# Question on TIPS for Lyft drivers



## Oscar Levant (Aug 15, 2014)

I drive for UberX, considering Lyft. Lyft has a big presence in my city. 

I hear that Lyft allows for rider to tip, is this true? 

If so, what kind of tips have you been getting, say, for an 8 hour shift ? 

I'm an old fart, do I really gotta do that fist bump thing?

Do a really hafta wear that pink mustache on my car ( they look like clown cars to me ).


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## Mike Ehrmantraut (Oct 26, 2014)

Not a current Lyft driver, at least not yet. Just waiting to be activated. I've gone on two mentor rides though (required step to becoming a Lyft driver; technically you only need one, but Lyft rendered my first one invalid as part of that whole $1000 promo debacle), so I'll tell you what I know.

1. Yes, Lyft has a built in tipping feature.

2. n/a for me, I haven't done any rides yet.

3. The fist bump isn't really mandatory, from what I can tell. My first mentor (female in her early 20's) didn't do or even mention it at all. My second mentor was a gentleman in his 50's and he did the fist bump both when we met and when we parted ways. I'm probably not gonna do it when I start driving, seems pretty awkward lol.

4. They stopped doing the grill mustache. Lyft has a decal you can put in your windshield just like Uber, here's a link to a temporary printable one so you can see what it looks like: https://s3.amazonaws.com/lyft-assets/help.lyft.com/assets/lyft-emblem.pdf


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## just drive (Oct 29, 2014)

Tip depends on your market. It might offset the commission's if you're lucky.


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## scrurbscrud (Sep 11, 2014)

Oscar Levant said:


> I drive for UberX, considering Lyft. Lyft has a big presence in my city.
> 
> I hear that Lyft allows for rider to tip, is this true?
> 
> ...


HELL NO on the fist bumps.

Yes on tips. I track them by % of tips to fares rather than hourly. My tips as a percentage of gross fares usually runs in the 13-14% range on a weekly basis. From day to day it can vary from 10-20% of gross fares.

Last month tip total was over $600.


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## DC_Uber_Lyft_Driver (Sep 2, 2014)

I only did 3 jobs yesterday but this is fairly typical.


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## Guest (Mar 8, 2015)

On weekly I average 10-15% in tips.


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## Bill Feit (Aug 1, 2014)

Not so lucky with tips here in SD, agree varies by market..maybe 10% of rides tip and total for me is only 2-5% but every bit helps and with Uber I am lucky if 1% tips.


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## Luberon (Nov 24, 2014)

I generally get more tips on minimum fare rides. With prime time (surge) you tend to get less tips.

I average 10-15% tips most weeks


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## UberXTampa (Nov 20, 2014)

That moustashe and the fist bump kept me away from driving Lyft.

But I started driving recently and never once did fist bump and the moustashe did not leave the box it came in with.

Over 50% of my riders tip me in Lyft.

My tips exceed that of Lyft cut. Technically I keep the entire fare. I decided to turn off Uber app when Uber is not surging and only accept Uber surge fares unless I am at a dead end. The only way to get more money from Uber riders is to force surge on them.

Also, I discovered another thing. We try to understand if surge is real or not and I found a very real way to know it. If you suddenly get a lot of Lyft request from a Uber surge zone, the surge is real. In that situation I turn off Lyft and turn on Uber. Many times Uber surge is fake. Uber riders jump to Lyft app when Uber surges. Try to connect the dots. If riders and Uber are trying to outsmart us, we can try to compensate for it.


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## Bill Feit (Aug 1, 2014)

DC_Uber_Lyft_Driver said:


> I only did 3 jobs yesterday but this is fairly typical.
> 
> View attachment 5744


Thanks for sharing this! Great to see from us not in your area!
Funny...the furthest distance pax did NOT tip...sure glad I don't have to invest 23 minutes to go 1.4 miles in San Diego!!! Good thing you did get a tip because .20/minute is not profitable. What are fare rates in DC? Are you also $1.00/mile like us?


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## Mike Ehrmantraut (Oct 26, 2014)

So I'm freshly activated, just drove an hour of Lyft here in Los Angeles. Two min rides ($4 each) and one $9 ride. If I'm not mistaken, I won't be able to see if any of them tipped me until I get Lyft's e-mail summary in the morning?

I was actually getting pinged non-stop for that hour, got a total of five pings. Two of them cancelled on me though, both of whom were 8-9 minutes away.


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## UberXTampa (Nov 20, 2014)

Mike Ehrmantraut said:


> So I'm freshly activated, just drove an hour of Lyft here in Los Angeles. Two min rides ($4 each) and one $9 ride. If I'm not mistaken, I won't be able to see if any of them tipped me until I get Lyft's e-mail summary in the morning?
> 
> I was actually getting pinged non-stop for that hour, got a total of five pings. Two of them cancelled on me though, both of whom were 8-9 minutes away.


You are not mistaken. You can only see the tips when you get your driver daily summary next morning. Keep us posted on how it differs from Uber with respect to tips. Another good thing about Lyft is, the fare automatically start at 3 minute mark if arriving. Many Uber drivers keep you waiting but with Lyft at least if you have to wait if is paid for after 3 minutes.

Those 8-9 minutes Lyft distances are actually 3-4 minutes Uber ones. Lyft distance is correctly estimated and you see it on the map when the request comes to your screen. Uber does not even calculate true ETA, it gives you a very unrealistic but much shorter than actual one trying to force you go ge that fare.


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## UberXTampa (Nov 20, 2014)

Lo


DC_Uber_Lyft_Driver said:


> I only did 3 jobs yesterday but this is fairly typical.
> 
> View attachment 5744


ok at the positive here: Lyft cut is 7.61 and tips are 7.00. You are almost able to keep the entire fare thanks you some tips supplementing the Lyft income. With Uber, that 7 bucks would not have been possible.


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## Bill Feit (Aug 1, 2014)

I estimate that 50% of every ping I accept gets cancelled with Lyft..with Uber it is about 10%. I believe part of the problem is the large green bar REQUEST LYFT Being at the bottom of the app....as you are going to hit your quit screen button (on an iphone anyway) it is easy to touch the screen and request a ride..I have done it three time in the last month while driving when I was trying to switch apps. Some say part of it is also the quality of the client...not sure about that although they do tend to be younger. The one thing I hate about Lyft is they do make me accept pings as far as 25 minutes away when no other drivers are present..this is not true with Uber..the no uber available comes up to the customer. Fix these few things and I am a 100% Lyft driver.


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## UberXTampa (Nov 20, 2014)

Bill Feit said:


> I estimate that 50% of every ping I accept gets cancelled with Lyft..with Uber it is about 10%. I believe part of the problem is the large green bar REQUEST LYFT Being at the bottom of the app....as you are going to hit your quit screen button (on an iphone anyway) it is easy to touch the screen and request a ride..I have done it three time in the last month while driving when I was trying to switch apps. Some say part of it is also the quality of the client...not sure about that although they do tend to be younger. The one thing I hate about Lyft is they do make me accept pings as far as 25 minutes away when no other drivers are present..this is not true with Uber..the no uber available comes up to the customer. Fix these few things and I am a 100% Lyft driver.


I agree that Lyft software development team gave to do a better product. If you are an underdog to Uber, you must do much better than this software. They need a serious redesign. Map and navigation should integrate into one app as in Uber. When in background, we should be able to get a sound alert.


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