Using Didi and Uber in Mexico
Even the smallest things take on the aura of a great adventure when you’re living in another country, including using Uber, or Mexico’s own ride sharing app Didi (which is usually cheaper and I use almost exclusively in Mazatlán.
The first ride was so positive, I decided to go for my second. Jonathan, I learned, reads Kafka's "Letter to My Father," to his 10-year old daughter to try to help her understand why loving parents sometimes have to be strict.
How Ride Sharing in Mexico is different from the U.S.
In Mexico, the ride-share Uber cars may only carry a discreet $ sign on the dash, if that, to indicate they are Uber cars. Largely both apps rely on flashing their lights to let you know they're looking for you rather that the signage U.S. card sharing services display.
If you are planning to use a ride-sharing app in Mexico, remember that Mexican addresses are written very differently from ours and tend to be longer. Make sure you check them carefully and type them in their entirety into the app.
Collect business cards or create your own for the places you might be frequenting often (Don't forget to keep a card of the address of your own place.)
Just like at home you will receive an opportunity to rate your driver after the ride. They rate you as a passenger too. Tipping in cash plays a bigger part in how they rate you as a passenger here. When a few of my first drivers didn't get a tip (It took me a few rides to figure out the tipping option on the app), my passenger rating immediately went down.
Pay in cash in Mexico.
You have a choice between paying with a credit card like at home or can pay in cash/ en efectivo. Mexico is more of a cash country than ours. Mexicans are less able to “float”, that is to say wait until the end of a pay period to get paid. Drivers in Mexico strongly prefer cash customers. Also important: Usually, drivers will not be able to change a 500 peso note. If that’s all you have, try to change it before using the app. If you can’t text the driver and let them know “Llevo 500 pesos”. Even 200 pesos can be a problem.
It’s not uncommon for them to ask how you’re paying before even accepting the ride (even though that’s against Uber policy). Or worse, they accept your ride, then text you how you’re paying. If you say by credit card, they are more likely to cancel the ride. If you see your wait time is getting longer, it might mean they have decided on a cash customer before picking yRidou up.
When visiting large cities in Mexico where rides can be much longer and more expensive, if I’m not in a hurry, I use option of sharing the ride if it’s available. I save money and get to see a little more of the city as its inhabitants as they pick and drop people off nearby. I did this while visiting Guadalajara and saw several new neighborhoods. It was like a mini-tour.
Ride-sharing vs. cabs
The vote to allow the ride-sharing service in Mazatlán passed in 2016, my second year in Mexico. When I learned that my ultra conscientious friend and mother of three allowed her 17 year-old daughter to use Uber, that was good enough for me. Among the Mexican mothers I know, they seem to feel that ride-sharing is the safer option when compared to cabs.
Cab drivers try to drive as much as possible without turning on the air. You have to ask them to turn on the air and roll up windows. After a time, especially if you’re a woman dressed up, made up and coiffed, that gets old. Unlike many cabs, ride sharing cars usually have the windows up and the air conditioning on when they pick you up (which on a Mexican summer day feels like a blood transfusion). If not, they seem more amiable to requests for air conditioning. Ride sharing cars in Mexico are much smaller than the US due to the of higher price of gas.
Cabs are better to hail for returning home from big grocery runs and hauling. They have the trunk space and drivers are reliable to help you unload (tip accordingly, at least 20 pesos), which many ride-share drivers will not.
Ride-share drivers sometimes are no allowed to enter fraccionamientos, neighborhood gated communities, without the passenger present. If your host has given you a security code to enter, you will need to call a cab when you leave the party. Always keep the number for catching a cab in case of unforeseen restrictions like these. Airports frequently don’t allow ride-sharing cars to enter (the way around this is to travel in the front seat and have a story lined up with the driver).
More former cab drivers are Uber/Didi drivers in Mexico. (Former cab drivers have told me that Mexican taxi sindicatos are so corrupt they much prefer it). An alternative to cabs, Cabify, is available in 38 cities in Mexico.
How is your Spanish?
Far fewer Uber drivers speak even nominal English, although their profile might say they do. Cabbies are used to communicating with English-speaking tourists and their communication challenges. From experience they can intuit your needs. If you don’t speak any Spanish at all, you may want to stick with cabs.
If you speak some Spanish and like to practice it, ride-sharing drivers tend to be more interesting conversationalists. Like in the U.S., many have other jobs and driving is a way of getting out as well as earning extra money. I’ve talked to them about politics, music, differences in culture, just about everything.
I’ll always have a fondness for the taxi drivers here in Mazatlán though and still take cabs at frequently, even when I might save a few pesos with Uber. Certain situations, however, call for the anonymity of arriving to your destination in a street car. It’s fantastic to have the choice.
Hiring Uber drivers off the books for rides
If a driver gives off a particularly good vibe, you might be able to hire him off-the-books for several hours if you need to run a number of errands. A few hours of errands generally costs about 250 pesos ($15 U.S.).
Since I don't have a car in Mexico, some Fridays mornings I line up errands and call one of several I keep on file. If I think I might be more than a few minutes in a place, I send them off nearby for a coffee or a smoothie. They couldn't be happier.
Other funny little tasks
I’ve hired drivers on the spot for a number of funny tasks. Once I needed to move an oversized chair I’d bought from a neighbor across the street. She’d asked me if I could pick it up one night and I told her it depended on who my Uber driver was that afternoon. Sure enough, it was a husky fellow who was delighted for the break and the easy 200 pesos. Once I hired a driver, an engineer in his other job, on the spot to edit a paper I’d written in Spanish. Another time I asked a driver if he happened to own a drill. He did, and came over a few days later to help me hang some newly-framed pictures in my concrete wall.
Ride- sharing services - just one more reason every year gets easier in Mexico
About the author:
Hola! My name is Kerry Baker. My book"If Only I Had a Place" presents a guide to renting in Mexico luxuriously and inexpensively year after year. More than a how-to, it provides a system to help you build the best possible foundation for living in Mexico My second book is“The Mexico Solution: Saving your money, sanity, and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico.” Most recently I co-authored a cookbook, The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico.