Last week, we asked you to share your #FiveStarRide with us for the chance to win a FREE month of Uber. Over the course of the week, riders responded with hundreds of heartfelt stories of drivers who made their trip a #FiveStarRide worth sharing. It wasn’t easy, but the Uber DC Team has chosen the top five stories and we need YOUR help to select a winner!
The Winning Story
Click the story title below to read the winning #FiveStarRide submission!
“About a month ago I was having “one of those days.” I am a 22-year-old living and working in Washington, DC in consulting. I left a long day at work feeling like I couldn’t do much of anything right, unappreciated and a little sorry for myself. I have about a forty-five minute to an hour commute home on a day when everything is going smoothly. I hopped on the metro- it was backed up. Switching over to the red line was even more of a nightmare. The entire metro had to be shut down because of a missing part on a train. I exited the metro with the 1,000 people, pushing and shoving, to get out and grab a cab. Hailing one was out of the question so I did what I do best (and often)- called an Uber.
I saw he was far away so I called him and said I’d start jogging toward him. He picked me up promptly and I hopped in. I’ll be honest, most times I don’t talk to my driver, and I realized a.) how rude that was and b.) that I was probably going to have about another 45 minutes in this car because of the rush hour traffic. In my head I’m thinking… “Dang, I missed my workout class today. My commute sucks. I’m annoyed.” We start talking. He tells me he is from Ethiopia. So I ask how he got to the states. He looks at me in the rear view mirror and looks me in the eye and says, ” Do you really want to know?” Intrigued, I said, “Of course I do.”
He begins by telling me that his parents died when he was very young. He, his older brother, and his cousin went to school every day, fended for themselves and raised their little sister. One day there was a student rally against the communist government. He went with his brother and cousin when shots were fired. He ducked – watching his brother be shot and killed to his right, and his cousin shot and killed to his left. He said he just started running. He ran, and he ran, and he ran for 30 days to Sudan – the neighboring country to the north. He said he was almost dead and face down in the sand when someone found him. A couple from Texas on a mission trip to Sudan came upon him and picked him up, comforted him, and a couple months later adopted him.
At this point I found my mascara running down my face, my jaw open and myself almost hysterically crying. When I looked in the rear view mirror again, I saw tears streaming down his face. “I haven’t told that story to anyone in years,” he said. “Why is that?” I asked. “Because no one has asked me.”
His new parents brought him to Texas and soon after they moved to D.C. They put him through school at the University of Maryland and he became a successful owner of a printing company in Maryland and started driving for Uber a little less than a year ago for some side money. At this point we are arriving to my apartment. He got out of the car, opened the door for me and we hugged each other for a moment. He then walked me to the door opened it and said, “Thanks for asking about it Carolyn.” I responded, “You’re getting 5 stars.”
It was one of the most touching moments of my life, and I was so excited to see this campaign because it was a moment that changed my perspective about the people we meet if only for a brief moment.”
Submitted by Carolyn R.
The Finalists
Click the story titles below to read the #FiveStarRide submissions from our finalists.
“The ceremony was in DC at St. Matthews Cathedral, after which a limousine-bus drove us to Union Station for pictures under the front awning (not our first choice, but it poured all afternoon). While our pictures were taken, the bus apparently stalled and failed to re-start. The driver/company asked us to wait while they dispatched another bus/limousine, but an hour later all that arrived was a utility vehicle which also failed to get the bus started.
Having missed our cocktail hour and approaching the start of our reception we bailed on the bus and sought taxis only to discover not only that the taxi stand was jam-packed, but that we were in many cases cash-less (and DC had not yet mandated credit card machines in taxis). Uber to the rescue. We ordered five uber sedans with our phones, my wife and I taking the first (what a sight it was – her climbing into the back of a sedan in her wedding dress) and arriving before the the start of the reception.”
Five stars? How about thanks-uber-you-saved-my-wedding-day stars?
“After my wife and I had dropped our eight year old daughter off at a sleepover birthday in downtown DC, we went to our favorite restaurant for dinner on a Saturday night. No sooner had the first round of drinks hit the table than we got a call from the mother of the birthday girl — our daughter had forgotten Doggie, her beaten up, emaciated stuffed animal lovie that she has slept with every single night for over seven years.
So, here we were, 30 minutes from our house in Maryland, and another 30 minutes back to the sleepover. We were looking at almost 90 minutes roundtrip — certain to ruin date night. But we looked at each other and said at the same time, Uber!
After ordering a black car (Doggie would expect no less!), I called the driver to let him know that he would not have any back talk or other problems from this particular passenger. When he got to the sleepover, he called to let me know that Doggie had given him a bit of lip but that they had worked out their problems. I asked him if he had ever had a stuffed animal passenger, and he said he had never had anything like it. Although it will take my daughter 26 weeks to pay off the Uber charge, my wife and I had the best Saturday night date night ever!”
“I’ve used Uber quite a bit, so to say that the car I took from Whole Foods on P Street to my place in Bloomingdale was far and away the most unique ride of all my Uber experiences doesn’t come gilbly.
As I got into the car, it started snowing very heavily, to the point where visibility was limited; as such, the streets were very quiet with little traffic. As we went up Rhode Island Avenue an SUV just in front of us hit a pedestrian at about 25 mph, and the driver immediately pulled over to help. As I called 911, the driver got out and saw to the pedestrian with another witness — astoundingly, the pedestrian was concussed, but otherwise seemed OK. Anyhow, it turned out that the other witness was going to my neighborhood, so we gave him a ride.
After being pretty shook up by the sight of watching someone get run over by a car (and frankly feeling fortunate to have the option of such a comfortable ride in terrible weather like that), I was more than willing to eat the cost of the having the app running for the 45 minutes or so that it took to get from Whole Foods to my place, including the time we spent idling at the site of the accident.
To my surprise, however, not only did the driver turn the app off as soon as we pulled over to help, he never turned it back on. While that might not comply with Uber policies (I hope it does), the fact that the driver was willing to take two passengers home who were SOAKED (we had stood outside in the snow for 20+ minutes), expending gas and his own valuable time at no personal benefit struck a chord with me. Indeed, when my fingers warmed up enough to rate my ride, I found myself wishing there was a 10 star option.
If I ever get the chance, I’d love to tell that driver my thanks, and to keep being such a shining example of the thing that sets Uber apart from it’s competitors: the drivers.”
“Got all the way to DCA, realized I left my passport home. Without any hesitation he got me home and back on time. #FiveStarRide”
Submitted by Becky R. via Twitter
How to Vote
Enter the promo code associated with your favorite story by logging into your account here or in the app. You can only enter the code one time and will see a confirmation screen when entered correctly.
On March 7th, the story whose promo code gets the most applies wins and the rider who submitted that story will be rewarded with one month of FREE Uber ($400 in credit) and the winning Uber partner will receive $400.
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