Though rideshare drivers are at work while driving, you’re still letting someone into your personal space. It’s like letting a total stranger into your home for a few minutes. Though the transaction goes off without a hitch the vast majority of the time, there are a few types of passengers that break the sacred covenant of the rideshare space. Here are a few examples of bad passengers and some tactics you can use to deal with them:

There’s nothing wrong with being a smoker (besides the health and social impact of course). There IS something wrong with trying to smoke in a rideshare car. Customers that ask to smoke in your car are clearly misguided and more than a little entitled.

Solution: Politely tell them ‘no’ and maybe throw in that you have an allergy or that it’s your spouse’s car and they have an allergy. If you’re tactful, Joe Camel should be able to hold out until he’s on the sidewalk.

It’s understood that many rideshare passengers - especially late at night - have been drinking. It’s probably why they’re not driving themselves and they should be commended for making the responsible choice to take a rideshare. That commendation gets quickly redacted if they’re going to puke in your car. The mess of a drunken barf can really ruin a driver’s night and cost a lot of time and money to clean up.

Solution: Offer to end the ride and let the passenger chill out in that diner, gas station, or random bus stop until they feel better - or until they hurl into a garbage can like a decent person.

Even with it being so easy to enter a destination into the rideshare apps, a lot of riders still insist on being backseat drivers. That’s all well and good until they get a call from their boo or get distracted by a billboard and forget to keep the directions coming. Next thing you know, the driver is lost, the rider is confused, and everyone is frustrated.

Solution: Politely suggest they use the destination feature on the app or wait while you enter the destination yourself. A few seconds of typing can save a big headache later.

Anyone who would leave garbage in the back of your car is probably intoxicated, an idiot, or both. The left behind junk is work for you to clean up or can become an excuse for your next passengers to dock your driver rating for having a dirty car.

Solution: Maybe provide a trash receptacle in the back seat or gently remind the person that ‘I think you left something behind’ as you point to their gum wrapper, crumpled bar receipt, and empty McNugget box.

Their bags of food might dent your car or spill in the trunk and they’re probably not going very far. Plus, if they got a rotisserie chicken or some other hot smelly food, good luck airing out that smell.

Solution: Work your mental magic to get a tip out of them. A few extra bucks or a few cans of corn can go a long way to smoothing the situation.

That doesn’t refer to people who smell like fish (though they would be bad riders too) but to people who insist on cramming too many people into the car. To save a few bucks, they think they can get 5 or 6 people into a car that can clearly only fit 4. These are often young people looking for an excuse to rub up against each other anyways.

Solution: Politely remind them that your car only has a given number of seat belts and you wouldn’t want to risk anyone’s safety. You can also mention that a second car would be there very soon and everyone could ride more comfortably and safely.