passenger looked “about 19 or 20” with “long brown hair”.
“She was pretty. She was sitting outside with a suitcase and a bag. I did not get her name. I think she had been Ubering up the coast,” he said.
Rogers said that when the stranger got in the car she asked, “How far north can you take me?”
“I said, ‘Well, I’m not doing too much today, so I’ll take you all the way. ‘Really? That would be great’, she said,” according to Rogers.
The woman then curled up in a blanket Rogers keeps in the back seat of her 2005 Prius and “slept the entire way”.
Though she took the rigourous journey to meet her boyfriend, Rogers said, “She didn’t seem excited to see her boyfriend. She was kind of blase. She looked tired.”
Rogers reached her Putnam Avenue destination by nightfall. The two said good bye — no tip was offered — and she turned right around and drove back to Virginia.
Rogers, who didn’t even own a cellphone before joining Uber in May, did not make much money on the longest ride.
After driving 15 and a half hours round-trip and spending USD 32 for gas and tolls (she did not spend a dime on food or drinks), the trip earned her about USD 9 per hour.
“This was not lucrative. I did it because it was an adventure,” she said.
PTI