# Say Yes to the Power Bonus



## ldriva (Jan 23, 2015)

Some of you may have gotten a one question survey asking if you would drive more for a 20% bonus. I think this is a survey for them to evaluate whether to keep the Power Drive Bonus or not. I personally will not drive 50 hours to get the bonus(I'm not burning my car into the ground and have another business to run), but I know this is a great benefit for people who drive full-time. Say yes for them


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## txdriver (Mar 15, 2015)

Or do you think they are trying to increase the number hours required to receive the bonus? I would drive more to receive an addition bonus but if they increase the number of hours to receive the current bonus, I might cut back from 50+ hours that I already drive.


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## ldriva (Jan 23, 2015)

txdriver said:


> Or do you think they are trying to increase the number hours required to receive the bonus? I would drive more to receive an addition bonus but if they increase the number of hours to receive the current bonus, I might cut back from 50+ hours that I already drive.


From their past newsletters, it seems like they are trying to decide whether to keep it or not. It was originally put in place when they started taking commission and they kept extending it.


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## Montgomery (Jan 7, 2015)

Or they might cut the rates using the Uber math that equals drivers make more when rates are cut.


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## UberRyan (Oct 8, 2014)

I just started with Lyft and this seems like a decent option., especially here in Boston Lyft is so quiet that outside of the city I can leave the app on for several hours at a time without any pings. . meaning no commission for the weekend gig.


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## Showa50 (Nov 30, 2014)

I tried going for PDB and found it very difficult. It'd be nice if they included some type of in app log so you could see how your doing. 

You're basically guessing the whole week about whether or not you're on track.


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## txdriver (Mar 15, 2015)

Showa50 said:


> I tried going for PDB and found it very difficult. It'd be nice if they included some type of in app log so you could see how your doing.
> 
> You're basically guessing the whole week about whether or not you're on track.


Don't you get a daily summary? That should tell you how many hours you have driven with number of peak hours covered. Along with that, you should have an accurate record of how many hours you drive for your own record, just in case it doesn't match up to what you are paid for. Hope they keep it since that really does give me more incentive to drive.

Just wish they would ping me with pax that are less than 10 minutes away. Been getting a lot of pings that are 10 minutes or more, especially when I'm in the red hot zone and takes me away from prime time


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## Showa50 (Nov 30, 2014)

txdriver said:


> Don't you get a daily summary? That should tell you how many hours you have driven with number of peak hours covered. Along with that, you should have an accurate record of how many hours you drive for your own record, just in case it doesn't match up to what you are paid for. Hope they keep it since that really does give me more incentive to drive.
> 
> Just wish they would ping me with pax that are less than 10 minutes away. Been getting a lot of pings that are 10 minutes or more, especially when I'm in the red hot zone and takes me away from prime time


Yeah I did get the summary. But every time I thought I did 10hrs in a day it would always be off by a couple hours.

I found it difficult to drive for such a long period with out any meaningful break. I'd have to do 12hr shifts each day if I wanted to include a lunch or just time to walk around and stretch after being on my ass for so long.

Plus adjusting my normal driving schedule to accommodate the power hours was a challenge. I drive days, so I'd have to include some evening driving some where if I wanted the bonus.

Those long ass pings are definitely a deal breaker. I'd frequently get 20min pings that were actually 45 with traffic. You'd think you're ok not to take it because the acceptance requirement gives you a little play to skip some. But then that pax would ping you again.


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## Showa50 (Nov 30, 2014)

upnetuser said:


> Their pickup radius is a joke. I can't imagine how many 4 to 15 mile away pings I would end up getting doing Lyft for 50 hours. I got plenty just the handful of hours I have driven with them.


After getting a few of these crazy long ass pings I decided any benefit via the driving bonus would be eaten up by these insane pings.


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## Showa50 (Nov 30, 2014)

ldriva said:


> Some of you may have gotten a one question survey asking if you would drive more for a 20% bonus. I think this is a survey for them to evaluate whether to keep the Power Drive Bonus or not. I personally will not drive 50 hours to get the bonus(I'm not burning my car into the ground and have another business to run), but I know this is a great benefit for people who drive full-time. Say yes for them


BTW the survey question did not mention the PDB.

It asked if there was no commission would you drive more.


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## ldriva (Jan 23, 2015)

Showa50 said:


> BTW the survey question did not mention the PDB.
> 
> It asked if there was no commission would you drive more.


The PDB is basically no commission. They have been trying to get rid of it for awhile. It was put it placed when Lyft first starting taking commission and was suppose to be temporarily. A lot of their newsletters have mentioned them evaluating whether to keep it or not. That's why I think they sent out the survey even if they didn't specifically mention it.


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## Lidman (Nov 13, 2014)

The problem with these, "power bonus' ", and guarantees and whatever extra incentives uber offers the drivers is like musical chairs. There's so many obstacles in their stipulations, that many drivers will be disqualified. It would be interesting if all the driver in a particular area were there seems to be a lot of them (like la, etc) followed the requirements to the latter. I actually think they rely on a low % of drivers qualifying for them.


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## Showa50 (Nov 30, 2014)

ldriva said:


> The PDB is basically no commission. They have been trying to get rid of it for awhile. It was put it placed when Lyft first starting taking commission and was suppose to be temporarily. A lot of their newsletters have mentioned them evaluating whether to keep it or not. That's why I think they sent out the survey even if they didn't specifically mention it.


PDB came into play last year when Lyft started cutting rates and drivers were getting pissed. Lyft has always taken a commission, they also had commission free hours via the power driving hours.


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## CLAkid (Oct 23, 2014)

ldriva said:


> Some of you may have gotten a one question survey asking if you would drive more for a 20% bonus. I think this is a survey for them to evaluate whether to keep the Power Drive Bonus or not. I personally will not drive 50 hours to get the bonus(I'm not burning my car into the ground and have another business to run), but I know this is a great benefit for people who drive full-time. Say yes for them


When I read this it seemed like they were asking if we would drive more if they did not take our 20% commission. It wasn't clear if they were talking about the Power Bonus or not. In any event, the Power Bonus does not work for me. There are not enough peak hours and there's too much driving. If they really want to help, they can give us back a percentage based on how much we drive in general, with no minimum amount of hours or peak times.


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## txdriver (Mar 15, 2015)

Looks like they are keeping the bonus till end of June. Just got the email.


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## CLAkid (Oct 23, 2014)

The power bonus does not help me. There are not enough peak hours and you have to drive too many hours to get something. In the beginning, they used to give some kind of a percentage back even if you drove even a little bit.


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## Rubyson&sme (Dec 1, 2014)

They just announced that they were getting rid of the options to pre-schedule hours, which is good, because it probably wasn't legal anyway.

But as it pertains to the Power Driver Bonus, its easily doable for me on the 30 hr. deal, but, you have to monitor close when your phone is off the "in driver mode" screen. They nick you for every little second that you are not in driver mode, especially. I use two phones, my main phone for "Lyft driver mode" and the other for everything else, even monitoring "Lyft prime time," and Uber everything. The long trips thing is manageable, but, you have to figure it out yourself. Its pretty simple if you can use intuitive skill. Are you willing to give up a huge fare or not? I've only been burned really badly by driving to an 18 min. fare that turned out to be a $4.oo fare once. After that I came up creative counter measures.

They are in no way forgiving on less than full performance. You must have more than enough hours, have over your peak hours and acceptance rate above 90%. I also keep a journal of all the pings I get (even cancels), the time of the ping/arrival/4 minute call/cancel ride chg pax time., On pickups name and rating, and I try to note when they refuse GPS/or try *not* to give me a solid address upfront and want to "direct me." Which is nearly always an opening to blame me for any glitches in their instructions and unhappiness with the trip in someway.

I've made mistakes on getting the PDB but I've learned from them and don't let Lyft screw me over anymore...well as best I can.


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## Showa50 (Nov 30, 2014)

I don't understand why they asked the survey question if they planned on extending it. Or why now they decided to include that Web page, that's really a nice tool and something that should have been done when they implemented this bonus structure last year. 

No way I'm changing my my driving habits now, Uber is paying way better with surge. And it's easier to get to my goals.


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## UberXTampa (Nov 20, 2014)

Showa50 said:


> I don't understand why they asked the survey question if they planned on extending it. Or why now they decided to include that Web page, that's really a nice tool and something that should have been done when they implemented this bonus structure last year.
> 
> No way I'm changing my my driving habits now, Uber is paying way better with surge. And it's easier to get to my goals.


First Lyft has to make the app make a sound when a request comes and it is running in the background.
All bonuses should be removed and instead the driver cut (Lyft take) should be set to flat 10%. 
Last thing I need to know is how to manage my driving with so many gimmicks. 
We don't want any gimmicks just a flat and better driver payout. Already I am missing more than half of Lyft requests because I run Uber and Lyft together and Uber wants to be the alpha app in the foreground. While Lyft runs in background, an alert pops up but a sound is not there. I miss more than I fullfill because of that.


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## CLAkid (Oct 23, 2014)

The power driver bonus in a scam. They should not be taking minutes off the hour if you turn the app off because you might need a bathroom break. and why would there be peak hours for rush hour on Monday but not Tuesday to Friday? The answer is they don't want you to get the bonus. For me, this is a very Uber ish tactic on Lyft's part. Either do it or don't do it at all.


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