# What I Wish Lyft Would Do



## scrurbscrud

The biggest problems with both platforms currently is "too many drivers." With Uber this doesn't bother me as much. If I want fares, I can go hunt, as pings typically go to the closest driver. Fares go to personal hustle.

But with Lyft's system it doesn't work this way. They circulate the fares among the driver pool. This was actually NICE when the driver pool was thin, but now with literally 200-300% or more drivers it's almost a waste of time to have the app on. My fare numbers with Lyft used to run about equal to Uber's prior, and either platform worked nicely, but Lyft's tip feature made it the easy choice over Uber. Numbers of fares per hour were about equal, which for me usually ran or runs in the 2-2.5 range per hour avg. and has to to make it worth getting off the couch. But with the excess driver pool it's now not even remotely close to that now. Ridiculously low and slow. Almost an annoyance. I've been down to less than 1 fare an hour, which just doesn't work. Waste of time. And this has reduced the number of Lyft fares to all drivers as well. Another annoyance is even though there are plenty of drivers, they'll still long distance ping drivers in the pool, even if there are much closer drivers. Another annoyance of their system.

They should switch their platform over to a 'closest only' arrangement and let all drivers hunt fares on their own. They should also eliminate their other annoying feature which won't match you up with the same pax once you've driven them. This is a problem as well. Particularly if you do a long one way and you know that pax is going back and you decide to work the area and maybe catch them on the return. You won't with Lyft. Even if you're the only driver in the area. 

Their system is starting to SUCK bigtime because of the way it's set up.


----------



## Lyft_94110

You understand why they won't do that, though, right? If they did that, the system would be like the taxi system. All the drivers would go to the hot spots, and none would go to unlikely places. Then passengers in those places would stop using the system. Then Lyft would be limited to a system that only people in hot spots used. And then the competition would _really _be bad.

Yes, I've had a couple of instances of having 1 fare or 2 fares in an hour. That tells me it's time to take a break, because 90 minutes later it will be fine.


----------



## scrurbscrud

Lyft_94110 said:


> You understand why they won't do that, though, right? If they did that, the system would be like the taxi system. All the drivers would go to the hot spots, and none would go to unlikely places. Then passengers in those places would stop using the system. Then Lyft would be limited to a system that only people in hot spots used. And then the competition would _really _be bad.
> 
> Yes, I've had a couple of instances of having 1 fare or 2 fares in an hour. That tells me it's time to take a break, because 90 minutes later it will be fine.


Drivers are generally random. If they hunt in only hot spots and get little to nothing, they tend to spread out. It forces the driver to find business.


----------



## KMANDERSON

scrurbscrud said:


> The biggest problems with both platforms currently is "too many drivers." With Uber this doesn't bother me as much. If I want fares, I can go hunt, as pings typically go to the closest driver. Fares go to personal hustle.
> 
> But with Lyft's system it doesn't work this way. They circulate the fares among the driver pool. This was actually NICE when the driver pool was thin, but now with literally 200-300% or more drivers it's almost a waste of time to have the app on. My fare numbers with Lyft used to run about equal to Uber's prior, and either platform worked nicely, but Lyft's tip feature made it the easy choice over Uber. Numbers of fares per hour were about equal, which for me usually ran or runs in the 2-2.5 range per hour avg. and has to to make it worth getting off the couch. But with the excess driver pool it's now not even remotely close to that now. Ridiculously low and slow. Almost an annoyance. I've been down to less than 1 fare an hour, which just doesn't work. Waste of time. And this has reduced the number of Lyft fares to all drivers as well. Another annoyance is even though there are plenty of drivers, they'll still long distance ping drivers in the pool, even if there are much closer drivers. Another annoyance of their system.
> 
> They should switch their platform over to a 'closest only' arrangement and let all drivers hunt fares on their own. They should also eliminate their other annoying feature which won't match you up with the same pax once you've driven them. This is a problem as well. Particularly if you do a long one way and you know that pax is going back and you decide to work the area and maybe catch them on the return. You won't with Lyft. Even if you're the only driver in the area.
> 
> Their system is starting to SUCK bigtime because of the way it's set up.









This is what bothers me about Lyft far away request


----------



## macchiato

The fact that the request is 36 minutes away or that you have to pickup Batman in a pink dress?


----------



## KMANDERSON

Lol both but I was referring to the 36 minutes


----------



## macchiato

Lyft needs to do either of these to curb that problem. Either reign in the requests at max 10 minutes (for both regular and plus) or tack on a flat fee to get to the passenger.


----------



## Lyft_94110

36 minutes away, yeah, that's pretty bad. But I imagine things are different in a place like Dallas than San Francisco (or even San Diego). My calls in San Francisco are almost never 10 minutes away, and usually 3 or 4.


----------



## KMANDERSON

Lyft_94110 said:


> 36 minutes away, yeah, that's pretty bad. But I imagine things are different in a place like Dallas than San Francisco (or even San Diego). My calls in San Francisco are almost never 10 minutes away, and usually 3 or 4.


Yeah San Francisco is a better lyft market in dallas it all uber.


----------



## macchiato

I've gotten Plus requests in LA 30-40 minutes away. Literally in dtla and get requests in Santa Monica.


----------



## KMANDERSON

Lyft_94110 said:


> 36 minutes away, yeah, that's pretty bad. But I imagine things are different in a place like Dallas than San Francisco (or even San Diego). My calls in San Francisco are almost never 10 minutes away, and usually 3 or 4.


Can you run only lyft


----------



## KMANDERSON

I get a lot of request that are not bad but every once in awhile you get that in dallas


----------



## scrurbscrud

10-15 miles to pickup requests are quite common. PASS. Call pax. Request they cancel. Half of them will cancel when they see the call come in because they are used to it, and not even answer.


----------



## grayspinner

I was not aware that Lyft didn't ping the closest driver.


----------



## Wyatt

Lyft pings the nearest driver just like Uber. How in the hell would it work any other way. You can also end a ride and pick up the same person again.


----------



## iamkitkatbar

When I open up the lyft app on my location it only shows drivers in downtown ventura but when I move it just out of downtown boundaries it shows other drivers down the street from me.


----------



## NightDriver

Ive noticed the fare request have gone down a lot in the last month, maybe its the time of year? I dont know i wasent driving this time last year.

Im lucky to get a fare a hour. @ months ago it was one after another. When I goto PAX mode there are drivers everywhere now. Lyft has had so many ads on radio, craigslist, everywhere hiring drivers. They are at a point where its too saturated. Good for beer money now.


----------



## scrurbscrud

Wyatt said:


> Lyft pings the nearest driver just like Uber. How in the hell would it work any other way. You can also end a ride and pick up the same person again.


Nope and Nope, particularly on the last count. Tested both aspects above many times.


----------



## Wyatt

Must be different in different markets. I'm in San Diego and I've done it twice this week. The rotating driver theory is ridiculous.


----------



## Wyatt

You guys just don't understand


----------



## scrurbscrud

Wyatt said:


> Must be different in different markets. I'm in San Diego and I've done it twice this week. The rotating driver theory is ridiculous.


Nah. It's a fact. It's also why Plus drivers will be directed more Plus fares than std. On busy Lyft nights I'll seldom get std. Lyft requests.

With Lyft business never comes to the aggressor/hunter drivers. It's distributed to the pool. How they make the distribution schemes may vary but they are distributed. I run two phones and can watch it in the pax app. I get std. requests when there are scores of closer to the request drivers. I think both Lyft and Uber platforms may also favor Plus/XL drivers over std for std fare requests as it is a better experience in larger vehicles and thus better for both pax and companies.


----------



## Wyatt

No way they can do that. There is too many requests and too many cars. On busy nights there are more xl requests so you get more. The software isn't perfect, but there is no way they are picking and choosing which drivers get which requests. I know EE's at both companies bro.


----------



## scrurbscrud

Wyatt said:


> No way they can do that. There is too many requests and too many cars. On busy nights there are more xl requests so you get more. The software isn't perfect, but there is no way they are picking and choosing which drivers get which requests. I know EE's at both companies bro.


Drivers who drive for Uber come with the perception that the closest driver gets the request. That isn't true with Lyft and can be easily seen by running two apps, the driver app and the pax app, which will show that the closest driver theory on Lyft isn't true. AND Lyft's platform assuredly will NOT match a Plus driver with the same pax if they've already done a Plus fare with that driver. I've tried this several times with pax, personally. It will not work. The platform will purposefully direct to any other Plus driver before it will repeat to the same driver if that driver has driven them previously, particularly on the same day.


----------



## scrurbscrud

When Lyft was running a slew of freebie fares this was also readily apparent when pax tried to string their free fares into a longer run with one driver. The platform would NOT match that driver up again with the same pax, but would purposefully redirect to any other driver but the one the pax was with. Even with multiple attempts the Lyft platform would redirect to any other driver no matter what the current driver/pax did to try to circumvent that action.


----------



## Wyatt

Dude you're losing your mind


----------



## scrurbscrud

Wyatt said:


> Dude you're losing your mind


Experience says otherwise.


----------



## macchiato

I can also confirm. I get tons more Plus requests during busy nights and only they come in as opposed to regular requests. They are treated as priority requests as I've been told by a Lyft reps. 

As for closest drivers getting pinged? I've been in many situations where I had the pax in the car and still the request goes to another driver. It'll take them 2-3 re-requests to get to me.


----------



## Wyatt

Of course they won't let freebie riders string together free rides from the same driver. Its to protect against drivers driving themselves and collecting free corporate dollars.


----------



## Wyatt

macchiato said:


> I can also confirm. I get tons more Plus requests during busy nights and only they come in as opposed to regular requests. They are treated as priority requests as I've been told by a Lyft reps.
> 
> As for closest drivers getting pinged? I've been in many situations where I had the pax in the car and still the request goes to another driver. It'll take them 2-3 re-requests to get to me.


Its a glitch, they still get you after trying a couple times. There is a lag time.


----------



## macchiato

They weren't freebie rides. One time, I accidentally canceled a ride and the pax needed to request another one. She was a normal pax who requested a ride.


----------



## scrurbscrud

macchiato said:


> I can also confirm. I get tons more Plus requests during busy nights and only they come in as opposed to regular requests. They are treated as priority requests as I've been told by a Lyft reps.
> 
> As for closest drivers getting pinged? I've been in many situations where I had the pax in the car and still the request goes to another driver. It'll take them 2-3 re-requests to get to me.


If there are a slew of drivers in some kind of radius (I don't know what they use, numbers of drivers or miles radius) the Lyft platform will direct to all of them before it will hit the same driver again. It's terribly inconvenient if the pax for some reason decides to start up another trip, thinking they can just use the same driver. It will not work that way i.e. closest driver.


----------



## scrurbscrud

macchiato said:


> They weren't freebie rides. One time, I accidentally canceled a ride and the pax needed to request another one. She was a normal pax who requested a ride.


I've tried it with same pax everywhich way possible. It won't work til they distribute to other drivers first unless you happen to be the only driver available. That's probably the only situation I haven't tried it in.


----------



## Wyatt

It works every time! You just have to wait a minute.


----------



## scrurbscrud

Like I said, it's easily observable by running two apps. It's seldom the closest driver with Lyft.


----------



## macchiato

But I will agree that this can be lag time if the servers are swamped with requests. There are a ton of other variables behind the scene that we really do not know.


----------



## scrurbscrud

macchiato said:


> But I will agree that this can be lag time if the servers are swamped with requests. There are a ton of other variables behind the scene that we really do not know.


It's a discovery process with the driver, as in why in the hell am I getting a request from 5 miles away when there are 3 other drivers closer.


----------



## Wyatt

Ok, maybe you guys are right, but What is the point of setting it up that way? It doesn't make sense. Think about it. Why not ping the closest driver?


----------



## macchiato

It's the socialist approach. They want to be fair to other drivers so they can share the pie.


----------



## Wyatt

There you go. Also, lyft drivers are jumping in to airplane mode to skip requests and still get the bonuses. This activity should die now that the bonus is based on rides completed.


----------



## scrurbscrud

Wyatt said:


> Ok, maybe you guys are right, but What is the point of setting it up that way? It doesn't make sense. Think about it. Why not ping the closest driver?


It's done primarily so all the drivers make a little bit rather than the victory going to the aggressor/hunters. Kind of Lyft's general mantra to spread the love.


----------



## Wyatt

macchiato said:


> It's the socialist apprnoth. They want to be fair to other drivers so they can share the pie.


Dude no way they are doing that. Heh aren't in the biz of rewarding drivers! Lmfao at this theory!


----------



## Wyatt

"Spread the love". Give me a break! Its a highly competitive biz with billions at stake.


----------



## scrurbscrud

Running 2 apps I can also anticipate when my turn at Plus will arrive. When I complete a Plus run I just watch the pax app, and as the other Pluses disappear, my turn is getting closer. Even if another one comes back on and is closer they won't get theirs til I get mine. It works no differently on std.


----------



## scrurbscrud

Wyatt said:


> "Spread the love". Give me a break! Its a highly competitive biz with billions at stake.


The fact that the fares are spread to the driver pool is beyond any doubt my friend.


----------



## macchiato

If they want drivers to hustle and be the face of the company, they should be rewarding drivers. It's better for them to have great drivers than mediocre drivers. Drivers who bust their asses off every week should be rewarded. 

This also ties in to the not showing primetime rates in requests. There really is no reason they should be hiding this info from us. Unless they really don't have the best intention for us.


----------



## scrurbscrud

macchiato said:


> If they want drivers to hustle and be the face of the company, they should be rewarding drivers. It's better for them to have great drivers than mediocre drivers. Drivers who bust their asses off every week should be rewarded.
> 
> This also ties in to the not showing primetime rates in requests. There really is no reason they should be hiding this info from us. Unless they really don't have the best intention for us.


I really liked this arrangement when the driver/pax pool was balanced and there was a lot of business as it eliminated the "hunt" requirement, cut dead miles to a minimum as you didn't have to to be closest as it is with Uber. My overall yield per mile was far higher under this arrangement with Lyft. With Lyft if you were in the area, you just had a drive a block or so and wait for your turn. Unfortunately, now, with the superabundance of drivers you'll sit there for a LONG time before your turn will come around again.

And NOW that is exactly what I don't like about Lyft.


----------



## Wyatt

So instead of the closest car. You get the closest car that hasn't had a ride in the longest time that has been in the area of the closest car? F-ing ridiculous!


----------



## scrurbscrud

With the Lyft arrangement I could easily forecast my estimated daily take, in advance. If fares in the pool were running $18-22 an hour you could count on that to be consistent. Now, the hourly take is so freaking low it doesn't even pay to have the app on. They basically forced me to go back to Uber to up my hourly take, turn the Lyft app off, and when turned on I have no idea where that puts me in the driver pool for upcoming fares. So I invariably end up doing mostly Uber unless Lyft is busy enough to keep my hourly net where it needs to be to just do Lyft.


----------



## scrurbscrud

Wyatt said:


> So instead of the closest car. You get the closest car that hasn't had a ride in the longest time that has been in the area of the closest car? F-ing ridiculous!


Sad but true. You maybe are busy enough there with Lyft where you haven't had the free time to pay attention.


----------



## scrurbscrud

That's also why I know Lyft only drivers when there is driver flooding are idiots, because I know if I'm only nabbing one fare an hour for my "net $4" then so are they all. Screw that nonsense. I'm not playing. I'll go hunt with Uber to up the hourly before I'll sit there to wait my turn for their lousy distribution.


----------



## Wyatt

So they set up the geographic areas according to demand and split the rides between all drivers in those areas? In the long run, wtf is the difference? The end result is still More cars = less fares. And how do you explain me getting a request from a block away less than 3 seconds from dropping off a fare in a busy location with 8 cars all around and waiting. Or me getting an airport request while leaving the terminal when there are 10 cars in the "airport line"


----------



## Wyatt

With the bonus change. Maybe they are doing this now to avoid paying out the new power driver bonus.(now based on rides completed rather than hrs logged) Trying to spread out the rides so the bonus is harder to achieve.


----------



## andaas

So today I've had at least one 3 hour span between ride requests. Could be that ride requests are lower than normal today. I certainly don't feel like I'm in a round robin with other drivers...

I'm not complaining, mainly riding up my hours for PD bonus for this week - so I'm camping on my sofa.


----------



## Amsoil Uber Connect

Did you take into account that those drivers may have been 3* ed ?

Also if what was said earlier, so as a new driver i may get a ton of requests and as time goes by fall off to nothing. Or is it just like that cause of all the onboarding lately. 

Yeah Uber really shot themselves in the foot when they raised the srf. Now I see just as many lyft to Uber drivers in my area.


----------



## scrurbscrud

Wyatt said:


> So they set up the geographic areas according to demand and split the rides between all drivers in those areas? In the long run, wtf is the difference? The end result is still More cars = less fares.


With Lyft, yes. With Uber being more aggressive can increase the take.



> And how do you explain me getting a request from a block away less than 3 seconds from dropping off a fare in a busy location with 8 cars all around and waiting. Or me getting an airport request while leaving the terminal when there are 10 cars in the "airport line"


I'm not as sure with airport situations nor do I think all areas are alike with Lyft's algo's.


----------



## scrurbscrud

Wyatt said:


> With the bonus change. Maybe they are doing this now to avoid paying out the new power driver bonus.(now based on rides completed rather than hrs logged) Trying to spread out the rides so the bonus is harder to achieve.


There is no doubt in my mind that is part of it. I've had many Fri.Sat. nights where there are a lot of drivers and a whole hour or more will pass without a request, and hence without the guarantee, no matter how aggressive I may hunt fares.


----------



## scrurbscrud

Amsoil Uber Connect said:


> Yeah Uber really shot themselves in the foot when they raised the srf. Now I see just as many lyft to Uber drivers in my area.


Uber is still less for min. fare than Lyft in most cases, even with the higher srf. Lyft's srf is added to the min. fare. Uber's includes it. The driver take on Uber didn't decrease on min. fares because of higher srf.


----------



## scrurbscrud

andaas said:


> So today I've had at least one 3 hour span between ride requests. Could be that ride requests are lower than normal today. I certainly don't feel like I'm in a round robin with other drivers...
> 
> I'm not complaining, mainly riding up my hours for PD bonus for this week - so I'm camping on my sofa.


Might as well. Drivers who live in busy areas might just as well sit at home and wait their turn cause more than likely they aren't going to increase their odds by driving around the same area. Unless you run a pax app and driver app simultaneously it's almost impossible to tell what the available driver situation is in the immediate area.


----------



## Wyatt

Interesting theory Scrurb, are you able to cherry pick lyft plus rides and ignore regular Lyft requests? Also, what city are you in?


----------



## scrurbscrud

Wyatt said:


> Interesting theory Scrurb, are you able to cherry pick lyft plus rides and ignore regular Lyft requests? Also, what city are you in?


I don't disclose where I drive. Not interested in being Uber's target. And no, it's impossible to cherrypick with either platform if the driver wants to keep acceptance rate acceptable.


----------



## Wyatt

Does lyft let you see if its a plus request before you accept?


----------



## scrurbscrud

Wyatt said:


> Does lyft let you see if its a plus request before you accept?


Yes.


----------



## macchiato

Wyatt said:


> Does lyft let you see if its a plus request before you accept?


First they did. Then they took it away. Now it's back. Who knows if this "feature" will stay?


----------



## Jay Dean

I have taken at least 4 different pax two separate times with LYFT soooo who knows could be market specific, I doubt it. I have some days where I get only a few pings in between uber rides but then I get some days it is alllll LYFT. I think it's all just a luck game with the pings and demand


----------



## UberKim

Wyatt said:


> Lyft pings the nearest driver just like Uber. How in the hell would it work any other way. You can also end a ride and pick up the same person again.


not true. Studies and research being done in NY and Chicago are showing that 1. the goal for both companies is what they refer to as "density", meaning density of many drivers around any one location where a passenger might request a ride. Density ensures quick pickup, thus beating taxi, which takes longer, and taxis have other options, like street hails, their own dispatch systems, and cabstands. This model of business leaves out the fact that if there are 20 rideshares hovering around an area for ease of ordering, and 3 pax order, it leaves out the other 17 as not important. Uber doesn't care about us, folks!

Secondly, Uber doesn't send request to nearest car. Tested it myself several times. I can have the pax right IN my cab, trying to ping me, and he'll get an uberx from a quarter mile away. the reports from NY are concluding that once Uber has us hooked (giving lots of fares in first 4-6 weeks) then it plans to spread the fares around among all the drivers working, so everyone makes a LITTLE money. And I mean little! the more drivers out, the less for everyone.


----------



## scrurbscrud

UberKim said:


> not true. Studies and research being done in NY and Chicago are showing that 1. the goal for both companies is what they refer to as "density", meaning density of many drivers around any one location where a passenger might request a ride. Density ensures quick pickup, thus beating taxi, which takes longer, and taxis have other options, like street hails, their own dispatch systems, and cabstands. This model of business leaves out the fact that if there are 20 rideshares hovering around an area for ease of ordering, and 3 pax order, it leaves out the other 17 as not important. Uber doesn't care about us, folks!
> 
> Secondly, Uber doesn't send request to nearest car. Tested it myself several times. I can have the pax right IN my cab, trying to ping me, and he'll get an uberx from a quarter mile away. the reports from NY are concluding that once Uber has us hooked (giving lots of fares in first 4-6 weeks) then it plans to spread the fares around among all the drivers working, so everyone makes a LITTLE money. And I mean little! the more drivers out, the less for everyone.


I'm sure both platforms can juggle fare distribution in numerous ways. The drivers only way of seeing anything is by running the pax app. For example if the ride share companies wanted to favor newer vehicles with higher rated drivers I'm sure that would be easy to achieve. Some types of profile matching could transpire as well. Would be nice to see inside the distribution box.

You are right on Uber above not always being the closest driver either. I was BSing with another Uber driver recently at an airport hangout. He saw my logo's and came over to my vehicle. His was several hundred feet further away from the airport than mine and he picked up a ping while we were chatting. He was also a Russian immigrant, so of course I immediately suspected he might have been running driver location spoofing software. heh heh. Some of this may be due to pax pin drop. The pin drops seem to land all over the place at the airports anyway. But generally speaking I'd have to say the closer driver is the system Uber uses. I also know that in geofenced areas if a driver violates it, the car disappears from the pax app.

I'd also think they may have some potential legal liabilities if they tampered in an ill advised way using profiling matchups. I suspect that if too many drivers with middle eastern names find themselves without as many requests as their peers they could make claims against the platform or try to anyway. Might be an interesting fight to see if courts would force disclosure on internal mechanism's.


----------



## scrurbscrud

Jay Dean said:


> I have taken at least 4 different pax two separate times with LYFT soooo who knows could be market specific, I doubt it. I have some days where I get only a few pings in between uber rides but then I get some days it is alllll LYFT. I think it's all just a luck game with the pings and demand


Yeah, it's weird that way too. Some days Lyft can come out of nowhere and keep a driver busier than Uber. I think they do email bargains from time to time that spurs biz. They are struggling though from what I can tell from my end overall though as it's no longer sustainable to do only Lyft. Driver saturation has hurt them and forced drivers to use both platforms to stay busy enough to justify driving. They may be getting more overall business, but from my end it's not doing any good and is much much worse/slower than it was a year ago for overall gross. I'd much prefer to do Lyft only on the basis of tips. The rate drop with both companies have really sucked the life out of wanting to do it anymore though unless there is surge. And sitting around waiting for that to happen is a waste of time.


----------



## scrurbscrud

Another way I know Lyft doesn't do "closest driver" is from using as a pax at airports. Knowing that pax drop pins all over the place as a pax, I'll open the app and look for Plus fares when I really only want a std. Lyft, and knowing the lag factor I'm getting my pin as close as possible to a Plus where there are no std. Lyft's available and it will never work. I get tossed to the rotation rather than the closest driver. And will then have to cancel and repeat til I get a car that I want. I'm 6'3" and I ain't riding in a little broken down jalopy backseat. Ain't gonna happen. Invariably after a few tries I'll at least snag a larger sedan that I can fit comfortably in. With Uber at airports I've often parked away from the driver packed areas and will get pick up fares from pax doing the same thing to me, wanting my XL over a std. Uber car or pax fishing for a larger capacity XL SUV rather than the family van driver. They'll move their pin out to ping my ride. And it does work that way with Uber. With Lyft, not.


----------



## CatchyMusicLover

I dunno about anyone else but I've emphatically gotten the same PAX twice in a row, multiple times.


----------



## MiddleClassedOut

It will depend on your proximity to the PAX and the amount of time the next closest driver has gone without a request. We don't know how it works and they're never going to tell us.


----------



## Mricon87

scrurbscrud said:


> The biggest problems with both platforms currently is "too many drivers." With Uber this doesn't bother me as much. If I want fares, I can go hunt, as pings typically go to the closest driver. Fares go to personal hustle.
> 
> But with Lyft's system it doesn't work this way. They circulate the fares among the driver pool. This was actually NICE when the driver pool was thin, but now with literally 200-300% or more drivers it's almost a waste of time to have the app on. My fare numbers with Lyft used to run about equal to Uber's prior, and either platform worked nicely, but Lyft's tip feature made it the easy choice over Uber. Numbers of fares per hour were about equal, which for me usually ran or runs in the 2-2.5 range per hour avg. and has to to make it worth getting off the couch. But with the excess driver pool it's now not even remotely close to that now. Ridiculously low and slow. Almost an annoyance. I've been down to less than 1 fare an hour, which just doesn't work. Waste of time. And this has reduced the number of Lyft fares to all drivers as well. Another annoyance is even though there are plenty of drivers, they'll still long distance ping drivers in the pool, even if there are much closer drivers. Another annoyance of their system.
> 
> They should switch their platform over to a 'closest only' arrangement and let all drivers hunt fares on their own. They should also eliminate their other annoying feature which won't match you up with the same pax once you've driven them. This is a problem as well. Particularly if you do a long one way and you know that pax is going back and you decide to work the area and maybe catch them on the return. You won't with Lyft. Even if you're the only driver in the area.
> 
> Their system is starting to SUCK bigtime because of the way it's set up.


I've picked up the same passenger with lyft.


----------



## macchiato

Tried to take the same pax last night and she couldn't ping me again for reason. It's not just a proximity algorithm they are using.


----------



## scrurbscrud

Mricon87 said:


> I've picked up the same passenger with lyft.


I have too, but never in back to back fares. Tried many many times. It doesn't work that way with the Lyft platform. However out in the hinterlands where the driver may be the only driver is the only setup I haven't tried. It may work in that kind of setting.


----------



## scrurbscrud

I think part of Lyft's posture on this is to keep drivers from pinching their clientele to drivers who decide to gypsy fare them.

I do have a few pax on Uber who, if they contact me, I'll be near them at their request time to fare on the Uber platform only and I'll only do this with XL. It's a decent enough arrangement for previous good service. Haven't read the fine print to see if a driver could be pinched for it. Hasn't seemed to pose any problems so far. I'd like to be able to do the same with Lyft but it's not predictable enough to rely on.


----------



## macchiato

I've also tried to have her request me as Plus and she still couldn't ping me. I'm sure they do this to curb the freeloaders to end trip and request for another free ride in mid trip.


----------



## scrurbscrud

macchiato said:


> I've also tried to have her request me as Plus and she still couldn't ping me. I'm sure they do this to curb the freeloaders to end trip and request for another free ride in mid trip.


The free trip up to $10 per fare is certainly part of that. They don't want pax stringing long fares by a series of short fares with the same driver, so they make it inconvenient for pax and driver to do this. I had a pax awhile back who had strung several accounts together to get his girlfriend a long fare. It worked for 3 legs of the trip, but on the 4th leg I got pinged by another pax and had to dump her. Sorry dude. That's how the game works when you get into busier territory. Luggage out. Freeze on the street while you wait for the next driver.


----------



## Wyatt

Well, we've proven nothing with this thread. UberKim seems completely full of crap, what "study" and who is conducting? Scrurbscrud won't give his location because he claims to be worried about Uber targeting him. Yet he displays the "screw Uber" avatar and openly hates on them. There are 15 yr olds that can find out who and where you are! Jesus! Lmfao at these guys!


----------



## scrurbscrud

Wyatt said:


> Well, we've proven nothing with this thread. UberKim seems completely full of crap, what "study" and who is conducting? Scrurbscrud won't give his location because he claims to be worried about Uber targeting him. Yet he displays the "screw Uber" avatar and openly hates on them.


I only hate the pay, so let's be clear. And I doubt very much you have an accurate picture on this subject either.



> There are 15 yr olds that can find out who and where you are! Jesus! Lmfao at these guys!


Ask me if I care. I just don't care to be that overt.


----------



## USArmy31B30

scrurbscrud said:


> The biggest problems with both platforms currently is "too many drivers." With Uber this doesn't bother me as much. If I want fares, I can go hunt, as pings typically go to the closest driver. Fares go to personal hustle.
> 
> But with Lyft's system it doesn't work this way. They circulate the fares among the driver pool. This was actually NICE when the driver pool was thin, but now with literally 200-300% or more drivers it's almost a waste of time to have the app on. My fare numbers with Lyft used to run about equal to Uber's prior, and either platform worked nicely, but Lyft's tip feature made it the easy choice over Uber. Numbers of fares per hour were about equal, which for me usually ran or runs in the 2-2.5 range per hour avg. and has to to make it worth getting off the couch. But with the excess driver pool it's now not even remotely close to that now. Ridiculously low and slow. Almost an annoyance. I've been down to less than 1 fare an hour, which just doesn't work. Waste of time. And this has reduced the number of Lyft fares to all drivers as well. Another annoyance is even though there are plenty of drivers, they'll still long distance ping drivers in the pool, even if there are much closer drivers. Another annoyance of their system.
> 
> They should switch their platform over to a 'closest only' arrangement and let all drivers hunt fares on their own. They should also eliminate their other annoying feature which won't match you up with the same pax once you've driven them. This is a problem as well. Particularly if you do a long one way and you know that pax is going back and you decide to work the area and maybe catch them on the return. You won't with Lyft. Even if you're the only driver in the area.
> 
> Their system is starting to SUCK bigtime because of the way it's set up.


Ah crap!!! No wonder I can't have my wife ping me again to drop her off back to the house. I could've made an easy $6 bucks off of her!!!


----------



## scrurbscrud

USArmy31B30 said:


> Ah crap!!! No wonder I can't have my wife ping me again to drop her off back to the house. I could've made an easy $6 bucks off of her!!!


You might pull off one free ride to the wife or other relatives to get a few bucks, but repeat free biz with family friends pax will be harder to find with Lyft, I might presuppose. Never tried it myself.

Easy way to check it out though, huh? Just make sure the wife's account email and credit card are different than yours.


----------



## CucumberFlorida

Lyft: I have picked up the same passenger more than once. I don't often receive pings more than a few minutes away. I run both platforms, I like the tipping in Lyft, people will be generous if you give them a reason to be. Overall I stay busier in the Uber platform, it just mofre popular.


----------



## driveflydrive

Wyatt said:


> Lyft pings the nearest driver just like Uber. How in the hell would it work any other way. You can also end a ride and pick up the same person again.


Sorry but you're wrong. I've come across this before. On split trips, I have ended the trip and the passenger has pinged me again to start the second leg of the trip (from inside the car) but I didn't get the ping, it goes to the closest driver who has been waiting.......not to me.....as I have just dropped off. 
If you read posts on this forum you'll find that this is a well known complaint with the Lyft app


----------



## Jazzman

November 20, 11.24 PM NYC


----------



## scrurbscrud

Jazzman said:


> November 20, 11.24 PM NYC
> View attachment 21433


You drive amphibious?


----------



## scrurbscrud

driveflydrive said:


> Sorry but you're wrong. it goes to the closest driver who has been waiting.......not to me.....as I have just dropped off.
> If you read posts on this forum you'll find that *this is* a *well known* complaint with the Lyft app


Well, *a few got it right anyway. ^^^*


----------



## promdog

Hmm...

On my 2nd night driving, I drove two young ladies to an apartment building.

I then drove around the corner to "google" some questions I had on whether I should park and wait or drive around. Lo and behold, I get a ping from the same two young ladies wanting a ride to another place.

This was the same people one after the other. I assured them that I was just around the corner to check on something and I wasn't stalking them.

"lmao"! - Ubernice


----------



## scrurbscrud

promdog said:


> Hmm...
> 
> On my 2nd night driving, I drove two young ladies to an apartment building.
> 
> I then drove around the corner to "google" some questions I had on whether I should park and wait or drive around. Lo and behold, I get a ping from the same two young ladies wanting a ride to another place.
> 
> This was the same people one after the other. I assured them that I was just around the corner to check on something and I wasn't stalking them.
> 
> "lmao"! - Ubernice


The other chick probably ordered it.


----------



## promdog

scrurbscrud said:


> The other chick probably ordered it.


Twins maybe, not sure... That would be weird for them to have the same picture AND the same name too...


----------



## CatchyMusicLover

scrurbscrud said:


> I had a pax awhile back who had strung several accounts together to get his girlfriend a long fare. It worked for 3 legs of the trip, but on the 4th leg I got pinged by another pax and had to dump her. Sorry dude. That's how the game works when you get into busier territory. Luggage out. Freeze on the street while you wait for the next driver.


You seriously /ended the ride/ with someone's luggage still in the car?


----------



## DieselkW

I have had passengers try to ping me from inside the car, after ending a ride. The fare gets offered to someone a mile or two away. 

If they're using their free rides from the promo, they can't get the same driver twice in a row. 

Think about it. My friend downloads the app and I get my $20 because he used my promo code. Then, he wants to go to the mall and back. I'm not doing anything, so he has a "free" ride, might as well get me some more money. So he pings me, and we go to the mall, $5 fare, I get $4 and it costs him nothing, Lyft just had to "give" me $4, uncompensated.

You think Lyft is going to let my friend give me all $50 worth? Not a chance. They know I'll just split it with him. Everyone out there using free promo rides is not going to get the same driver twice in a row. 

Maybe that's why you can't get a ping from inside your own car???


----------



## phish sticks

This convo is great. Everyone saying this is how this works and that's how this works. But nothing any of you say is proven it's all just hear say on the Internet from people. Not only this but all this info is coming from people from markets around the US not one specific location. That doesn't mean it's the same all over. Most of it is coming from some random person on a forum who is stating what they know as fact but can't say what city or at least state he drives because you might be a target for uber as you trash talk lyft more. 

Could it be you work for uber and are trying to put lyft down. 

I don't know I'm just some guy on the net.


----------



## scrurbscrud

phish sticks said:


> This convo is great. Everyone saying this is how this works and that's how this works.


No, drivers don't know the intimacies of the Lyft algo's BUT there is information that can be gleaned from experience and observations, which have been duly noted by drivers who are engaged in driving. * So it's not just guesses and hearsay.*



> But nothing any of you say is proven it's all just hear say on the Internet from people. Not only this but all this info is coming from people from markets around the US not one specific location.


I don't doubt that the algo's can vary from area to area. That's why it's interesting to compare notes. Lyft for example at some airports has a really annoying habit of turning on PT. Uber never does. So, when Lyft does that they pretty much guarantee that Lyft drivers are NOT going to get as much biz. BUT, sometimes this can work out for a driver. A couple weeks ago one airport was extremely busy. Lyft PT'd. Uber didn't. I watched on the app as all the Uber cars disappeared. Then the Lyft cars, one by one. When it was down to just me as the last Lyft vehicle, I turned on the app, when it was PT, and snagged a 75% PT fare. Took about 45 min. for the whole thing to fall my way, but the fare was totally worth the wait and the hunt.



> That doesn't mean it's the same all over. Most of it is coming from some random person on a forum who is stating what they know as fact but can't say what city or at least state he drives because you might be a target for uber as you trash talk lyft more.


We all trash talk the pay rate so get real. Has nothing to do with much else.



> Could it be you work for uber and are trying to put lyft down.
> 
> I don't know I'm just some guy on the net.


Could be you're a Lyft pimp too. Generally see people who claim they are drivers, yet blow for these companies as such.

We are "independent" contractors. That doesn't mean DEPENDENT. I drive for money. That's really all I'm interested in. $$$. Capiche?

Part of the reason I started this thread was because of Lyft's tendency to "spread fares" amongst the driver pool. Because the driver pool exceeds what the Lyft pax are capable of providing, the money is SHIT and has been SHIT for the majority of the time for quite some time now. Since after St. Patty's day. My hourly $ run rate on Lyft's platform is seriously, 1/5 of what it was last year.

So, yeah, Lyft should sit up and pay attention because their antics are forcing drivers to go back to Uber. I'd much prefer to stay on the Lyft system, but if it doesn't/can't pay to do so, too bad.


----------



## MikesUber

KMANDERSON said:


> View attachment 21274
> This is what bothers me about Lyft far away request


Ha that's why my acceptance rating was 0% last week, 3-4 pings 30+ minutes away


----------



## KMANDERSON

MikesUber said:


> Ha that's why my acceptance rating was 0% last week, 3-4 pings 30+ minutes away


Everyone you get one of those screen shot it and put it on this thread.Just want to find out how much this happens


----------



## ChristianPerea

Lyft has a combination of proximity and weight towards drivers who have not received a ride for a while. Generally, the longer a driver goes without a ride, the more likely they are to receive it. The reason this is so hotly debated is because in most busy markets drivers will not have enough downtime to accumulate a dispatch "weight" and you can pretty reliably request a ride based on proximity. In more suburban/rural areas you are more likely to get another driver that is further away from you.


----------



## ikabod

iamkitkatbar said:


> When I open up the lyft app on my location it only shows drivers in downtown ventura but when I move it just out of downtown boundaries it shows other drivers down the street from me.


Yeah I have noticed that too. If I hang out at the Barnes and Noble, the place looks packed with drivers.


----------



## novadrivergal

A neighbor signed up and got three rides from me on Lyft by requesting while sitting in my car. After the third ride, he was unable ever to get me again no matter how many tries, even with weeks passing before trying again. The ping would go to other drivers 5-6 minutes away. He would keep getting assigned the same 2-3 drivers even if he kept canceling. 

Two friends did the same and were only able to get ONE ride then similarly could not get me again. I thought it might be associated with free rides but then I gave a normal customer a ride who wanted to call me personally in the future. I came when he called but once he was in my car he couldn't get assigned to me. Ended up paying me in cash. I asked him if he had used the system between the first ride with me and the second attempt and he said he had.

Then last week I dropped someone off and turned to go back where I came from, but within two minutes she had collected her friend and I got another ping to pick her up again. I know there were other drivers within 10 minutes. So that throws into question the assumption that the system prevents repeated matching.


----------



## DieselkW

novadrivergal said:


> but once he was in my car he couldn't get assigned to me. Ended up paying me in cash.


Danger Danger Will Robinson!!

Shudder to think what would have happened if there was an accident. Do not do that.


----------



## Transportador

So I used to drive only Uber, but now for various reasons, I drive both. This ain't a religion, so just use whatever app you want. Both of them will change overtime, some for better, some for worse. We just stay flexible, depending on where and when we drive.


----------



## mkatan

i have e mailed lyft about it few times and never got a reply , i had cases with pax i know sitting in my car and their lyft requests going somewhere else 10-15 min away, now i know why


----------



## maxista

The rotating driver theory is not true in the Phoenix Area. I have had friends order me and it's always based on proximity. I have also placed myself literally in the parking lot of busy bars and gotten ride after ride by going back to that same spot. I have never even heard this notion and from a consumer standpoint, as well as from a driver perspective, it makes no sense. I don't know if this poster is paid by Uber to spread false rumors, if it's like this in other markets (which I highly doubt) or if he's just not very smart. This is false information.


----------



## maxista

scrurbscrud said:


> Nope and Nope, particularly on the last count. Tested both aspects above many times.


Nope and nope to you. I've tested it countless times with friends and family as well as with customers. I have never not been pinged when I am the closest. You are spreading misinformation, or you are not doing something correctly.


----------



## maxista

driveflydrive said:


> Sorry but you're wrong. I've come across this before. On split trips, I have ended the trip and the passenger has pinged me again to start the second leg of the trip (from inside the car) but I didn't get the ping, it goes to the closest driver who has been waiting.......not to me.....as I have just dropped off.
> If you read posts on this forum you'll find that this is a well known complaint with the Lyft app


I will vehemently maintain that this is not true. Proximity is the whole point of the system. Furthermore, I have tested this many times. Every time I have had someone install the app and request with me, it pings me. I've referred more than 100 riders to Lyft and have had many many friends and family request me. It always, always works. Why? Because I am the closest. Seriously I don't know what you people are smoking.


----------



## scrurbscrud

maxista said:


> Nope and nope to you. I've tested it countless times with friends and family as well as with customers. I have never not been pinged when I am the closest. You are spreading misinformation, or you are not doing something correctly.


You can believe whatever you please. I know what happens on the street, in the app, because I watch it happen.


----------



## CCW

I am a 3 weeks old Lyft driver with 151 rides provided in Philly, in my exp, Lyft app always ping the closest driver. I had a few ppl who were already in my car and then request the ride, it always go to me with a 3~4 seconds delay. 

But Lyft back end system is buggy, it may calculate the distance incorrectly and ping someone who is far away and displays an incorrect driving time.


----------



## promdog

Did anyone ever stop to think that the "algorithm" used more points of data than what can be discussed in a forum?

Maybe there is a race variable?
Maybe there is a sub-regional variable?
Maybe there is a hair color variable? Brown hair drivers = closest and Blonds hair drivers = First-In First-Out
Maybe there is a gender variable?

Stop call each other "liars". It's idiotic to pit your experience against someone else's experience. It's all valid.


----------



## gravelaine

scrurbscrud said:


> You can believe whatever you please. I know what happens on the street, in the app, because I watch it happen.


Why are you spreading misinformations? It is whoever is the closest to the client who orders the ride, simple as that.


----------



## maxista

scrurbscrud said:


> You can believe whatever you please. I know what happens on the street, in the app, because I watch it happen.


I just tested it with my neighbor. I ordered a Lyft, it was the next street over and guess what? He got the request. I'm 860 rides deep on Lyft as of May 2015. I've seen what you describe happen maybe twice. I think it's due to an error in their system, some kind of bug. This rotational concept is simply not the norm. It is a very rare exception at best.

Also, I'd like to point out to some of you, that if you get pinged over 15 minutes drive from your position, it's not worth going to pick up that person. I never do it, what I do is I call them, tell them to cancel and re-request so they can get someone closer. Odds are I'll get an Uber much closer. Lyft is a better platform in many ways, and we don't need ignorant foolish drivers spreading false rumors about Lyft.


----------



## FautTousLesNiquerPtiteBte

scrurbscrud said:


> You can believe whatever you please. I know what happens on the street, in the app, because I watch it happen.


You have no idea what you are talking about Travis.


----------



## KekeLo

maxista said:


> I just tested it with my neighbor. I ordered a Lyft, it was the next street over and guess what? He got the request. I'm 860 rides deep on Lyft as of May 2015. I've seen what you describe happen maybe twice. I think it's due to an error in their system, some kind of bug. This rotational concept is simply not the norm. It is a very rare exception at best.
> 
> Also, I'd like to point out to some of you, that if you get pinged over 15 minutes drive from your position, it's not worth going to pick up that person. I never do it, what I do is I call them, tell them to cancel and re-request so they can get someone closer. Odds are I'll get an Uber much closer. Lyft is a better platform in many ways, and we don't need ignorant foolish drivers spreading false rumors about Lyft.


Do you guys notice he's not even bothering to respond? He doesn't care. about what you guys are talking about. I would move on.


----------



## DieselkW

FautTousLesNiquerPtiteBte said:


> You have no idea what you are talking about Travis.


That is quite possibly the most insulting thing I've ever seen someone call someone else.

Second most insulting thing was my buddy calling his ex-wife's new husband: "Obedient".


----------



## maxista

DieselkW said:


> That is quite possibly the most insulting thing I've ever seen someone call someone else.
> 
> Second most insulting thing was my buddy calling his ex-wife's new husband: "Obedient".


I hope I'm not witnessing some kind of online PC (politically correct) militant trolling here. You PC bra?


----------



## scrurbscrud

What I've observed:

Pings in Lyft where there are a lot of drivers present do not go to the closest driver.

Pings in Lyft Plus ARE rotated among the Plus pool of drivers.

Lyft pax are seldom, if ever, matched up to the same driver on the same day.

Because of more drivers and driver pool ping rotation, my net per hour on Lyft has collapsed to ridiculously levels the majority of the time. And aggressive fare hunting won't change it.

What I'm NOT saying:

There may be exceptions such as airports.

Outlying areas where there are very few drivers may be the exception to the above.
-----------
Do your own observations. See what's up yourself. It's easy IF you can run the driver/pax app simultaneously. If you can't you have no way of knowing.


----------



## scrurbscrud

gravelaine said:


> Why are you spreading misinformations? It is whoever is the closest to the client who orders the ride, simple as that.


A lot of you drivers who drive for Uber and Lyft only presume that's the way it is with Lyft because it's that way for Uber.

It's not. They do have different ways of doing biz.


----------



## scrurbscrud

FautTousLesNiquerPtiteBte said:


> You have no idea what you are talking about Travis.


Helluva way to start a first post. You'll find out quickly I really don't give a damn what anyone says if it isn't honest. My observations are what I see from experience.


----------



## elelegido

scrurbscrud said:


> The biggest problems with both platforms currently is "too many drivers." With Uber this doesn't bother me as much. If I want fares, I can go hunt, as pings typically go to the closest driver. Fares go to personal hustle.
> 
> But with Lyft's system it doesn't work this way. They circulate the fares among the driver pool. This was actually NICE when the driver pool was thin, but now with literally 200-300% or more drivers it's almost a waste of time to have the app on. My fare numbers with Lyft used to run about equal to Uber's prior, and either platform worked nicely, but Lyft's tip feature made it the easy choice over Uber. Numbers of fares per hour were about equal, which for me usually ran or runs in the 2-2.5 range per hour avg. and has to to make it worth getting off the couch. But with the excess driver pool it's now not even remotely close to that now. Ridiculously low and slow. Almost an annoyance. I've been down to less than 1 fare an hour, which just doesn't work. Waste of time. And this has reduced the number of Lyft fares to all drivers as well. Another annoyance is even though there are plenty of drivers, they'll still long distance ping drivers in the pool, even if there are much closer drivers. Another annoyance of their system.
> 
> They should switch their platform over to a 'closest only' arrangement and let all drivers hunt fares on their own. They should also eliminate their other annoying feature which won't match you up with the same pax once you've driven them. This is a problem as well. Particularly if you do a long one way and you know that pax is going back and you decide to work the area and maybe catch them on the return. You won't with Lyft. Even if you're the only driver in the area.
> 
> Their system is starting to SUCK bigtime because of the way it's set up.


I had this a while ago on Lyft. Two pax;; dropped the first one off at her house and ended the trip as per her request. Second pax then tries to ping me so he could go home. Ping kept going to someone else and, because it was busy, I got pinged by several others. The system refused to match us even though he was sitting in my car. After 3 attempts I had to tell him that I couldn't keep refusing requests from other Lyft pax and told him that he had to get out of the car because I couldn't take him. He wasn't happy as it was pouring with rain, but no bad rating for me, just a soaking for him LOL


----------



## elelegido

KMANDERSON said:


> View attachment 21274
> This is what bothers me about Lyft far away request


Exactly. Sending requests like this to far away drivers means that customers are kept waiting while drivers' phones are pinged with requests they're never going to accept. This creates a negative user experience for riders.


----------



## Optimus Uber

Here in LA, I have no issue on either system. They can ping me from inside the car and I always get it. Maybe different algorithm for different market. My experience has been different.


----------



## FautTousLesNiquerPtiteBte

Optimus Uber said:


> Here in LA, I have no issue on either system. They can ping me from inside the car and I always get it. Maybe different algorithm for different market. My experience has been different.


One algorithm is written by Travis and the other by John/Logan


----------



## reg barclay

Heres what Lyft themselves say on the topic:

(Tried posting a link to lyft website but wouldn't let me so i'll just copy and paste it)

*How Drivers and Passengers are Paired*
In order to keep drivers as busy as possible while also keeping ETAs low for passengers, requests are dispatched to the driver who will arrive soonest. When you drop off a passenger, it's likely that your next request will be close by.

If you've dropped someone off and have been waiting for a longer period of time, the chances of your next request being further away increase. This is all in the interest of keeping you busy and maximizing earnings! Metrics such as ratings, acceptance, or cancellation rates do not factor into whether or not you receive a request.


----------



## scrurbscrud

I also don't doubt that both companies constantly fiddle with the arrangements. That much is obvious. They probably have several forms of presets they can institute, and often might do so in response to what the other company is doing at the time.


----------



## LEAFdriver

KMANDERSON said:


> Everyone you get one of those screen shot it and put it on this thread.Just want to find out how much this happens


Got this one this morning. I don't live in Lyft's 'Zone'. I was just logged on to get my hours up. I was shocked when I got this ping!  I went offline...checked the area the ping came from...and there were at least a dozen VERY CLOSE LYFT DRIVERS ONLINE!


----------



## gravelaine

scrurbscrud said:


> I also don't doubt that both companies constantly fiddle with the arrangements. That much is obvious. They probably have several forms of presets they can institute, and often might do so in response to what the other company is doing at the time.


Damn it Travis!


----------



## scrurbscrud

gravelaine said:


> Damn it Travis!


I have equal frustrations with both platforms. so lol


----------



## scrurbscrud

reg barclay said:


> How Drivers and Passengers are Paired
> In order to keep drivers as busy as possible while also keeping ETAs low for passengers, requests are dispatched to the driver who will arrive soonest. When you drop off a passenger, it's likely that your next request will be close by. *If you've* dropped someone off and have* been waiting for a longer period of time, the chances of your next request being further away increase. *This is all in the interest of keeping you busy and maximizing earnings! Metrics such as ratings, acceptance, or cancellation rates do not factor into whether or not you receive a request.


*
Which means it does NOT go to the closest driver.* I appreciate their attempts to play it both ways tho.


----------



## gravelaine

scrurbscrud said:


> *Which means it does NOT go to the closest driver.* I appreciate their attempts to play it both ways tho.


Your lawyers are wrong Travis.


----------



## macchiato

Yay...


----------



## simply00complex

Lyft doesn't do the closest driver method? Is that why I got two pick ups 40 minutes away tonight?


----------



## RockinEZ

KMANDERSON said:


> View attachment 21274
> This is what bothers me about Lyft far away request


Perfect example of why I do not drive Lyft


----------



## KMANDERSON

RockinEZ said:


> Perfect example of why I do not drive Lyft


I just let the ping run out and wait for one that closer


----------



## RockinEZ

KMANDERSON said:


> I just let the ping run out and wait for one that closer


Then Lyft lowers your score for not playing their game.


----------



## KMANDERSON

RockinEZ said:


> Then Lyft lowers your score for not playing their game.


I think they do that to get you out of you commission and guarantees cause they know nobody going to drive thirty minutes


----------



## promdog

Accept the Ride.
Call the pax; Ask them to cancel immediately and re-request.
....
Profit!


----------



## ClevelandUberRider

For those who drive Lyft/Lyft Plus, what is the percentage of Plus trips out of the total trips you make? From the posts here on UP from various drivers it seems to range from 5% (one in twenty) to 20% (one in five). Would love to hear your experience on this.


----------



## Dan The Lyft Man

I know this sucks with Lyft. I used Lyft this New Years Eve for there guaranteed. Logged in at 8pm @ 8:07 got a ping the was 23mins away. I just accepted the Pax, they cancelled a couple of seconds later. I had this happen a couple of times that night. I just accepted and let the Pax cancel to keep my acceptance rating at 100% so I could have the guarantee as a backup that night. I know it's a risk, but most of the time the PAX doesn't want to wait that long.


----------



## Buckwheat1210

Got a request yesterday 49 minutes south. Thats crazy! I was heading back north home. Saw the pickup location at McDonald's in Bradenton and knew it would be a shiz ride. Not good Lyft!


----------



## LegacyX

scrurbscrud said:


> The biggest problems with both platforms currently is "too many drivers." With Uber this doesn't bother me as much. If I want fares, I can go hunt, as pings typically go to the closest driver. Fares go to personal hustle.
> 
> But with Lyft's system it doesn't work this way. They circulate the fares among the driver pool. This was actually NICE when the driver pool was thin, but now with literally 200-300% or more drivers it's almost a waste of time to have the app on. My fare numbers with Lyft used to run about equal to Uber's prior, and either platform worked nicely, but Lyft's tip feature made it the easy choice over Uber. Numbers of fares per hour were about equal, which for me usually ran or runs in the 2-2.5 range per hour avg. and has to to make it worth getting off the couch. But with the excess driver pool it's now not even remotely close to that now. Ridiculously low and slow. Almost an annoyance. I've been down to less than 1 fare an hour, which just doesn't work. Waste of time. And this has reduced the number of Lyft fares to all drivers as well. Another annoyance is even though there are plenty of drivers, they'll still long distance ping drivers in the pool, even if there are much closer drivers. Another annoyance of their system.
> 
> They should switch their platform over to a 'closest only' arrangement and let all drivers hunt fares on their own. They should also eliminate their other annoying feature which won't match you up with the same pax once you've driven them. This is a problem as well. Particularly if you do a long one way and you know that pax is going back and you decide to work the area and maybe catch them on the return. You won't with Lyft. Even if you're the only driver in the area.
> 
> Their system is starting to SUCK bigtime because of the way it's set up.


Agreed, I had no idea their system worked this way. It explains why I'm all of a sudden receiving lots of requests from Lyft to pick up pax in Delaware, while I'm in eastern PA. I've noticed over the past several weeks that I've received requests to drive 30-40 minutes for a pickup, which if I decline, it impacts my acceptance rate and if I were to accept it would impact my bottom line.

I've noticed the influx of additional drivers in the Philly market, but usually only during nights and weekends (part time hours) whereas since I work full time for Lyft and Uber, I usually do better during the early morning and daytime hours. It will be much better if Lyft moves to a proximity model, as I am always positioned in prime market areas and do decent with Uber in those areas, but as you noted, Lyft is much slower.


----------



## Shark11

KMANDERSON said:


> View attachment 21274
> This is what bothers me about Lyft far away request


 i hear you. I drive in NYC area (New Jersey) I will never get a power driver bonus from LYFT because it makes no sense to go more than 15 mins for a ride. I have a 4.97 rating, whoopee. 287 Lyft rides 856 Uber rides.


----------



## scrurbscrud

ClevelandUberRider said:


> For those who drive Lyft/Lyft Plus, what is the percentage of Plus trips out of the total trips you make? From the posts here on UP from various drivers it seems to range from 5% (one in twenty) to 20% (one in five). Would love to hear your experience on this.


Almost negligible on weekdays. An occasional stray request at most. May be as high as 50% or more on weekend nights. But in any case, much slower. Lyft seems to carve out Plus to do primarily Plus on weekend nights and the number of regular Lyft fares diminishes. Which is fine with me if there is enough Plus requests, which there never is.

There is just way too much idle time all around. Way more on Lyft. And driving UberX with an XL doesn't pay at all unless the driver can get dead miles down to nearly impossible levels. It can be done, but it's very difficult. Any handful of pax to outlying areas almost guarantees the dead mile quotient will go sour because the driver will dead head back sooner or later rather than sit and wait for nothing.


----------



## Maderacopy

It looks like it could be getting better for existing Lyft drivers in Fresno, Ca. At least until they decide to do the same to existing drivers. On a short drive, Lyft will make more then the driver. Currently Lyft is saturated in Fresno but the last two days Lyft has been 90% of my pax.

Fresno Updates

*Commissions update for new drivers:* New drivers applying after midnight on Jan. 1, 2016, will have a 25% commission rate. We have no plans to adjust commissions for current drivers, so this will not affect you - as always, Lyft does not take any commission on tips.


----------



## andaas

Maderacopy said:


> On a short drive, Lyft will make more then the driver.


How do you figure Lyft will earn more than the driver on short drives in Fresno?

Current drivers will earn $3.20 on a minimum fare, while Lyft earns $2.55.

New drivers will earn $3.00 on a minimum fare, while Lyft earns $2.75.


----------



## andaas

promdog said:


> Hmm....
> 
> 3.00 - wear and tear - fuel - insurance - ... nevermind.


This has nothing to do with earnings vs. operating costs, whatever.


----------



## osii

I did a fare a week ago that I gave three rides in a row too. They all had $10 off. There were pauses in between each ride. she was in my car and I was the closest driver


----------



## maxista

osii said:


> I did a fare a week ago that I gave three rides in a row too. They all had $10 off. There were pauses in between each ride. she was in my car and I was the closest driver


Yep.


----------



## macchiato

Holy cow Lyft! Please stop these requests!


----------



## macchiato

Because it still happens...


----------



## cin90

Chiming in...

I was under the impression requests were sent to the driver who has been online longest *since their last ping/with no ping*. Not sure if that's someone's theory, just something I heard.


----------



## osii

All requests go to the nearest driver.

I don't understand all these other theories? 

A few reasons the nearest driver may not get the call: 
either you rated the pax or the pax rated you 3 stars or less. In that case you are not getting the call no matter how close you are. 
Your phone carrier signal is weak and it's not making the connection with Lyft. 
You're using a beta and they are having issues and you're not getting any requests (this is why I don't volunteer for ap beta testing).


----------



## cin90

Can you then explain the LAX pings we've all read about here?


----------



## andaas

osii said:


> All requests go to the nearest driver.
> 
> I don't understand all these other theories?
> 
> A few reasons the nearest driver may not get the call:
> either you rated the pax or the pax rated you 3 stars or less. In that case you are not getting the call no matter how close you are.
> Your phone carrier signal is weak and it's not making the connection with Lyft.
> You're using a beta and they are having issues and you're not getting any requests (this is why I don't volunteer for ap beta testing).


Lyft clearly states that it is not *always* nearest driver. This is from the driver help pages, you can view the page here:
https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/214584737-How-Drivers-and-Passengers-are-Paired

*How Drivers and Passengers are Paired*
_In order to keep drivers as busy as possible while also keeping ETAs low for passengers, requests are dispatched to the driver who will arrive soonest. When you drop off a passenger, it's likely that your next request will be close by.

*If you've dropped someone off and have been waiting for a longer period of time, the chances of your next request being further away increase. This is all in the interest of keeping you busy and maximizing earnings!* Metrics such as ratings, acceptance, or cancellation rates do not factor into whether or not you receive a request._
~~

I will note that the above does not completely jive with my receiving 10+ mile pickup requests within seconds of logging on; although it is plausible that there were simply no other drivers nearby.


----------



## ClevelandUberRider

When you just log on, one would surmise that you are much more alert and pumped up to go than another driver either at his home or in a parking lot in the city who has been waiting for a ping for 30 minutes. If you are 10 minutes away from the dropped pin and there is another driver 7-8 minutes away who has been idle for 30 minutes, I would bet on your getting there faster.


----------



## Manotas

Whatever it is it sucks, last night I finally got a ping from Lyft after more than an hr. online from a 4.1 Pax 10 minutes away. I ignored it


----------



## ClevelandUberRider

That's a long wait time if one doesn't have paperwork to do in the car while waiting.


----------



## cin90

andaas said:


> Lyft clearly states that it is not *always* nearest driver. This is from the driver help pages, you can view the page here:
> https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/214584737-How-Drivers-and-Passengers-are-Paired
> 
> I will note that the above does not completely jive with my receiving 10+ mile pickup requests within seconds of logging on; although it is plausible that there were simply no other drivers nearby.


Yep - this is more along the lines of what I've heard.

The area I live in is just so dead so I chalk up less pings because of that. Have to hit 'hot spots' to get some pangs!


----------



## Manotas

cin90 said:


> Yep - this is more along the lines of what I've heard.
> 
> The area I live in is just so dead so I chalk up less pings because of that. Have to hit 'hot spots' to get some pangs!


That's a problem for me, Miami only gets those little pink squares for a few minutes and disappear, maybe if they did a little more advertising here but I guess they just want to settle with L.A. first


----------



## cin90

I think L.A. is WAAAAY behind some of the other big cities. Feels like everyone here has a car and if they don't, they prefer public transportation. Though, improved, our public transportation system is weak compared to other big cities but affordable, generally speaking.

And as far as Lyft goes....definitely not as well known in these parts. Certainly well-used in some cities and in others not even heard of.


----------



## AllenChicago

*FEBRUARY 20, 2016 

A LYFT "WISH LIST" QUESTION...

What are the top 2 or 3 things that you would like to see the LYFT corporation change, enhance, do away with, etc., to make your experience of driving for Lyft more enjoyable and/or profitable?
*
Personally, I would like to see:
1.) The ability to use our Lyft app to limit the radius for pick-up/delivery of passengers to a max of _____ miles. To be able to turn this feature off/on, just like we can do now with the "destination filter".

2.) *More than just the simple "222 Summit Street"* show up as the destination after pressing the "Arrive For Johnnie" button. * I need to see a city...* so at least I'll know about how far away the destination is, and in what direction. In big city suburbs, every town has a "Summit Street". When there's the slightest doubt, I ask the passenger before we start our trip. (Believe it or not, sometimes Google starts you out in an impractical direction.)

3.) If we're in an area where "Prime Time ____% More!" is on our screens for 1/2 hour or more, and we don't get a ride request, pay us a guarantee commission for that time invested. Sometimes I get an e-mail saying that I'm eligible for a $17.00 per hour guarantee, but those hours are outside of my available times for driving. If demand is "supposedly" high enough for PRIME TIME from 12noon to 1pm, and I don't get a ride request in that time span, there should still be a commission paid.

*Everyone, please share the items at the top of your personal Lyft "Wish List". Thank-you in advance!  *
*
-Allen

*


----------



## KekeLo

Hi AllenChicago, how about showing the PT before the drivers accept the pings?


----------



## AllenChicago

KekeLo said:


> Hi AllenChicago, how about showing the PT before the drivers accept the pings?


Yep..that would be great, KekeLo! You just reminded me to add another WISH to my list. Thanx!


----------



## Contuber

Seems like Lyft counts ALL earnings, including TIPS, toward the guarantee cap. I think it's wrong, tips belong to the driver.


----------



## AshyLarry81

macchiato said:


> Because it still happens...
> View attachment 25446


That's nothing. When I was doing this in NJ, I once got a request from Atlantic City when I was in East Brunswick (approx. 95 miles and 1 hr 30 minutes away)


----------

