A book review by Ahmed Ehimare Audu after my first Uber Chronicles book was published.
The book Uber Chronicles: Field Notes from the Front Seat was loaned to me by a friend to whom I had spoken about my interest in driving professionally for Uber. “Read it,” she said.
At first I was skeptical about reading it as I thought it was going to read like a highly technical driving manual on using Uber, but I was really amazed with the work done by the author of this book as she did a fantastic job of delivering a very readable and enlightening account of her experience driving for Uber.
The book is an excellent guide to newbie and experienced Uber drivers, passengers, enthusiasts or anyone looking for a good read. It highlights captivating stories from otherwise mundane journeys and with the conversational tone she uses when describing each story, each is really unique.
The book reads somewhat like a diary and is made up of ten unique chapters which introduce a series of trips she makes on a typical day driving for Uber. Each chapter has several trips and she makes a story which revolves around her passenger from each trip. The first chapter provides a background of the author and talks about her initial misgivings and concerns about professional driving after which she describes each of the rides for that particular day.
The subsequent chapters follow the same format and as it progresses the reader can easily see the increased mastery of driving with Uber and in her relationship with her passengers. At the end of each trip, she gives a key experience learnt from the trip which basically summarizes the main idea of that trip.
This book has really helped save me weeks of mistakes, poor reviews and frustration that I might have suffered had I made a dive into the world of professional driving directly. Her first-hand analysis of the experience of driving almost made me almost feel behind the wheel and apart from the tips which she drops during each journey on mastering the Uber app and driving, there are lessons on driver etiquette, dress styles suitable for the different seasons. I also learned a lot on how to read and interact with each passenger.
She is really objective in her evaluation of the Uber driving and the app and from her experience passengers and drivers would understand better how the Uber GPS works in specifying passenger location and passenger area. She provides her Uber account at the end of the book so the authenticity of the experiences is not in doubt. This book is an easy for anyone and I have since gone to get my own copy of the book from Amazon.
