# NEW POWER DRIVER BONUS?



## kk86 (Sep 24, 2017)

i just got a message from lyft saying that they have updated their power driver bonus

now they changed to 35 peak / 65 rides total with 90%??


been doin barely 30-35 rides a week and exactly 15 peak after work & on saturdays and got that extra $50 almost every week.

did everyones PDB has changed to this sshhiitt?

is 35 peak even possible for full timers in OC/LA?


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## jgiun1 (Oct 16, 2017)

We have 4 tiers now in Pittsburgh...
*10 peaks /10 regular - 20 total rides for $45
*20 peaks / 15 regular - 35 total rides for $65
*30 peaks / 40 regular - 70 total for $155
*30 peaks /50 regular- 80 total rides for $215

It's almost impossible unless you drive seven days a week here....peak are only 7-9 am during rush and your lucky if you get two with traffic.....Fridays are 5-10pm with a break from twelve to midnight then 12-3 am...Saturdays are 6pm-3am, but the dagger is if your close to the peaks you have to drive early Sunday after the all nighter because they are 9-12 noon Sunday.

I think they are using the full time PDB money here and giving it to the part timers for added money so there can be PDB for part timers.
Screw the drunks...I'll take the easy 65 bucks


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## Mista T (Aug 16, 2017)

Everyone's has changed.


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## JimKE (Oct 28, 2016)

PDB is usually for suckers. To be honest, I think PDB is mostly a_ self-stimulating exercise_ designed to have something to report at the weekly meeting. I don't think it has anything to do with drivers.

I was online for 3 hours, 20 minutes the other day with zero pings. Zero. Nothing. Nada.

Until Lyft fixes *that* in my market, nothing else matters.


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## jgiun1 (Oct 16, 2017)

JimKE said:


> PDB is usually for suckers. To be honest, I think PDB is mostly a_ self-stimulating exercise_ designed to have something to report at the weekly meeting. I don't think it has anything to do with drivers.
> 
> I was online for 3 hours, 20 minutes the other day with zero pings. Zero. Nothing. Nada.
> 
> Until Lyft fixes *that* in my market, nothing else matters.


Basically the power zones killed the PDB...I was racking the 20% for months and months but now Fridays have the zones and take all the peak rides with saturated drivers.
I used to make a lot more with PDB the way it was, now your forced to drive more and make less with saturated zones. Trust me I had it down to 40 hours to get about $200 a week PDB, now impossible!!!!!



jgiun1 said:


> Basically the power zones killed the PDB...I was racking the 20% for months and months but now Fridays have the zones and take all the peak rides with saturated drivers.
> I used to make a lot more with PDB the way it was, now your forced to drive more and make less with saturated zones. Trust me I had it down to 40 hours to get about $200 a week PDB, now impossible!!!!!





jgiun1 said:


> Basically the power zones killed the PDB...I was racking the 20% for months and months but now Fridays have the zones and take all the peak rides with saturated drivers.
> I used to make a lot more with PDB the way it was, now your forced to drive more and make less with saturated zones. Trust me I had it down to 40 hours to get about $200 a week PDB, now impossible!!!!!


As you can see with acceptance rate...I don't go after PDB....they ruined it and took away motivation for me in my market.

Uber sucks here also and too many rides at minimum....I'm a cherry picker now for both.....they can both kiss my A$$!!!!


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## hulksmash (Apr 26, 2016)

jgiun1 said:


> Basically the power zones killed the PDB...I was racking the 20% for months and months but now Fridays have the zones and take all the peak rides with saturated drivers.
> I used to make a lot more with PDB the way it was, now your forced to drive more and make less with saturated zones. Trust me I had it down to 40 hours to get about $200 a week PDB, now impossible!!!!!
> 
> As you can see with acceptance rate...I don't go after PDB....they ruined it and took away motivation for me in my market.
> ...


You are a fool if you think PDB was better than the power zones. I will take boosted rides that are 100%+ any day of the week, over some measly bonus that I have to work long hours for and maintain 90% acceptance for. With the power zones I don't have to maintain the AR, and I get bonus money upfront with each ride instead of hoping for shorties just to meet some quota. So yeah I don't mind if the PDB bonus is lower if they are diverting that money into power zones

Are they designed to kill PT? Sure. But if I can get a 150% to 200% ride during a dead time when there would be no surge, like an hour before end of a game, I will take it. In these high zones, you have good potential to get a long ride if the pax is paying base. I will say that it does suck for Uber only drivers or if you don't have the power zone. It worked for me at USC where I got a 200% power zone ride to OC while Uber didn't go above 2x something. On the other hand it worked against me at Glen Helen where IE drivers with 150% zone that I didn't have kept Uber surge from going high.


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## jgiun1 (Oct 16, 2017)

If you mean I'm a fool for having 800 in earnings from driving 40 hours in a week and actually taking home 865 with tips and PDB bonus and getting back all lyft fees....then yes, this fool preferences were that.
Have fun with the thirty cars in your zone

These are the last two weeks before lyft changed the bonus in August I posted...NOT included are cash tips which I get a lot.


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## UberDez (Mar 28, 2017)

PDB is crap every few weeks the requirements go up . There's a $290 one here but it's 105 rides and 45 peak rides but there really isn't enough peak hours to do 45 rides unless you drive every single one 

I love the PZ especially since they let it count towards premier and lux rides . I've gotten some really nice $100+ rides because of PZ


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## Mista T (Aug 16, 2017)

hulksmash said:


> You are a fool if you think PDB was better than the power zones. I will take boosted rides that are 100%+ any day of the week,


With respect, PZ are radically different in each city. In my city the normal PZ is 20%. On rare occasions it will be 30 or 40% in a segment of the city, for one hour at most. PDB was (key word, WAS) a blessing, when it was achievable.


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## hulksmash (Apr 26, 2016)

jgiun1 said:


> If you mean I'm a fool for having 800 in earnings from driving 40 hours in a week and actually taking home 865 with tips and PDB bonus and getting back all lyft fees....then yes, this fool preferences were that.
> Have fun with the thirty cars in your zone
> 
> These are the last two weeks before lyft changed the bonus in August I posted...NOT included are cash tips which I get a lot.





jgiun1 said:


> If you mean I'm a fool for having 800 in earnings from driving 40 hours in a week and actually taking home 865 with tips and PDB bonus and getting back all lyft fees....then yes, this fool preferences were that.
> Have fun with the thirty cars in your zone
> 
> These are the last two weeks before lyft changed the bonus in August I posted...NOT included are cash tips which I get a lot.


You realize you can make as much or more $ and working fewer hours by being selective with your rides. Your hourly pay is only $20 before expenses, and is probably lower when you include hours working when you're not logged in. Between Uber and Lyft I make as much or close to it in about half the time by driving surge/prime time/power zones. I also don't have to accept long distance pings with no PT just to keep up my rate.

As far as the PDB, what you got only amounts to about $2 per rice in the first week. That's what the higher end. You can surpass $2 extra per foce


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## jgiun1 (Oct 16, 2017)

Yea but every market is different....the areas that are zoned here are flooded with drivers and sometimes you get 1 and twenty five minutes of downtime waiting for second one.


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## Matty760 (Nov 9, 2015)

PDB is going away... ive posted about for almost a year now. They stopped doing PDB in my area in palm Springs and only certain areas in the nation have it still. They have been slowly raising the requirements for PDB so that when they do get rid of it that most people won't care anymore because they were unattainable to reach anymore. I used to do PDB when it was based off how many hours you drove and not off how many rides you gave. I used to make a killing at that. I would be online during the week during times that were never busy and rack up all those hours, and then come weekend time i would just get my peak hours time as i drove and knew i was getting all the money on each ride. during coachella and stagecoach in 2015 i cleared over $1k on just 20 rides


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## jgiun1 (Oct 16, 2017)

hulksmash said:


> You realize you can make as much or more $ and working fewer hours by being selective with your rides. Your hourly pay is only $20 before expenses, and is probably lower when you include hours working when you're not logged in. Between Uber and Lyft I make as much or close to it in about half the time by driving surge/prime time/power zones. I also don't have to accept long distance pings with no PT just to keep up my rate.
> 
> As far as the PDB, what you got only amounts to about $2 per rice in the first week. That's what the higher end. You can surpass $2 extra per foce


that's exactly what I posted above....I'm being selective now but the zones don't pay off like they do in your area here in my market.

I know this much, I maintain a five star for lyft and 4.9 for Uber and done almost 4K trips and kinda figured this stuff out.

I used to know when to drive and where to drive at select times and tried to earn the most in very limited time. Now it's all smoke and mirrors and changes every other month. It's deflating to me now, and actually starting to hate both platforms. When you drive uber in my market, you can for sure expect sometimes a streak of 20 minimum of 30 rides.....just harder here in general to game plan who and when to drive now.

I would like to see examples of your weekly random earnings with the power zones


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## Ubernomics (Nov 11, 2015)

jgiun1 said:


> We have 4 tiers now in Pittsburgh...
> *10 peaks /10 regular - 20 total rides for $45
> *20 peaks / 15 regular - 35 total rides for $65
> *30 peaks / 40 regular - 70 total for $155
> ...


I wouldn't even try for it It basically just benefits them and the riders, driver burns car down and fuel trying to keep 90% acceptance. Acceptance rates are sucking for them both because rates suck. Drivers want to drive when it makes the most sense for their bottom line. 15 minutes to get someone, 5 minutes in waiting another 5 min to destination for $3. Ill wait for 6 minutes pickup then $3 is ok. Run both apps and do what's best for your contracting. The new rates they have coming out with "pay for excessive pickups" will solve some acceptance issues both are having. We just want to make money for our time and vehicle disposal so they have to understand it comes down to business logic.


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## MsKK (Aug 28, 2017)

jgiun1 said:


> Basically the power zones killed the PDB...I was racking the 20% for months and months but now Fridays have the zones and take all the peak rides with saturated drivers.
> I used to make a lot more with PDB the way it was, now your forced to drive more and make less with saturated zones. Trust me I had it down to 40 hours to get about $200 a week PDB, now impossible!!!!!
> 
> As you can see with acceptance rate...I don't go after PDB....they ruined it and took away motivation for me in my market.
> ...


Lol!



jgiun1 said:


> If you mean I'm a fool for having 800 in earnings from driving 40 hours in a week and actually taking home 865 with tips and PDB bonus and getting back all lyft fees....then yes, this fool preferences were that.
> Have fun with the thirty cars in your zone
> 
> These are the last two weeks before lyft changed the bonus in August I posted...NOT included are cash tips which I get a lot.


What city are you in, that has you happy with bringing home $800 a week?


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## jgiun1 (Oct 16, 2017)

MsKK said:


> Lol!
> 
> What city are you in, that has you happy with bringing home $800 a week?


It was not the 800 a week I was happy with, it was more valuable to have the time with my family and earn as much I as I could in limited hours.
Listen, my wife works also and I live in Pittsburgh and most of you on expensive west coast. In your market it might Suck, but here I live quite comfortable......sad thing is, you probably pay triple or more on the house prices there and your pay per mile and time is not much different from what I read.

Considering the average rider pays 16.00 in a SF uber ride before fees (about $4.80 makes it now $11.20) I was TAKING HOME almost 12-14 a ride here on an East Coast small city for Lyft with PDB.
We pay 2.70 a gallon of gas and my car does 30+......love to see the expenses there dude!!!

800 a week goes a lot further here and I'm happy with that for the amount of hours I work to get it.....screw that 60-70-80 hours behind the wheel.

Your trying to compare apples to oranges


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## JimKE (Oct 28, 2016)

Our PZs are typically a whopping 10%, and they are the hood. Lyft expects drivers to drive all the way across town, to work the worst area, for 10%. Great incentive!


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## MsKK (Aug 28, 2017)

jgiun1 said:


> It was not the 800 a week I was happy with, it was more valuable to have the time with my family and earn as much I as I could in limited hours.
> Listen, my wife works also and I live in Pittsburgh and most of you on expensive west coast. In your market it might Suck, but here I live quite comfortable......sad thing is, you probably pay triple or more on the house prices there and your pay per mile and time is not much different from what I read.
> 
> Considering the average rider pays 16.00 in a SF uber ride before fees (about $4.80 makes it now $11.20) I was TAKING HOME almost 12-14 a ride here on an East Coast small city for Lyft with PDB.
> ...


No, not trying to compare oranges to apples and by the way, the Lol! Wasn't intended for your post. I've been in this game since 2014 and I definitely don't drive 50-60+ hours a week as a lot of drivers do in SF. You're correct the low fares charged by Uber and Lyft and cost of living is ridiculous here in California.


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## hulksmash (Apr 26, 2016)

jgiun1 said:


> that's exactly what I posted above....I'm being selective now but the zones don't pay off like they do in your area here in my market.
> 
> I know this much, I maintain a five star for lyft and 4.9 for Uber and done almost 4K trips and kinda figured this stuff out.
> 
> ...


This is the week after Halloween when everything slowed down, and is my combined income. The bonuses from Lyft are power zone bonuses. Some of the hours between both apps overlap since I was online for both a lot of time, so probably about 20-22 hours or so of actually working. I only do this as a part time, not sitting 50-60 hrs behind the wheel


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## Gerardoac1 (May 25, 2016)

Mine changed, which means I wont care anymore about my acceptance rate . I also wont go to an apartment complex to wait in line 15 minutes for a lyft line.


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## Brobaly (Oct 31, 2016)

It ultimately comes down to Lyft finding ways to keep drivers on the road longer each week. I barely made the top tier 115/45/90% driving for 50-60 hours in a week, now I have to do 130/55/90%. There is no way I can do that. The luckiest I've been during the 7-9am peak hours was 8 rides. I normally get 4-5 total during those 2 hours.

The Power Zones suck in Sacramento as well, unless an event is taking place, but the small areas are oversaturated with Lyft drivers. And they're reasoning behond these changes is that they want to maximize our take home earnings.


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## pedroia1515 (Jun 25, 2017)

I consistently hit the 295 bonus every week for the past 5 weeks. Had to drive 5 days. Worked about 50 hours. Hate these new bonuses it's so dumb


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## UberDez (Mar 28, 2017)

pedroia1515 said:


> I consistently hit the 295 bonus every week for the past 5 weeks. Had to drive 5 days. Worked about 50 hours. Hate these new bonuses it's so dumb


Is it 105 rides for you?


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## pedroia1515 (Jun 25, 2017)

115 rides. I live in NJ.


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## Mista T (Aug 16, 2017)

Clearly Lyft wants to phase out the PDB. What they should do is just get rid of it, but instead they make it almost impossible to achieve anything but the lowest payouts. All they are doing is driving another wedge between them and their drivers.


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## ChiDriver007 (Oct 24, 2017)

Where I live/work + the pax they serve me, gives a rate of 1.20 rides/h. (That rate is combined between U/L btw. Lyft sends me much longer pings, longer getting to the pax that is.)

So to achieve the min tier - 75 rides (40 of them Peak Hours). I have to work 62.5 h...
I have never done even 1/3 of that amount of time ridisharing. 
I am pretty new to this gig, but I take PDB to mean" "Do not even bother with PDB, boy"

So to sum it up, my theories are 2:
1. They do not care about PDB. So it sucks and you should not try it.
2. They might prepare the PDB to be an incentive to get drivers to do the new experiment - aka the shuttle ==> https://uberpeople.net/threads/the-real-bus-line-is-here.216644/

PS
Ohh yee, and I achieve that 75 rides mark I only get $90/75 = $1.2/ride extra... which in my area is like the ride being 1 mi longer than the average... make it 1.5-1.6 mi longer after expenses.
PSS
Not even talking about the "Prime Ride Hours" and acceptance rate requirements.


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