# So lyft is pretty much sayin *** the part timers.....



## GordonShumway (Sep 1, 2014)

Email says now they wont be paying the 15 hour bonus anymore. Now these pansies are pretty much expecting drivers to do almost full time hours to qualify for a bonus. Even though it wasn't much at 5%, it just more and more they are begining to take away from the drivers. Oh, and that new tipping feature aint helping much either. I believe the new tipping feature is actually hurting instead of helping. Anyone else notice a drop in tips?


----------



## Swed (Jul 20, 2014)

And also counting driver cancelations as part of the 90% acceptance qualification makes it impossible, in NJ at least, to ever qualify for a driving bonus again.


----------



## jmana (Sep 2, 2014)

Yeah, and to make people drive 10 hours in their "peak times" which would force people to only have their app open Friday and Saturday nights. Well they can kiss my ass, this dangling carrot in front of me that keeps getting further away isn't enough for me to work for them exclusively, especially when I make 5 times more with Uber. Even if I would get the 20% back it wouldn't amount to much considering the pathetic amount of rides I get with Lyft. Oh, and from the email it looks like they will be doing away with the power driver bonus altogether at the end of November. Way to screw your drivers, Lyft. And here in Raleigh they are completely doing away with rider referrals. So they completely lied to us when they said it would always be $10 to refer a new passenger. Not surprising really, they have lied about most everything. Oh, and the latest email says "Remember: You can still refer your friends to drive and earn $50 after they complete their first 20 rides within their first month." Hmmm, we just got an email about a week ago stating it was $100. They are idiots, I don't know why anyone would be loyal to this joke of a company.


----------



## driveLA (Aug 15, 2014)

Lyft is slow slow I've only ever managed to get the 5% incentive. 

Usually about 10 measly dollars. 

Big whoop. Lyft want to keep that so bad, they can keep it. 

Lyft is failing so bad. Pity at one point it was a viable alternative.


----------



## MKEUber (Aug 20, 2014)

Swed said:


> And also counting driver cancelations as part of the 90% acceptance qualification makes it impossible, in NJ at least, to ever qualify for a driving bonus again.


Why wouldn't they count it when a driver cancels on a rider? Uber always had.


----------



## haohmaru (Sep 18, 2014)

Personally, Lyft has been really disappointing for me on an income level but these new Power Driver requirements are actually going to help me a little. How? Since there's no way I'm driving 10 "peak" hours (out of 17 total to choose from in the Jacksonville area. 17, that's right - split all over the place) thereby not having a chance in hell of ever qualifying for the bonus, I don't have to worry about 90% acceptance rate ever again. Therefore, any ride that's 10+ minutes out is going to be subsequently ignored without fear of losing the driver bonus that I'm no longer going to receive anyway. Before, I kind of had to take that long ride or risk losing my 5 or 10%. Not anymore.


----------



## Oc_DriverX (Apr 29, 2014)

It is sometimes very "freeing" when you know that a certain guarantee or promotion is un-doable. It allows you to concentrate on making decisions based on your bottom line, and not some other convoluted temporary formula.


----------



## jmana (Sep 2, 2014)

haohmaru said:


> Personally, Lyft has been really disappointing for me on an income level but these new Power Driver requirements are actually going to help me a little. How? Since there's no way I'm driving 10 "peak" hours (out of 17 total to choose from in the Jacksonville area. 17, that's right - split all over the place) thereby not having a chance in hell of ever qualifying for the bonus, I don't have to worry about 90% acceptance rate ever again. Therefore, any ride that's 10+ minutes out is going to be subsequently ignored without fear of losing the driver bonus that I'm no longer going to receive anyway. Before, I kind of had to take that long ride or risk losing my 5 or 10%. Not anymore.


I know exactly what you mean. I have been dreading getting the ride request thats's 20 minutes away and having to calculate in my head within 15 seconds what my acceptance rate will be if I don't accept. Lately I've been accepting then putting my phone in airplane mode, which sucks for the passenger but 90% is hard to hit when you're only getting 20 rides per week! I had one this weekend that really pissed me off, I drove 3 people home, but the one guy wanted me to take him to his place, and tells me to end the ride and he'll request another one from his phone. So I end it and almost immediately get a request. Thinking it was his I accepted, but then realized it wasn't and the person I accepted was 15 minutes away. I called this lady to explain what happened, and told her to cancel and request another, but she wouldn't cancel! So I'm sitting with this guy in my car waiting for her to cancel so I can give this guy a ride home, and after a few minutes thought F-it and cancelled it myself, but that gave me 2 cancellations for the week, and I had only done 17 rides. Low and behold I didn't get any more Lyft rides that night, so my acceptance rate was under 90%. Only 1 ride away. So I installed the app on my 12 year old son's phone, put my promo code in, and drove him to the fair  Got $25 for the ride, $10 for the referral, and my acceptance rate is at a solid 90%, LOL!


----------



## Realityshark (Sep 22, 2014)

Forget bonuses. Spend more time cultivating other revenue streams and you'll be better off in the long run.


----------



## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

Yeah, you need to game the Lyft bonus systems. I have requested myself for guarantee hours (probably need to make another account now), had my girlfriend request me and then not press arrive for 20 mins to stay online without having to do a real request to hit the 50 hour, etc...

Obviously they do it differently in different markets. In Philly there has never been a 5% bonus as far as I know, just the 30/10% and 50/20%.

I do well vs the long distance requests by sending this text:
"I'm showing an ETA of over 10 minutes/3 miles. I'm happy to pick you up if you'll agree to a $13 pickup fee to compensate for my gas and time. Cash or charge. If not, please cancel. There may be another driver closer to your location in a few minutes."

I vary the fee depending on the time, since I figure my time is worth $20/hr, gas is another buck or two. So far no takers, but they cancel right quick so I don't have to take the acceptance rate hit.

I actually emailed Lyft about this and they didn't say I can't do it. We are independent contractors, the rates on both platforms are open to negotiation. The PAX are our customers, not Lyft or Uber's.


----------



## ocbob2 (Aug 18, 2015)

Oc_DriverX said:


> It is sometimes very "freeing" when you know that a certain guarantee or promotion is un-doable. It allows you to concentrate on making decisions based on your bottom line, and not some other convoluted temporary formula.


I made the 10% Bonus (30 hours) my first two weeks and it was about $35-37. To be fair, I am acting like a newbie and accepting almost everything before Saturday hits so I have wiggle room to reject a low rated pax or a far away ping but overall, it probably cost me to aim for that 30 hours =10% back. I rarely drive Friday nights anymore as it pretty much sucks but I really want to give Lyft all my attention and work hours I had not worked with Uber. Hard to count Halloween weekend (so far doing well with the OC guarantees this Friday) but it is probably best I don't follow the craziness of hitting 10 peak hours out of 14 and the need to turn my app on at 9am Sunday morning for 45 minutes to get my quota and hope no one pings me again from 9 miles away! Lucky me that person cancelled when I didn't move as I needed the dreaded 90% acceptance rate and that might drop me. Sucks you have to wait the next day to see some of the stats you need to see how you are doing. A ton of work for what really might be $1.50 more an hour (some of my hours are padded as I might be at home for 2 hours before a ping). I hope for Lyft but I will come to the conclusion that working regular Lyft in OC won't be profitable except Saturdays and tips are not as great as I thought they would be from hearing from other drivers.


----------



## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

For those of you that don't think Lyft tips amount to anything... My Friday statement was worth $160 in fares, and $25 in tips. That's 15%. 9 rides two non-tippers. None of them gave me a cash tip, which is unusual.

9 rides for $185 averages $20/pax.

Uber average pax value is less than $10 over the last 6 months. 

I only turn Uber on when I need to be reminded how much of a drag it is to be in a car with a pax that has an insufferably snotty attitude.


----------



## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

I roll my eyes at some pings - 10 miles and 15 minutes away... gotta have that 90% so I go anyway.
If I'm ever in danger of falling below 90%, I just have my wife ping me for a ride. I'm getting 100% of the fares anyway, so the money it costs to drive my wife is "reimbursed" except for TSF. So, it costs $1.55 to get 20% of my week. That's a no brainer.

If it gets really bad, I have her ping, cancel until I get the numbers up. I didn't know how fortunate I was to have 20 peak hours to choose from, although they're all stacked up on the weekends.


----------



## ocbob2 (Aug 18, 2015)

DieselkW said:


> For those of you that don't think Lyft tips amount to anything... My Friday statement was worth $160 in fares, and $25 in tips. That's 15%. 9 rides two non-tippers. None of them gave me a cash tip, which is unusual.
> 
> 9 rides for $185 averages $20/pax.
> 
> ...


I hope that is normal but I got last week a few $2 and $1 on the weekend. I rarely get tips during the day. It seems there are crossover riders that use Uber. I will pull out the water when I arrive and notice the fare will be decent. I never had water on Uber X. I am hoping they see it, appreciate it but not drink it. Costco little bottles. 10 rides yesterday and 1 was drank. I hope I see that he tipped.


----------



## ocbob2 (Aug 18, 2015)

Ok, got my lyft statement and got $5 from a neighbor ( I hope he and I match up more often and don't know him), a young guy that felt sorry for me that his buddy got into an uber when he ordered him a lyft. This guy let me min ride it to get a ride in and also gave me $4. I now notice he also gave me $5! 2 rides before gave a few bucks so turned out to be 40% in tips. Guy that drank the water I offered gave no tip. He didn't speak English either but I think tipping is done in Mexico. I do have a live one. Nikki is a bartender at a bar on Main Street in Huntington Beach. Upstairs bar I think called 2nd (something) . I hope to make a visit, order a drink from the nice girl and then leave no tip but write on the tip line from my prepaid visa receipt, "5 star rating!" Next time, tip your Lyft driver."


----------



## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

Water bottles, IMO, are not tip improvement devices. 

You want tips? Be the life of the party. Tell stories, make them laugh, engage them - entertain them - make them exceedingly happy they "lucked out" and got you as their driver. 

I know... I know... I'm not that guy when I first wake up, be it at 6am or 1am - but I see $5 tips on minimum $4 rides and remember that pax was saying: "thank-you soooo much for the ride, I had so much fun in such a short time, I hope I see you again" 

Then again, I will drive 10 miles to give a $5 ride. I accept almost all my pings, I like people and I like talking and I probably should have been a stand up. My Lyft comments come back: "I wish he could be my driver every time"

I got a 4* no tip stiff this week because I mistakenly and regretfully dropped an "F" bomb on a bible carrying church lady. Saw the change in her demeanor immediately. Could not un-ring that bell and lesson learned to bite my tongue. I tried, but I could not get her to open up again after that. 

Can't get 'em all.


----------



## grayspinner (Sep 8, 2015)

I've gotten a couple of tips after my daily summary comes out, so don't be so quick to retaliate


----------



## drivinindc (Aug 23, 2015)

DieselkW said:


> Water bottles, IMO, are not tip improvement devices.
> 
> You want tips? Be the life of the party.


Don't even need to do that; I'm no comedian, but I can chit-chat, ask them about their job/family/pets, give them a cheerful thought at the end of the ride.

For the price of that and some mints, I average ~10% tips on Lyft.


----------



## everythingsuber (Sep 29, 2015)

I struggle with the water bottle and mints thing. As a kid I was taught never take lollies from strangers the idea of offering lollies to strangers just has a creepy feel to it. Trying too hard. Being pleasant and taking an interest in people who want to engage in conversation with you on the other hand works fairly well.


----------



## rickybobby (Jul 13, 2015)

MiddleClassedOut said:


> Yeah, you need to game the Lyft bonus systems. I have requested myself for guarantee hours (probably need to make another account now), had my girlfriend request me and then not press arrive for 20 mins to stay online without having to do a real request to hit the 50 hour, etc...
> 
> Obviously they do it differently in different markets. In Philly there has never been a 5% bonus as far as I know, just the 30/10% and 50/20%.
> 
> ...


Does that surcharge work for you? Or do they just cancel on you? I'm thinking this would be a good tactic for Lyft Plus as there are not many of those around in San Diego and the pax would prefer to get picked up now in my SUV as opposed to waiting and hoping they don't get the dreaded "No Lyft Plus available" message or having to order two cars and probably pay just as much as that surcharge your suggesting.


----------



## drivinindc (Aug 23, 2015)

everythingsuber said:


> I struggle with the water bottle and mints thing. As a kid I was taught never take lollies from strangers the idea of offering lollies to strangers just has a creepy feel to it. Trying too hard. Being pleasant and taking an interest in people who want to engage in conversation with you on the other hand works fairly well.


Water costs too much to offer it; I have some for myself, but I only ever give them away if someone asks and maybe one person a month does.

Offering candy would indeed be creepy. I just have a little bag on the back of the front passenger seat with cheap hard candy and a note saying "help yourself." I never bring it up, but people say nice things about it on the feedback all the time.


----------



## drivinindc (Aug 23, 2015)

rickybobby said:


> Does that surcharge work for you? Or do they just cancel on you? I'm thinking this would be a good tactic for Lyft Plus as there are not many of those around in San Diego and the pax would prefer to get picked up now in my SUV as opposed to waiting and hoping they don't get the dreaded "No Lyft Plus available" message or having to order two cars and probably pay just as much as that surcharge your suggesting.


I don't even offer the surcharge; I just tell them my ETA is ten minutes and if they cancel someone else can get there sooner; thing is, in my city (DC) that's usually true.

If you're doing Lyft Plus, that probably isn't ... otoh, if you call them and they confirm "yes, we still want you to come," odds are they will indeed wait.


----------



## BostonBarry (Aug 31, 2015)

Very happy with my results in Boston driving 99% Lyft.


----------



## rickybobby (Jul 13, 2015)

BostonBarry said:


> Very happy with my results in Boston driving 99% Lyft.


Man that is awesome. Could never get that in San Diego...Lyft is just not that well known here to earn that type of coin.

Good for you though!!! I like the under dog story with Lyft and try to promote them as much as possible. Besides competition for Uber is always a good thing


----------



## SMOTY (Oct 6, 2015)

I'm doing okay. I can have the app open for 10 hours on Monday and get 1,2,3 lyfts my that busy. So I'm on call and ready to roll out anytime!


----------



## rickybobby (Jul 13, 2015)

SMOTY said:


> I'm doing okay. I can have the app open for 10 hours on Monday and get 1,2,3 lyfts my that busy. So I'm on call and ready to roll out anytime!


57 hours online and only 25 rides at $198? Thats terrible! How do you only make $107 on halloween? hope you got some coin with uber as well that night.


----------



## SMOTY (Oct 6, 2015)

rickybobby said:


> 57 hours online and only 25 rides at $198? Thats terrible! How do you only make $107 on halloween? hope you got some coin with uber as well that night.


For Halloween I keep everything 130. But I hit the guarantees from 8-4 so about 250-300 that night from Lyft. I'm just chilling most of the time or doing uber rides. Since Lyft rides aren't that frequent. I can have the app open for 3 and get nothing on the weekends it's busier of course. But yeah I did some coin from uber about 200 Halloween night it was surging like crazy here. So 57 hours but really like 10 hours driving if that. You get me ? See 2 trips on Monday!!


----------



## BostonBarry (Aug 31, 2015)

I did $300 in 5 hours Halloween night. Plus a guarantee bonus on top, guess I was lucky.


----------



## The_One (Sep 9, 2015)

Everyone stop the whining, lyft and Uber both know no matter how low they go you will still drive, Uber and Lyft "one and the same company" and their billionaire investors know how desperate most of you are.


----------



## dpv (Oct 12, 2015)

DieselkW said:


> I roll my eyes at some pings - 10 miles and 15 minutes away... gotta have that 90% so I go anyway.
> If I'm ever in danger of falling below 90%, I just have my wife ping me for a ride. I'm getting 100% of the fares anyway, so the money it costs to drive my wife is "reimbursed" except for TSF. So, it costs $1.55 to get 20% of my week. That's a no brainer.
> 
> If it gets really bad, I have her ping, cancel until I get the numbers up. I didn't know how fortunate I was to have 20 peak hours to choose from, although they're all stacked up on the weekends.


That's not a bad idea. I should get my wife in on the gig for my ratings.


----------



## Steve Joseph (Oct 21, 2015)

GordonShumway said:


> Email says now they wont be paying the 15 hour bonus anymore. Now these pansies are pretty much expecting drivers to do almost full time hours to qualify for a bonus. Even though it wasn't much at 5%, it just more and more they are begining to take away from the drivers. Oh, and that new tipping feature aint helping much either. I believe the new tipping feature is actually hurting instead of helping. Anyone else notice a drop in tips?


I'm not surprised. LYFT is an exact carbon copy of UBER and in some ways worse but in my area the people are a. "generally" nicer and b. generally ready when I arrive. Shortly after using LYFT I realized they were worse than UBER because:

1. Most of their promotions and marketing ideas seemed to be geared towards simply competing with UBER and once they gained enough market share were going to be dropped one by one. e.g - the stache. Originally this was free as far as I understand it. Then LYFT designed a new stache and means of obtaining it that required a driver to be on the road almost consistently to gain high marks in the metrics that determined how you got said stache. The acceptance rate at first seemed easy enough but then you start to get requests for rides that are 12, 18 and heck even 20+ minutes away and refusing those rides affected this rating. Hours driven(be on the road consistently) and the hardest metric I've found was "peak hours". Then to my surprise these were all resets from what they were either at the start of a new month or pay period. I wasn't paying close enough attention to when the change happened but knew I was close on hours and had over a 90% acceptance when I logged in one day to drive and checked my "Power Driver Bonus(10%)" stats. All except Acceptance rate had been reset and even that has now been reset to 100%. Not sure how that could be since I stopped caring to chase their "invisible dream" and had turned down a number of rides or missed them from failing to turn off LYFT while driving for UBER. At one point it was a 43% or very low and now, today it's at 100% even though I have not driven for LYFT in close two weeks. Ok.

2. Their "ride" button. I don't believe it's an innocent mistake that one can so easily request a ride without two step verification that a driver or rider wants to do so. I accidentally hailed rides on two occasions, both of which I had zero intentions of doing so. LYFT billed me the first time and my email to them went nowhere. I think complained on their Facebook page. See point 3.

3. LYFT ONLY responds to public facing messages that could tarnish their public image and place them under scrutiny. While some describe UBER as the "dark lord of evil" reincarnated, I have yet to have UBER NOT respond to a concern or question via their regular communication channels. Good luck with that on LYFT. They responded to my concern once on their Facebook page and never followed up thereafter even though I responded. Now that complaint is buried in a sea of other complaints that have gone unanswered. They have not refunded me the $5 fare even though I, as a UX/UI designer explained the issue with their "Request a ride" and my innocent position of how the ride was requested.

4. One of my first LYFT passengers explained to me how her account was deactivated over a measly $5 and while at first I was wary of her story I soon came to see how this company would in fact do that. Their position is "shut up and get off our platform, you and your question are not welcomed here".

I get/got way more ride requests with UBER and stopped chasing LYFT's claims and promotions. Given how much I make in a day as a UX/UI designer that was something I would benefit from more in pursuing vs any attempts at driving for LYFT full time or even part time.


----------



## BostonBarry (Aug 31, 2015)

1) the requirement for glowstache is 100 lifetime rides, so what are you complaining about? I do 100 rides in 4 weekend days. Real tough to acquire.

2) while their email responses do definitely suck for turnaround time, I have always received an answer. Including today when i reported a driver for accepting my ping just to continue driving away from me and ignore my phone call. And without my even asking they refunded the fare I was charged when I did finally get the dbag driver to cancel and got assigned a great driver who was 15 minutes away instead of 5.

3) you seriously annoyed that promotions end? They're promotions. At their heart they are designed to be temporary. Be glad you had them. When was the last time Uber gave you back any of their commission? And at least my Lyft guarantees aren't fenced into specific areas making me deadhead back to a zone. I consistently get $200-400 per week in bonuses so they aren't an "invisible dream".

4) Request button really needs to be moved away from bottom center where most phone home buttons are. I'll give you that one whole heartedly. 

5) Stats do reset weekly in regaards to bonuses. How is that a bad thing? Rating is over 100 rides which makes it more volatile but it also means it is much easier to recover from a few knuckleheads who rated poorly for the wrong reasons. I'm sure they keep track of your trends like lifetime acceptance, etc. 

6) Uber is more popular here too but my average fare is almost double, my tips average 10% of my gross fares, and I don't pay Lyft any commissions. I crush my Uber net.


----------



## Steve Joseph (Oct 21, 2015)

BostonBarry said:


> 1) the requirement for glowstache is 100 lifetime rides, so what are you complaining about? I do 100 rides in 4 weekend days. Real tough to acquire.
> 
> 2) while their email responses do definitely suck for turnaround time, I have always received an answer. Including today when i reported a driver for accepting my ping just to continue driving away from me and ignore my phone call. And without my even asking they refunded the fare I was charged when I did finally get the dbag driver to cancel and got assigned a great driver who was 15 minutes away instead of 5.
> 
> ...


1. You might have wanted to point out that I was wrong about the stache as as an example period? I definitely mixed up the promotion and stache requirements on that.
2. I'm glad you have always gotten an answer from LYFT but their Facebook page supports and backs my claim 100%. Their response time compared to UBER is dismal at best and I "like" LYFT better than UBER. Beyond the obvious need for competition the passengers, at least in my area are more down to earth. Why would I or the other people who's comments and posts I found across several digital spaces lie about LYFT not refunding them or extending the common courtesy of a response? You do know people generally only leave reviews and comments when they're unhappy about something right?
3. How much do you drive for those bonuses? Are you saying that's profit after all expenses, taxes, gas and savings towards a new vehicle should you need one sooner than your current vehicles expected lifespan since it's being greatly diminished by persistent driving?
4. It has nothing to do with the placement of the button BUT the fact the button can be so easily pressed without validating a user really does intend to hail a ride. Just so you know I don't drive LYFT regularly and never did it longer than a month. I'm a multidisciplinary designer with over 17yrs experience. What LYFT did with the button is a well known desperation tactic used in UI design to trick the user into paying for something they did not want. Google travel insurance and what travel sites do in that regard. Then just like them LYFT makes it extremely difficult to impossible to recoup those funds. Going through your bank? Whether she was lying or not my 4th LYFT passengers account was deactivated for doing just that. 
5. Thanks.
6. That's going to definitely vary for everyone but I'm glad you're doing well with LYFT. Your claim is near impossible in my area because I have taken trips that last over 40 minutes getting to the passenger, dropping them off and coming back for $5. That has NEVER happened with UBER. The trips are short and for the same amount and allows me to stay in the busy area I'm in and get close to their hourly rate. Close being the key word. My tips with UBER rides have ranged from $5-$40 in cash, when I get them and I have also received money for returning items to passengers when I made it absolutely clear once I arrived and saw what they were intending to do that it's not right to accept money for returning lost belongings if I know who the owner is. They vehemently insist.


----------



## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

6 months worth of observations:

Lyft average ride: $15
Uber average ride: $7

Lyft average ping pickup: 10 minutes
Uber average ping pickup: 6 minutes

Lyft average passenger described in one word: Pleasant
Uber average passenger described in one word: Entitled

Average week earnings, Lyft wins by 25-30% because of Power Driver 20% bonus and tips.


----------

