1:59 a.m. — New Year’s Day

After a long drive from Cricket’s on Roanoke Avenue to Emporia and back there will be no more demand for rides.

An evening he thought would be brisk has turned into an evening where John Pardue, one of three Uber drivers in Roanoke Rapids, will not break even.

“I was expecting a little more going on,” he said, “But what we’ve had tonight was not bad at all. It was really laid back. Nobody’s really out of hand. Everybody was pretty easy going.”

Asked if he ever thought in terms that he might have spared someone from a DWI or worse, he says, “I’d like to think that I’ve helped prevent something like that. Of course you never know if you prevented it. You will never actually know it. I would like to think that I’ve helped prevent something from happening.”

(Pardue can be reached for rides at 252-308-4818 and his schedule is Sundays by prior appointment; Mondays are 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Tuesdays are unavailable; Wednesdays are from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Thursdays are from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.; and on Fridays and Saturdays availability will alternate. Text to confirm)

New Year’s Eve, 2023

Pardue, who is known in Roanoke Rapids as That Uber Guy or Uber John, started as an Uber driver about the beginning of July.

“I had a vehicle that the engine was about to blow up. It was on its last leg. I had to go make a quick decision so I obtained a new vehicle and I had a car payment I didn’t have before. I’m doing that to kind of offset that extra expenditure,” he said.

Pardue, who works in human resources at Halifax Linen, says there is a need for Uber in Roanoke Rapids. “It’s not a huge need at this point but there is a need. There are people who need rides to doctor’s appointments — people that just don’t have any means of transportation to get to a grocery store. There’s that type of need. From what I’ve seen it’s kind of low because a lot of people do have a friend or relative that they can get in contact with.”

But in the evenings, when people want to go out and have a good time and adult beverages are involved, “Sometimes it gets harder for people to find a reliable ride. That's when I’m available. That’s more the need I get to see.”

He estimates since July he has probably given around 100 rides. “It’s hard to say exactly. It may actually be a little more than that because some of them are literally 10 blocks in one direction. My most memorable was all the way to Dulles Airport.”

***

The Dulles trip was a couple of months ago and the call came around 11:30 at night. “Honestly, I was about to turn the app off and the call came through.”

It was the only call he had had that night. 

When you initially start off, Uber doesn’t tell you how far you’re going, he said, or what the ride’s going to pay. “It just wants you to get in and drive. The only time I could tell how far I was going was when the woman was in the van and I said I’m ready to drive and it said you’re going all the way up there.”

While he was already tired he felt bad for the people who were driving a Tesla and the battery stopped charging. “They’re coming from Florida. They’re heading all the way up to D.C. so she could fly out.”

The woman ended up leaving her husband with the car at the hotel. “I was so tired I had to stop four times just to stay awake so I could make it there safely with her. I dropped her off at 3:15 in the morning at the hotel. I had to pull over into a hotel parking lot and sleep for three-and-a-half hours, get up and drive back home because that was the day of the Bourbon Festival at Weldon Mills Theatre.”

Said Pardue: “I ran from 7 a.m. till 2:30 to 3 o’clock the next morning off of three-and-a-half hours of sleep.”

The woman, he said, was appreciative and also concerned about how tired he was. “She was very appreciative because I was the only one to drive her from here to there.”

***

He sees the Uber business as something he will continue to do. 

“I’m tired of seeing people getting hurt for absolutely no reason — people injured or unfortunately killed in accidents involving alcohol or anything else,” he said. “If you’re at that point and you need somebody to give you a ride it’s much cheaper for me to give you a ride home for thirty, forty, fifty bucks versus the cost of a DUI or you having to live with the fact that you have injured or even killed someone else that lives in the same town as you.”

***

This evening he has commitments for rides and has rented a van. He was exclusively available for the chamber’s event at Kirkwood Adams from 11 p.m. to midnight.

Tony Floyd of Cricket’s agreed to pay the fare to Pardue for anyone who needed a ride within the city limits after midnight.

***

Pardue anticipated 11:45 p.m. to 2 a.m. to be non-stop.

As he would discover, the night didn’t turn out as he expected.

***

He has traveled throughout Halifax County, has traveled to Louisburg and Greenville and has made several trips to RDU, picking up or dropping off. “In fact I have a trip arranged for Wednesday night. “There’s someone coming in from overseas to be a teacher in Halifax County. This will be my fourth trip — picking people up.”

***

Pardue is a Roanoke Rapids native and a graduate of its high school. He earned two associate degrees from Halifax Community College and has worked at Halifax Linen for seven-and-a-half years.

He started there running a small washroom and worked his way up to the human resources office.

***

Included in the gallery are scenes from the chamber's New Year's Eve Celebration:

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The first trip of the evening is one to Interstate 95 for people who were stranded in Northampton County between exits 173 and 176.

He gets a few of these kinds of calls while on duty. “I’ve had a few who were stuck up in Virginia. I had one family that I had to meet at the welcome center coming south. There was a whole family and something happened to the exhaust and the exhaust was actually coming inside the vehicle. The whole family was coughing and whatnot. I ended up taking them to the hospital and the father drove the vehicle to the hospital even with all that exhaust.”

Some calls are from people in need like the one he is going to. “It’s 9 o’clock at night, it’s on a Sunday. There’s nothing open for assistance with vehicles and all that sort of stuff unless it’s AAA or a service that’s going to charge a decent amount.”

He said he has had to take people all the way to Richmond to the airport to get a rental vehicle. “There’s a good amount of service and help in what we do.”

A Northampton County Sheriff’s Office deputy is assisting the family and one of the family members said, “We just opened the Uber app.”

He said the car developed what he believes was a battery problem as the family was traveling from Tampa to Maryland. “It’s really great to have it because otherwise we would be stranded on the roadside.”

The family is going to the Red Roof Inn in Roanoke Rapids but because the Uber GPS is sometimes iffy, this trip will be for free to them. “That was a New Year’s present for them,” Pardue says after dropping them off.

***

Of the three Uber drivers in Roanoke Rapids, Pardue is known for marketing his services. “It’s working pretty well,” he said. “Cricket’s, the bowling alley, Eighth Street, places like that, even Hux’s, they have my business cards.”

He also uses a Facebook page to advertise his services and to let people know he is available.

“Some people say they heard about it but didn’t think it’s real,” he said. “They see the light on and I’m driving through and they’re like what did that say or I’ll hear them say we got Uber? I can hear them through the glass screaming. It’s kind of comical. I’ll be in a store and I’ll be wearing my shirt. The person behind the cash register looked at me and said, ‘We’ve got Uber here?’ We do. Here’s the app running right now.”

The reactions he said are most likely because Roanoke Rapids has never had Uber before or because it’s something that hasn’t been public knowledge.

At first he sat at home waiting for the app to go off. Then he started riding. “Then I started doing the advertising. That’s when people started finding out Uber was here. I thought I was the only one. Then I found out there’s a gentleman that drives mainly in the mornings.”

He found out about the other one because she applied for a job at Halifax Linen.

***

The next stop is at the Weldon Mills Theatre where Spencer Hargrove needs a ride from there to Cricket’s.

Pardue rolls up to the theater around 10:09 p.m.

As he waits for Hargrove, Pardue explains that he is set up for several other apps including Spark, which is for deliveries from Walmart, Uber Eats, Lyft and he has the capability of doing DoorDash but hasn’t done that yet.

***

Hargrove has exited the theater and gets in the van Pardue has rented for the evening.

“It’s very helpful,” he said, “That’s for sure. It’s a lot safer as well. Having an Uber guy here definitely makes it a lot easier and safer for people who are out having a good time. Honestly, it should have been done a lot earlier. I’m very appreciative that he’s doing this and it’s making the community a lot safer as well.”

This was the first time Hargrove had requested Pardue’s services and did so through his Facebook page. “Now that I have a way to get in contact with him, if he's OK with it, I’ll use him in the future. I’ve never really been in an Uber around here because I’ve never really seen any Uber drivers around here working in this area.”

***

At Cricket’s, Floyd explains, “Anybody that needs a ride that’s intoxicated we’re going to get them home as long as they are in Roanoke Rapids. I can’t carry them to Emporia or Littleton or anywhere like that. I talked to John a couple of weeks ago and he was good with it and it’s good with us and we think it’s a good thing.”

Floyd told Pardue that, “If the Uber doesn’t work out, come get with me and we’ll put you in a Cricket’s van and do it every week.”

***

Kirkwood Adams is where Pardue will watch 2024 come in.

Ginny Lewis, president of the Roanoke Valley Chamber of Commerce, who also acknowledged Pardue during the New Year’s celebration, said, “We were really excited when John agreed to come and offer his services so that we could actually have a really good event and make sure everybody got home safely because that is the most important thing.”

Lewis said the service Pardue provides is much needed. “We’ve been lacking this service for too long. We get calls all the time about who can take me where. We don’t have a taxi service so, yes, it adds exceptional value to our area.”

12:14 a.m. — New Year’s Day

While rides weren’t needed at Kirkwood Adams, Pardue is now headed back to Cricket’s, where Floyd called telling there was someone “severely in need of a ride.”

At Cricket’s, Pardue will take a couple home to Gaston.

“We think he’s a good guy,” the man said of Pardue.

“It’s extremely awesome to have a drive home,” the woman said.

The man said he liked the Cricket’s celebration. “We’ve done spent a hundred dollars on drinks.”

12:32 a.m. — New Year’s Day

It’s back to Cricket’s to pick up a couple of women who need a ride.

“I think the Uber service is a good thing,” one of them says. “It’s great.”

12:59 a.m. — New Year’s Day

It has been a slow night, Pardue says as he heads back to Cricket’s for the Emporia trip. “For a regular night, this is hopping. For a New Year’s this just seems to be really, really slow.

1:06 a.m. — New Year’s Day

“I absolutely love it,” Michael Wells says as he and his girlfriend are making their way back to Emporia. “It’s a whole lot safer than driving.”

Wells works for EMS. “I’ve seen a whole lot of drunk drivers leaving from a bar and think they could get home but they didn’t.”

Wells said he has become used to those scenes and it is the reason he chose Uber. “Thank God for Uber, that’s all I got to say. Even though it’s 20 minutes away — 20 minutes can affect somebody’s life.”

Wells said he contacted Pardue via Facebook. “He told me how much it was.”

He feels like the price was worth it. “A $30 trip to get home versus a $1,200 DUI (and more if found guilty) is saving me at least two or three grand.”