Uber Polished

Another weekend flew past and another one is already quickly approaching. Over each of these two day breaks this past month, I have been spending more time outdoors than in (as witnessed by my slowing blog post schedule of late!) and really living up the fall weather. This past weekend, I managed to jam in a football game day, a run, outings on the town, a couples brunch with friends, leisurely drives around town AND some alone time just for me, all in a span of two days. That, I say, is a successful weekend spent :)

Game Day at Georgia Tech! It was chilly in the shade - a gorgeous day!!

During all that weekend craze, I was MORE than excited to learn about a really cool new service that is UBER cool and UBER Buckhead Betty on a Budget. It's call Uber (get it, ha) and it is a black-car limo service that gives you a private driver experience through iPhone, SMS, and web based requests. A super cool technology start-up, Uber connects regular people like me with a network of professional town car and limo drivers that are in between their own professional gigs.

For those of you who use taxis with friends while out on the town, you are going to love this. Forget waiting on hold with Yellow Cab for an hour on a busy Friday night. Uber hooks you up almost instantly, and it's about the same price as a cab fare for a group, once you take into account the per-head charge that most cab companies use. Uber starts with a base fare of $7 in Atlanta, then per-mile or per-minute charges after that, depending on the speed of traffic.

Here's how Uber works: You download the app to your phone, which will prompt you for basic information, including your phone number and credit card.

Tip: if you don't happen to have an iPhone or an Android, you can head to m.uber.com and type in your address. You can also text an address and city to UBR-CAB (827-222).

Then you just move the map around to select a pick-up spot. 

Once you have selected a pick-up spot, Uber dispatches the nearest driver to pick you up, and you'll receive a text with the estimated arrival time. When the car arrives, you'll get another text. When we chose to use Uber on Saturday night to head from Midtown to Buckhead, we only had to wait about ten minutes (the perfect amount of time to close out our bill), and then the limo pulled right up to us.

After the ride, Uber will automatically charge the credit card you have on file. There's no need to hand your driver any payment, and the tip is included. That was clutch for us, since we didn't have cash on hand, which is always a gamble with taxi cabs in Atlanta. Some of them are credit card-friendly, and others are not. Raise your hand if you have had to stop past an ATM while you've been in a taxi before (me!).

Our fare for a group of four from Midtown to Buckhead, business to business, was around $35, tip included. A taxi for the same would have been about the same, but with no predictability on pick-up time and sometimes, no availability at all!

On top of that, Uber looked so cool that we totally fooled a bunch of music artists that were hanging out in front of the restaurant in Buckhead where we were headed. They thought we were "somebody" just like they were with their Bentleys and Range Rovers -- ha! Nope, sorry guys. I am just another Buckhead Betty. But with Uber, you'd never know I was also "on a budget" too :)

Atlanta friends, you can find out more about Uber on their site. Uber is also available in other cities around the country. Let me know if you try it! I can't wait to hear how much you like it, too.

Disclosure: I was in no way compensated for this post. I just discovered Uber and loved it, and wanted to spread the word! Thanks, Drew, for sharing this awesome service with us!