The first time I ever heard about Uber car service, it was through friends living in bigger cities than Charleston- DC, Boston, NYC, etc. My friends who were all scattered up and down the East Coast this summer relayed rave reviews about this up and coming alternative to cabs- and they were all thrilled to return to Chuck this past August and discover that Uber was now in full swing in our city.

Uber, based in San Francisco, is based off the premise of using smartphone connections to find drivers for people in their specific areas- it's cheaper, easier to pay with, and faster than most taxi services, especially in Charleston.

It took me a long time to actually ever use Uber, even though I had a free promo code through CofC Panhellenic and I kept hearing about how great it was. I finally caved a couple weekends ago when I google mapped the location of the party I was going to and realized it was a 25 minute walk from my current location. I just couldn't justify the walk with my wedges, so I turned to the app I'd had sitting in my phone for weeks, and hit "set pickup location".

I kid you not when I say that the driver was at the apartment within 2 minutes. I literally got a frustrated call from him within that time frame asking why I wasn't outside waiting. The call was a little much, but he was there within two minutes. I threw back my drink and ran across the street with my friend to hop into a stranger's registered Lincoln. We were at the party within 5 minutes, the tip was included with the charge that went directly to paypal, and the driver, while a tad eccentric, ended up being a very nice man.

I've used Uber a few more times in the past couple weeks following, and every story is a bit different than the last. Overall, I'd advise CofC'ers to use it with your discretion. Keep in mind especially, that on hot traffic nights like Fridays and Saturdays, especially after 10PM, the rates will skyrocket. Sometimes to even 7x the normal fare. They will notify you of this before you hit send, so it's important to be cautious because if you wake up the next day with a e-receipt for a $50 5-minute cab ride, well, that's on you because they warned ya!

Also, keep in mind that while you're able to rate each Uber experience with a 5-star system, they are also rating you. AKA, if you jump in the car, crying, with puking friends in tow screaming about their boyfriend's latest betrayal, you, my friend, are getting a bad rating. Enough of those, and the Uber drivers in your area will NOT be picking you up. Simple as that.

So stay strong, and keep Uber-ing on!