What you actually see before accepting a trip

The single biggest complaint drivers have about platform work anywhere is being asked to commit to a job before knowing what it is. You accept, and only then discover it is a forty-minute approach for a five-minute trip.

On Topsy, the offer carries the pickup, the destination and the pay before you accept. You are deciding with the same information the dispatch system used.

Why the approach distance matters

A trip's value is not its fare. It is the fare divided by the total time, including getting to the pickup. A well-paid trip twenty-five minutes away can be worse than a modest one down the road.

Topsy's dispatch scores nearby drivers rather than broadcasting to everyone, so most offers you see are close. But you know your area, the traffic on that road at that hour, and whether the approach is realistic. That judgement is yours, and declining is a legitimate use of the system rather than a mark against you.

The passenger information

You see who you are collecting. If the trip was booked by somebody else for a rider, the name and number on the trip are the rider's, because they are the person you need to find.

Where the trip is a guardian-managed booking for a child, you are told that explicitly, along with the guardian's number, the handover note they wrote and an emergency contact. That is information you need before you arrive, not at the kerb.

Ratings run both ways

You rate riders. You can report a rider. This is not decoration: a pattern in reports is visible to the safety desk, and the record matters when something is disputed.

The trip itself

A PIN starts the trip, which protects you as much as the rider. It establishes that the person who got in is the person the trip belongs to, which is the fact that matters if anything is questioned afterwards.

The route is tracked for the whole journey. Waiting time is recorded. The fare, the commission and your earning are itemised at the end rather than summarised into one number you have to trust.