Last night I did a pretty idiotic but all too common thing. I was in a rush to meet my friend (but I hadn’t concentrated properly and ended up going to a completely different opening night to her, that’s how bad it was), and I jumped out of the Uber leaving my house and car keys on the passenger seat. I sat happily through the long show and then reached into my pockets afterwards and discovered that my keys were not on me. Uber makes it easy to contact the driver, call him and arrange the hook up to get your lost property back, and, after getting home and having Big Friendly on hand to open up, I waited for Colin to come to my front door with my keys. And, of course, he absolutely did.
This way of operating is what sets Uber apart. It is what I have grown to love about Uber, and most of its drivers. There is kindness there, and care, and honesty and proper service. I feel safe using an Uber. I feel special. It is why I would always use an Uber instead of metered taxis. My friends and I have lost phones and wallets and jackets and handbags in metered taxis, and I don’t remember anyone ever getting anything back. Most of the Uber drivers I have met seem to have my best interests at heart. They are kind.
Kindness seems to be less and less available these days, so when it is, the benefits are striking. Stories of kindness reach hero status, because they are rarer and rarer. A helping hand during a catastrophe, an instinct to reach out and offer support, or just an opportunity to do a moment of goodness and help someone in a fix should be the order of the day. It should be what we do, as a matter of course. And it is a way of doing things that we can learn from Uber drivers.
