ZM's Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley - Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley's Lil Bitta Pod - 24th August 2026

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

On Today's Lil Bitta Pod... who is cheekier than Fletch...? This uber driver!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the ZDEM Podcast Network, it's Fletchhorn and Haley's Little Bit of Pod. Welcome to A Little Bit of Pod. Guys, at the weekend, I experience a cheeky Uber. Did you? A cheek Uber. Now, apparently, this is something that is starting to happen because this happened to me. And I was talking to a friend and they were like, oh yeah, this is becoming a thing now. I call the Uber and I'm standing, I go outside and the cold.

He doesn't call them. He orders it on a friend. his app. Sorry, I ordered the Uber. Oh, 800 Uber. I get the Uber. I'm waiting outside and it's coming around the block. I'm like, oh, 900 meters away.

What car we got? What we got? Classic Prius. Freezing fucking cold. This was in Christchurch last weekend like 6 or 7 o'clock at night. Very cold. Freezing fucking cold. 900 meters away.

Waiting. I can see the intersection up on the corner. You know the one. The lights go. A couple of cars come around. I'm like, which one's mine? Still 900 metres away. I'm like, oh, okay.

Here we go. Maybe it's just, maybe it just missed the lights. Yeah. A kilometre is longer than you expect sometimes. Yeah, a couple of phases of the traffic line and it's still 900 metres away. I'm like, so I'm just a message. Just around the corner. Vaughn listened to him being like, I send a message.

I've been with him before he was like, you're all good? Like send a message being like, where are you? What's the problem? What's a hold up? I'm like, are you okay? Are you stuck in traffic? Yeah. Nothing.

the lights go again. Nothing. Still up there. Could literally walk around the corner to this fucking Uber, which is obviously parked on the side of the road around the corner. And this is the new thing. They see that you're not going far, and so they wait for you to cancel.

Oh. He ignores me, and I'm the one that has to cancel. I waited five minutes. Yeah. And so apparently this is a... How do they see you're not going far? When they get close, is it telling where you're going? Because no, when they accept the ride,

then they can see where you're going. 800 metres or whatever. I don't know if this is true or not, but my friend said to me, oh, that's because an Uber driver told them that they've changed it now so they don't know where they're going until they accept the ride.

Was that ever a thing? Oh, no, I thought you had to say, that's why I want to go in that direction. I thought they didn't tell them where you were going. Yeah, because then they wouldn't accept. You if you were going for a short one. Or a super long. Or maybe they've changed the prices

or there's not as much money in short rides. And so this is a new tactic for the, and you can't complain about it because there's no complaint button because I tried. Oh, don't, don't either get me started on trying to complain on Uber. You know me, I've been laying complaints left right and centre at the moment. But then I'm torn because I don't want the drivers to be ripped off. God no. If they're not getting as much for sure, rides. But then, I don't know, I'm kind of one of those serendipitous people where, who knows if you take me a K down the road, you might get a fare to the airport there, you know?

This is one I mean. Like, wouldn't you rather just be driving the whole time making money? I don't get it. So when I was in Nelson doing my show, it was pissing down with rain, and boyfriend had a crook foot. So we got an Uber. Shit, that label just kind of floated right in there, didn't it? I mean, this is the worst hard launch ever.

And we got a, it was like 200 metres. And we got into the Uber, and I was like, I'm so sorry. We're laden with my show shit. Crook foot, rain, cold. late and the guy was so nice he was like I don't care all good mate it's shit weather okay so this is when I Google this is the AI overview drivers in New Zealand

will often sit still or ignore short rides instead of canceling because Uber penalises drivers who cancels trips themselves yeah yeah yeah yeah they do yeah so they by forcing you to cancel the driver avoids a drop in their cancellation rates but then like you can't complain and say like what if I was like a female and you know I'm just standing out there

on the side of the road and then this guy I know, you know, fucking around. Yeah, yeah, totally. It's like so shit. If you're an old person or a disabled person who just needs the short ride. Yeah, because the, the distance isn't walkable.

Yeah, wow. It's pretty cheeky. But, yeah, like, if I wasn't with friends, I probably would have just walked up there and been like, hello, oh, I'm here. Yeah, and you get it and get to drive you the two minutes and be like, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I showed you, take my money.