Is the Uber situation improving at the South Philly sports complex? Depends on whom you ask.

Under a cloudy sky outside Citizens Bank Park, Lee Rush stared at his phone, confounded.

It was around 4 p.m. Wednesday, moments after the Phillies swept the Mariners, and the 70-year-old from Perkasie was trying to get an Uber to his daughter’s home in South Philly.

On the app, drivers kept canceling on him. Perhaps, he worried aloud, these were the issues he had read about, and he would be yet another fan unable to get rideshares after games.

But then, he got a taker.

“I’m in the Uber lot, Lot T,” he told his driver over the phone. Moments later, the black Honda pulled up. Rush raised a hand, triumphant, and got in the car.

Rush’s experience was commonplace Wednesday afternoon as fans trickled and then poured out of the ballpark after Philly’s well-attended 11-2 blowout of Seattle. As they waited for rides, some passengers had complaints, including driver cancellations, high fares, and difficulties finding the designated pickup lot. But most of the few dozen fans with whom The Inquirer spoke reported no major issues securing a ride.

While one day is not representative of weeks of rider experiences, the scene suggested it may be getting easier to hail a ride at the stadium complex.

When The Inquirer first reported on problems at Citizen’s Bank Park’s Lot T, the Uber-sponsored rideshare pickup spot, two months ago, fans reported that it had become nearly “impossible” to get a ride. They shared stories of drivers repeatedly canceling, sometimes dozens of times in a row.

Local drivers, meanwhile, said at the time that the situation represented a microcosm of broader issues, including decreased pay, with one driver saying “Uber is exploiting all parties here.”

» READ MORE: From July: Philly Uber drivers share why it’s become so hard to get a ride home from Citizens Bank Park

In response to The Inquirer’s reporting, Uber announced in late June that it was increasing its surcharge on fares originating from the stadiums from $5 to $10.

Meanwhile, rideshare availability will soon become more vital. On Sunday, steep SEPTA cuts are set to take effect, eliminating express subway trains on game days and cutting all transit service by 20%.

While some drivers disagree, Uber says the situation at the stadiums has improved, thanks to the surcharge bump and other steps taken by the company and the Phillies.

In July, the first full month of Uber’s fare increase, the company saw an increase in completed trips from the stadium complex and a decrease in driver cancellations in the area. In mid-July, it also completed an on-the-ground audit, during which a team from Uber identified traffic-flow issues, which were communicated back to the Phillies.

“We are happy to see the situation at Citizens Bank Park improving after immediate steps taken when the issue was first raised,” Uber spokesperson Freddi Goldstein said in a statement. “It is our goal to ensure everyone who wants a ride is able to easily get one and we will continue to monitor and respond accordingly.”

Last month, the Phillies added a new section to the parking page on its website. In the Uber lot, “drivers must be online and actively accepting trips to enter and remain in the rideshare zone,” the page reads. “No parking or idling is permitted.” It goes on to say that drivers caught breaking these rules could be banned from the lot, which is the only place fans are permitted to hail a ride on event days.

On Wednesday, Abigail Durkin, 20, of Ambler, scheduled a shared Uber with her friend group in advance of the game to ensure they’d get home with ease.

“In my experience, it’s been hard to get Ubers or it’s extremely expensive,” Durkin said. Right on time, their car arrived, albeit in the game’s seventh inning.

As the game drew to a close, a Philly couple and their Seattle relatives said they have consistently had issues locating the lot after games, and wished there was more signage and a quicker way for Uber drivers to get to them.

“We talk about this every time we come here, too,” said Kate Ross, a Seattle native now living in Philly, as her mother, Gail, directed their driver to their location over the phone. “We’re like, ‘This makes no sense.’”

Jessie Ai, 33, of Center City, said Wednesday after the Phillies game was the first time she had experienced drivers repeatedly canceling on her. Oddly, she noted, the ones who canceled appeared on her app to be parked in the lot. Within a few minutes, however, she was connected to a driver a few blocks away, who did arrive to take her home.

But not all have been inconvenienced. A Phillies jersey-clad couple hailing a ride home to Lansdowne said they never had issues: “The lot is convenient here.”

For several drivers, the surcharge bump hasn’t meaningfully changed their income on game days.

After Phillies games, “the $10 surcharge made the short rides, that are from the stadiums to a hotel downtown, they make it OK. The short ride comes for around $19 or $20” on the driver’s end, said a 55-year-old Uber driver from Upper Darby. “The fare for the long rides ... stayed the same.”

One July night after a game, he made $37 on a 40-mile drive to Chester County, which took nearly an hour, according to a screenshot of the trip. And accepting rides to the far-out suburbs is risky, drivers say, because there may not be another potential customer there looking for a ride to the city, which means the driver goes unpaid for their return trip.

Like most drivers with whom The Inquirer has spoken, the Upper Darby driver agreed to share his experiences on the condition his name not be used. Drivers, who work as independent contractors, have said they fear retaliation from Uber, which pairs them with passengers via an algorithm and can deactivate accounts.

The 55-year-old and another driver, a 60-year-old from the Northeast, both shared screenshots of their Uber apps after the Phillies game, showing no “surge” or increase in pricing due to high demand. At times earlier this month, the 60-year-old said he saw no $10 bonus advertised after a Phillies games.

“The surge is enforced on the rider’s side … it’s not applied on the driver’s side,” the 55-year-old said. “They’re treating that $10 as a surge substitution.”

Goldstein, the Uber spokesperson, said the $10 surcharge on game days is constant, but surge pricing may not be in effect if there is not high enough demand.

It’s a shame, drivers said, because recently there have been lots of rideshare drivers on the ground at the stadium complex. The rest of the city has been dead, they say, with so many people on vacation.

In the dog days of summer, they say, events often represent their greatest hope of making money.