# Power Drivers: Hours or Rides?



## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

Apparently Lyft has made the change to rides instead of hours accumulated for Power Drivers in several markets.

Here is what is going to happen when this awful decision comes to Indianapolis:

Multiple destination passengers will be told that I will wait, but only if I can end the ride and start a new one when you are ready to continue. No, I will not "keep the meter running" I will either turn it off and wait for you to get back in the car so you can ping me again when I turn it back on - or, I will leave it on and if I get pinged by someone else, you'll have to get another ride. Expect my star average to fall. 

Long destination passengers take up too much precious time when I could be driving more people shorter distances to make bonus so...- "oops, I mistakenly ended your ride. Would you ping me again, or would you rather get out here on the highway?" I can't be spending quality multiple passenger time to take you all the way to the airport for a single ride. It has to be at least two. 

Sunday afternoon when I need 10 more rides to make bonus, I'm driving my wife ten times around the block. It will cost me $15 in safe rider fees to keep 20% of my weekly fares - good investment. If I need 5 more peak hour rides I will drive my wife around the block 5 times during peak hours instead of being available to Lyft customers during peak hours. 

Lyft - if you're reading this... you get the behavior you motivate. You want us to be available to your customers during peak times and you want us to prefer short rides over longer more lucrative rides, then prepare to have your customers treated accordingly. We will behave exactly as you seem to want us to. 

Yesterday I booked over $150. 4 rides. On a MONDAY. You want to turn that upside down on me, make it a disadvantage to drive long distances with a passenger? Change my motivation, and I will change my habits and I do not think your customers will like it. 

Do you know what happened when Uber decided to take away the cancellation fee for waiting for a no-show passenger? I stopped waiting for all passengers that were not waiting for me. I turned a 5 minute no fee wait into a 10 second no fee wait. 

Do you think Uber passengers are happy with that?

Do you think Lyft passengers are going to like having to pay multiple trust and safety fees because you're driving (no pun intended) the wrong behavior?


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## rickybobby (Jul 13, 2015)

nice post. couldnt agree more. i drive San Diego and pretty pissed off about this change. that red headed step child called the lyft app running in the background of my uber app just got pushed back even further from the priority list. the power drive bonus is a huge distinction between the two companies and shows that lyft really does care about their drivers. making this bonus only achievable to the .0001% of drivers is a huge slap in the face.


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## Andrew Thun (Oct 27, 2015)

I can't speak on this particular promotion, but I do know on some of lyft's previous guarantees that used # of rides as a variable, they restricted the # of rides you can give a single rider to 2. More rides than that and they don't count toward your total ride count. So if you are 14 rides away from your bonus, giving your wife 14 rides around the block will only give you 2 rides toward your bonus. 

Like I said, I don't know if this is the same for this bonus but just be aware that it may be. Read the fine print.


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

It's not a promotion Andrew Thun - it's the Power Driver option available all the time to all the drivers throughout the Lyft platform.

Currently, you have to have a 90% acceptance rate or higher, be available to drive 50 hours a week, and 10 of those hours have to be peak hours.

Jump through those hoops, and pay zero commission to Lyft. All Lyft gets from Power Drivers is trust and safety fees. It's like every single ride is an UberX 1.5x surge.

They're changing that 50 hour requirement to a variable number of RIDES per week, as if we can possibly control the variables of Lyft marketing and market share. In San Francisco, drivers have to give 110 rides a week, and 40 of them have to be during peak periods.

I average 35 rides a week, with the app on for 50 hours, and peak times actually suck, driving people home from the bars can mean long distances with multiple drop offs, which takes more time than it's worth if I'm trying to maximize the number of rides per hour.

So, a car full of drunks - account holder gets dropped off last, and each destination is a separate ping and deliver or they can get some Uber driver to take them, I will have passengers to carry short distances as fast as I can get from the bar to the college and back.


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

I do 40-45 hours every week usually...In my market there's no way I can hit 110 rides. At most I have hit 85.

This will definitely discourage people from working in the suburbs, which are already underserved. 

But Lyft has some pretty smart people working there - they know what they're doing, unfortunately. It will definitely increase their profit. The thing is Lyft will still have the guarantees and tips, and I think they have enough dissatisfied Uber drivers now to start screwing us.

Once Power Driver goes away in my market, I will be looking for another job, and only trying to do the guarantees, at 1 ride an hour.


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

MiddleClassedOut said:


> But Lyft has some pretty smart people working there


I'll bet none of them have ever driven 100 passengers a week. 
I'll further bet none of them have driven midnight - 4am bar(f) crowds - 40 rides a weekend.

The problem that I see is disillusioned drivers that say "screw it, I'll put Uber back on"
Those of us that stay with Lyft will have to be satisfied with the occasional bonus, either 10% or the unreachable 20%.

If they are "smart people" like you say MiddleClassedOut then they will adjust to each market according to historical and seasonal demand.

I would have thought Thanksgiving would be busy - but here in the heartland, it was family time - no one needed a ride. I had my most disappointing week in 6 months but still made power driver because it's hour based, not ride based.

Bottom line: It's not our fault there are fewer Lyft passengers. I give my promo card to every Uber pax - I'm doing what I can to help them, but they take that help and then shove this down my throat.


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## andaas (May 19, 2015)

While I am also not happy about this change when it rolls out everywhere, you do seem to be assuming that the 110 ride target will be used in your market. Given that you are doing ~35 rides in 50 hours on average currently, your market will likely have a 40 ride target like Salt Lake City.

So yes, this sucks. But no, it's probably not the end of the world, either.


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

Yeah, I wonder what it will be in this area...

I see Salt Lake City is at 40 rides alone...but 15 have to be peak, which I bet is difficult in that area. 

The other problem for me is the 2011 or newer car. I am not buying a new car for Lyft, not when I can get another job and drive this reliable 2009 Nissan into the ground.


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## andaas (May 19, 2015)

Exactly, the car requirement is the bigger issue for me. My 2010 Mazda is like new, most people think it's a current year model.


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

DieselkW said:


> then they will adjust to each market according to historical and seasonal demand.





andaas said:


> you do seem to be assuming that the 110 ride target will be used in your market.


I'm not assuming every market will be 110, as I said I expect they will adjust each market based on historical data.

The car model year is not a problem for me, my biggest problem is long distance rides and multiple drop off rides getting in the way of making bonus.

I absolutely will be "accidentally" ending the ride about halfway - and have the pax ping again. Same with multiple drop offs, every drop is the end of the ride, you want to continue, ping me again or get out right now so I can catch another ride. I'll drive my wife maximum times a day, and my brother in law as well and reimburse him.

I'll set up a meeting place with other Lyft drivers so we can drive each other - you drive me and I'll drive you 100% acceptance rates and 5 stars for all.


_Lyft Help _
_Driving With Lyft_
_Connect with Other Drivers_
_ 
* Driver Event Coordinator Program Overview*

*What is the Driver Event Coordinator Program?*

The Driver Event Coordinator Program supports our tribe of trusted drivers who work on creative ways to bring the community together. Every Lyft city should experience the magic of meetups, where strong bonds are forged within our communities. Get started by hosting your first event!
_​
Go ahead Lyft. I'll work a way around your work around.


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## andaas (May 19, 2015)

I'm just saying that you are assuming the targets will not be within the scope of your current weekly ride averages. Until this gets implemented network-wide, there really is no knowing what will be in store for each market.

The entire concept may fall on its face in the 3 test markets and it may never be implemented or may go through several changes along the way.


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

I agree, worrying about something that hasn't happened yet. 
I'm prepared for whatever they throw at me.


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## rickybobby (Jul 13, 2015)

andaas said:


> I'm just saying that you are assuming the targets will not be within the scope of your current weekly ride averages. Until this gets implemented network-wide, there really is no knowing what will be in store for each market.
> 
> The entire concept may fall on its face in the 3 test markets and it may never be implemented or may go through several changes along the way.


Being a San Diego driver here.....I sure hope this stupid experiement fails real quick. What a stupid idea to change to rides instead of hours.


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## Andrew Thun (Oct 27, 2015)

DieselkW said:


> It's not a promotion Andrew Thun - it's the Power Driver option available all the time to all the drivers throughout the Lyft platform.


per the email I received (see attached pic), it's a promotion. But I'm not here to tell you how to run your business. Just to share my understanding of how things work. You don't have to listen or believe what I have to say.


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

Well of course they're going to call it a "promotion" now that they're taking it away, they want to be able to say they never meant for it to be "permanent".

Does "power driver" sound like a temporary promotion to you? Promotional incentives last for weeks, not years. Admittedly, I was not interested in being a Lyft or Uber driver in August of 2014 while I was employed so I don't know if they initially described the power driver "promotion" as a temporary incentive or not. Seems to me if it was a temporary promotion, they would just end it, not adjust it to make it suit them better in the long term.

It got them a bunch of loyal drivers, and now they're going to shoot themselves in the foot unless the new hoop to jump through is as attainable as the old hoop I've been jumping through for the last few weeks since backing off on my Uber time.

It's not a matter of "believing" what you say Andrew Thun , it's my understanding of marketing that makes me doubt this was ever intended to be anything but permanent.


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