5 Reasons Why Your Drivers Cancel Rides (Ways to Minimize It)

Till a decade ago, traditional taxis were the primary choice of transportation to travel anywhere in comfort and style.

With the growth of ride-hailing apps, the transport industry has undergone a phenomenal change.

The ease of booking a cab through one’s smartphone, without having to step out in the hot sun, is leading more users to become dependent on these apps and services.

But, there are loopholes in the app-based ride-hailing service that hamper customer trust.

Among many, the most frustrating issue that your passengers face is “your drivers canceling their ride,” that too after booking confirmation.

In this blog, we will understand why drivers cancel their rides and how to reduce driver cancellations. But before that, let’s see a couple of stats and a real-world scenario that translates what impact “driver ride cancellation” has on customers.

Driver ride cancellation and its impact on customers: Statistics

According to a survey by LocalCircles, 79% of taxi app users cited driver cancellations as their primary concern.

One more study by ScienceDirect suggested that rides canceled by the driver/platform are perceived very negatively by travelers. It also suggested that a canceled service, after having made a booking, results in significant disutility for the passenger and a strong motivation to shift to a different provider.

Real-life examples: How one canceled ride ruins everything

Now, imagine your customer is running late for a job interview or urgently has to reach somewhere. And in such a crucial time, all that is needed is a ride desperately.

The customer books a ride, it shows the driver is 5 minutes away, hence, decides to wait and track the driver's location.

Now, 5 minutes have passed. The customer again tracks the driver. The driver who was approaching him before suddenly seemed to have stopped moving.

The customer finds out that the driver has canceled the ride at the last minute. This makes the customer seriously annoyed and disheartened.

Now, to be honest, if this had happened to you, would you have continued seeking the service from the same ride-hailing company? That’s a hard “No”.

Not just you, no one is going to opt for the same service that is leaving its customers hanging when it counts the most.

And this is just one scenario; we saw the statistics, which clearly suggest that such instances occur many times.

Just imagine such a small issue, but how big the cost would be for ride-hailing businesses whose drivers cancel rides on a daily basis.

From the company’s owner’s perspective, the main objective is to maximize. However, too many driver ride cancellations can lead to heavy losses.

So, what are the possible reasons for a driver to cancel a ride in the first place? Let’s see.

Reasons why drivers cancel passengers’ rides

There might be many reasons behind drivers canceling passengers' rides, some valid and some not so much. Here are a few reasons why we think drivers might be canceling the rides.

i. Distance factor and rush hour

Once a customer books a ride, the driver will always have a glance at their current location. There are chances the driver may cancel the ride if they find either that the location is too far off in some interior part of the city, or the ride falls on a rush hour.

Now, there can be many consequences for a rush hour:

• The driver may want to avoid getting caught in traffic and risk a ride cancellation from the customer’s side while trying to reach him
• The driver may fear a bad rating from the customer end for late arrival

ii. The passenger is unreachable or is not ready

The second situation is that the driver reaches the customer.

The driver calls or texts the customer to get more information, but doesn’t get an answer! Either the customer is too busy attending to some personal issues and forgets to check the phone, or is not yet ready.

The result: the driver waits over the mentioned time of 5 minutes and leaves, without being able to get hold of the customer.

iii. Bad location

This is a major discouragement for the driver.

The PIN code entered by the passenger is not actually where he stays! The passenger is unable to give the driver proper directions to reach the location.

In the process, the driver keeps going around, wasting time and effort.

iv. Some personal issue comes up with the driver

The driver is a human being just like all of us. And a bad situation does not give a notice before hitting hard.

There are situations when the driver can face a personal emergency. It could be either at their home or somewhere else. The emergency could be anything, due to which they may end up canceling the ride.

Now, the driver has done nothing wrong. In such a condition, anyone could have done the same, but the customer does not know that. It is like any other driver cancellation for them, having the same negative impact.

v. Low passenger score

A driver wouldn’t generally give a rating of less than 5 to a passenger, unless and until he has caused some serious problems in the past.

These problems can range from being extremely rude, damaging the vehicle, carrying some illegal stuff in the car, etc.

Once a driver sees a passenger’s personal score is less than 5, there is a chance they may cancel the ride. The driver may also give a heads-up to other fellow drivers as well.

So, all these might be the possible reasons why your drivers might be ending up cancelling passenger rides. In this list, some might be valid, justifiable reasons, while a few might not be. Now, let’s see a few proven ways to reduce driver cancellations.

A few tips to reduce driver cancellations

We saw why drivers cancel rides, now let’s see how it can be prevented. Below are a few best ways to reduce driver cancellations.

i. Educate your drivers

The key point is to educate drivers to use the driver mobile app properly. You may call them periodically and educate them about the driver’s manual and guide them step-by-step ways to handle all types of ride requests.

You can also conduct training sessions to give your drivers the training to let them know what is actually required of them and how they can manage situations with ease, without panicking.

Some crucial advice you can give your drivers are:

• Don’t press ‘Accept’ if you are not sure about how comfortable you would be to make the ride. You can still bid on it, though.
• Limit your operational radius in your driver app as per your needs to avoid ride requests that are far from their location.
• Track other drivers presence in the driver app’s map. Examine ‘high demand’ areas and cover those locations that have limited cab presence.

ii. Apply cancellation fees

You can eliminate your company’s monetary losses due to canceled rides by imposing cancellation fees.

The cancellation fee logic for a taxi booking app is very simple. The system will charge the driver’s account with a fee if:

• The driver cancels rides after accepting them.
• Passenger cancels rides citing there is no taxi in situations where the driver has a prescheduled ride, but he delays for more than 3 minutes after the estimated time of arrival and is farther than 200 meters from pickup location.

Implying a cancellation fee will keep drivers from canceling the rides, as this time, the money is deducted from their pockets.

iii. Monitor cancellations

Driver performance monitoring can help you track the cancellation rate for each driver on a weekly/monthly basis by generating a “driver report”. Such reports can be easily generated by using the driver performance tool.

The report shows different statistics on every driver as well as the number of rides canceled by them. Apart from canceled ride data, the report can show you many other crucial aspects on which each driver can be evaluated.

Below is an example of how Uber monitors driver behavior in the San Francisco market.

For example, drivers are expected to have a cancellation rate of less than 5 percent, or they risk being fired from the system:

Thus, if a certain driver has a very high cancellation rate, you might call him and get first-hand feedback. Make him aware of your concerns and also get details on the high cancellation rates.

Conclusion

Driver cancellations aren’t just annoying; they can damage your brand reputation, frustrate loyal customers, and cut into your revenue.

But the good news? They’re fixable. You can reduce driver cancellations and deliver a more reliable service with proper training, driver performance monitoring, and applying cancellation fees.

This way, you can fix the gaps, support your drivers, and ensure every booking counts for your customers and your business.