# Missed requests



## ANGRY UBER MAN (Jul 28, 2016)

In my market the average lyft request is over 10 miles away. I just let those pings pass. However Lyft now is trying to strong arm me to take those requests. Here one of the many emails they sent me.

Account Update

Passengers rely on drivers to provide a dependable service, and it's important that you're there for them. We've reached out to you several times about your substantial number of missed ride requests. If this problem continues, you'll affect our ability to keep the platform running smoothly.

It's best for the community when you accept the ride requests you receive, or simply log out of driver mode if you need a break.

Thanks,
The Lyft Team

*I know uber can not deactivate you for not accepting low ratings or far requests but will Lyft deactive you? *


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## Manotas (Dec 2, 2015)

Answer back and ask them if they're going to pay us to go pickup those Pax over 2 miles away? - I suggest if the Pax is within 2.5 miles it's on us, but if the request is more than that then pay us .50 cents per mile or more to drive to the pickup...
Those long distance pickups come with risks to us, the Pax can cancel or give us lower ratings because we took too long to get there


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

Text them and ask them for a $10 pick-up fee for the distance to cover your time and miles. I asked Lyft if there would be any consequences for doing this, they did not say I couldn't. You're an independent contractor, Lyft is the platform. The customer is YOUR customer legally, you can ask for more.

Usually they will just cancel, protecting your acceptance rate.


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## DenverLadee (Jun 14, 2016)

IMO, its Lyft's problem because they don't have enough drivers on the road at that time and thus aren't able to meet demand.


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## ANGRY UBER MAN (Jul 28, 2016)

I read the email carefully and I think Lyft can't do shit about it. All they say "If this problem continues, you’ll affect our ability to keep the platform running smoothly." 

They mention nothing about affecting my ability to continue using the platform. They just say that I am not making it run smoothly for them. I think it is funny they tried to write a treating email with no recourse for consequences.


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## TheBlank (Aug 28, 2016)

You are fighting a losing battle


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## DenverLadee (Jun 14, 2016)

I imagine they are worried about having enough drivers to meet demand. If they can't meet demand, they can't be competitive along side uber. I think the argument could be made that if there arent drivers who accept those pings that are 15+ minutes away, that could easily cause riders to lose confidence in Lyft. If Lyft riders don't think they can easily get a driver then they won't use Lyft, and Lyft will go away. It might be getting to the point where drivers have to "take one for the team" in order to keep Lyft alive.


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## TheBlank (Aug 28, 2016)

The other day, i had one, 20mins away...I accepted, and called her. Told her due to traffic I am a good 30mins away, and told her my location. She was glad i called. She then said she was canceling and calling an Uber instead.


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## litelyfter (May 10, 2016)

DenverLadee said:


> It might be getting to the point where drivers have to "take one for the team" in order to keep Lyft alive.


Uh, no. On longer-distance pickups (for me, over 10 minutes), Lyft should be "taking one" for us, perhaps in the form of lower commission, based on distance.


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## MSUGrad9902 (Jun 8, 2016)

I had one 31 minutes away. It was a Lyft plus so I accepted and immediately called the pax. He said Lyft told him it was going to be 15 minutes. There's no way I can cover 17 miles across town in 15 minutes. He cancelled and ordered an Uber XL. This happens approximately 30% of lyft pings. And it's why I don't drive lyft unless there are sweet guarantees, which there aren't.


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## autofill (Apr 1, 2016)

TheBlank said:


> The other day, i had one, 20mins away...I accepted, and called her. Told her due to traffic I am a good 30mins away, and told her my location. She was glad i called. She then said she was canceling and calling an Uber instead.


It's still mind boggling that pax is surprised when making a request they already know how far away the closest driver is. Any pax who expect a driver to drive 20-30 minutes to pick them up doesn't deserve your service.


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## Old Smokey (Sep 13, 2015)

Just drive for FUBER!!! Why GET deactivated by Lyft, eventually you will get deactivated by FUBER and have no plan B?


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## DenverLadee (Jun 14, 2016)

litelyfter said:


> Uh, no. On longer-distance pickups (for me, over 10 minutes), Lyft should be "taking one" for us, perhaps in the form of lower commission, based on distance.


I like that idea


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## Jimmy Bernat (Apr 12, 2016)

I have a 5 minute pick up limit unless it's mid day or I'm in a weird area I'll sometimes go up to 10min 
I avoid using lyft anywhere but the city because you can get some crazy far requests. I wish they'd put a limit like uber does. I think Uber is a 12 or 15 min limit if there isn't a driver in that area it just says there are no drivers available


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## Puntagor (Sep 2, 2016)

Same problem here


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## kevink (Apr 18, 2016)

Been down this road with them. I have it in writing that we are not required to accept every request...To wit:










*JP* (Lyft)

Sep 5, 6:59 AM PDT

Hey Kevin,

Thanks for the detailed feedback here. I totally understand where you are coming from, as a driver myself, I have experienced requests that are not always around the corner.

I truly hope your experiences in the future are great and you continue driving with Lyft. If there is anything I can help with in the meantime, please let me know.

Best,

JP

Lyft Support Representative

Help Center - http://lyft.com/help
Driver Help Center - http://lyft.com/drive/help
Ask Lyft on Twitter! - http://twitter.com/asklyft

Christine (Lyft)

Aug 23, 4:39 PM PDT

Hey Kevin,

Thanks for following up, and for your patience with this.

You do not need to accept every ride request, and you're right - it's your choice to not accept certain ride requests. The email you were sent was a friendly reminder that accepting every request creates a great experience, but you're not required to do so. The Power Driver Bonus also provides an incentive to accept every ride, but again, you're not obligated.

The two passengers you mentioned who requested Line rides for short distances are actually not abusing the system. There isn't a distance requirement for Line rides, and it's certainly possible that the Line would get matched with another passenger. If, however, you have passengers that ask you to drive farther than their set destination on a Line ride, this is not allowed. In these cases you should definitely ask the passenger to request another ride if they need to go farther than they originally intended.

We appreciate your feedback on far away requests, and please know that feedback from our community is incredibly important to us. We are listening.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.

Best,

Christine
Lyft Support Representative
Help Center - http://lyft.com/help
Ask Lyft on Twitter! - http://twitter.com/asklyft

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2016 9:04 PM
To: 
Subject: Important update about your driver account

Help us provide reliable rides, Kevin.

Passengers rely on drivers to provide a dependable service, and it's important you're there for them. We noticed you've been missing more ride requests than the typical driver. That can create delays for passengers, and leave people with a bad impression of our community.

Our engineers are working hard on improvements to the app to make sure you're getting matched with the most convenient rides for you. It's no problem if you need a break -- remember, you can always log out of driver mode if you're done giving rides.

Thanks for your help maintaining our high quality rides. Remember: Providing 5-star service to passengers gives them another reason to return to Lyft, meaning more requests for you.

Thanks,
The Lyft Team

© Lyft 2016
548 Market St #68514
San Francisco, CA 94104
Help Center (http://eclick.lyft.com/c/eJxVT8FOhT...YzTMtcLZ5Et5fTy7Til6YvfaEv8kfdp5veFf8Uf13RdUg)


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## TheBlank (Aug 28, 2016)

Old Smokey said:


> Just drive for FUBER!!! Why GET deactivated by Lyft, eventually you will get deactivated by FUBER and have no plan B?


Because in my area, i am finding UberX are degenerate, rude, and POSs, compared to Lyft. And for the lesser money, more miles, more headaches, I rather wait a few more mins, to get a better fare.


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## lbuberchick562 (Sep 13, 2016)

Jimmy Bernat said:


> I have a 5 minute pick up limit unless it's mid day or I'm in a weird area I'll sometimes go up to 10min
> I avoid using lyft anywhere but the city because you can get some crazy far requests. I wish they'd put a limit like uber does. I think Uber is a 12 or 15 min limit if there isn't a driver in that area it just says there are no drivers available


Uber doesn't have a limit. ..I've gotten request from areas well over 20 mins away. I'm either on the outskirts of rolling hills, San pedro coastline or hills of Beverly Hills...very few drivers in those areas that will accept those.


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## Dammit Mazzacane (Dec 31, 2015)

kevink , I suggest you remove your email address from the correspondence you quoted because corporate watchers can now track who you are.

People have been deactivated for "speaking negatively about the company" on social media.


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## kevink (Apr 18, 2016)

Dammit Mazzacane said:


> kevink , I suggest you remove your email address from the correspondence you quoted because corporate watchers can now track who you are.
> 
> People have been deactivated for "speaking negatively about the company" on social media.


Done....thanks for the heads up.


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## Wiz Kids (Sep 12, 2016)

ANGRY UBER MAN said:


> In my market the average lyft request is over 10 miles away. I just let those pings pass. However Lyft now is trying to strong arm me to take those requests. Here one of the many emails they sent me.
> 
> Account Update
> 
> ...


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## Wiz Kids (Sep 12, 2016)

Yes they will, my account is now deactivated for the same reason, I sometimes receive pings 28 minutes away or even 15 minutes away and hell no I'm not excepting, or sometimes I would get a ping with a picture of a group of thugs ( club picture) and agian hell no I'm not accepting that request.. oh well.. guess it's not meant for me to drive with Lyft


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## fairsailing (May 16, 2016)

Wiz Kids said:


> Yes they will, my account is now deactivated for the same reason....


So just to be clear WK. You have an email from Lyft stating that you were deactivated due to low acceptance rate? A number of folks have been deactivated for excessive cancels, but you would be the first to have a low acceptance da that I have heard of. Not saying it's not true.

In my case, my acceptance rate has gone down as Lyft slowly eliminates financial incentives to keep it up. Maybe they are just going to start deactivating for low acceptance.

In my market I typically run $0.27 cost per take home dollar with an acceptance rate that Lyft doesn't like and $0.39 cost (without incentives) per take home dollar with an acceptance rate that they do like. They must be a bit desperate to ask drivers to take one for the team at these pay rates.


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## kevink (Apr 18, 2016)

fairsailing said:


> In my case, my acceptance rate has gone down as Lyft slowly eliminates financial incentives to keep it up. Maybe they are just going to start deactivating for low acceptance.


IMHO, they'd be doing more harm to themselves than they would the driver. The long distance requests tell me they don't have enough drivers as it is. I don't think they want to deactivate unless their hand is forced. Better to have a driver answering 10% of requests than no driver at all.

But then again, Lyft is so poorly managed and run, who knows what they'll do.


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## fairsailing (May 16, 2016)

kevink said:


> ...Better to have a driver answering 10% of requests than no driver at all.
> 
> But then again, Lyft is so poorly managed and run, who knows what they'll do.


Maybe. As incentives decrease, acceptance rates decease across the Fleet as drivers try to keep their costs down, instead of 15 second for a rider to acquire a car it is maybe 45 seconds or a minute, a metric that I am sure Lyft monitors very carefully. There is also, I am sure, a graph in SF that shows that order cancels grow for each second a car is not acquired for the rider.

This is a classic snowball. So the question really is why is Lyft reducing incentives for acceptance rates? Are they running out of cash or trying to slow their cash burn to look better to prospective buyers? Trying to strong arm drivers is a very short-term solution, and many drivers with high ratings and high ride counts have gotten the warning emails.


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## Iraqvet505 (Sep 18, 2016)

Pick up your PAX!!!! Look, I don't like driving 10 miles away to get a Pax and then drive them where ever they desire. I get it, but you signed up to driveight and provide a service. I try to accept every Lyft or Uber ping unless the rider has less than a 4.6 rating then I make an appropriate decision. Remember, you can always accept and then cancel the trip.


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## phirenze (Sep 11, 2016)

Iraqvet505 said:


> Pick up your PAX!!!! Look, I don't like driving 10 miles away to get a Pax and then drive them where ever they desire. I get it, but you signed up to driveight and provide a service. I try to accept every Lyft or Uber ping unless the rider has less than a 4.6 rating then I make an appropriate decision. Remember, you can always accept and then cancel the trip.


What? This is terrible advice. Really really bad.

1. First of all no one signed up to lose money. Making money is questionable when the pax is 2 miles away. Forget it when they are 10+ miles away. You're driving around for free then.

2. You are telling people to "Pick up your PAX!!!! " regardless of how far away they are but then you take the liberty to refuse them for their rider ratings? Really?

3. "Remember, you can always accept and then cancel the trip." WHATTT? You will get deactivated so fast for canceling lots of trips. Ignoring pings just gets you texts or emails to please respond more often.

Dude, I'm a new driver but you sound like you started tomorrow.


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## Iraqvet505 (Sep 18, 2016)

phirenze said:


> What? This is terrible advice. Really really bad.
> 
> 1. First of all no one signed up to lose money. Making money is questionable when the pax is 2 miles away. Forget it when they are 10+ miles away. You're driving around for free then.
> 
> ...


We'll I'm sorry you feel this way but if you want to pick up shitty Pax in your vehicle then by all means do so. Doesn't necessarily get you deactivated because the 4.5 and below are not too prevalent so a few here and there is no biggie. Yes I try to pick up all requests but you have to make decisions that are also advantageous to "You" the driver as well. And FYI, you did sign up to provide a Service. Maybe I misquoted myself on the while accept and cancel. I'm sorry about that mistake, you should never cancel, but let the request pass. I've got the texts and emails. I'm actually a very good Driver, and have provided countless 5 star rides and also have received countless 5 star comments. I will make decisions that will benefit me as well but still provide a 5 star experience.


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## RobK62 (Sep 21, 2016)

TheBlank said:


> Because in my area, i am finding UberX are degenerate, rude, and POSs, compared to Lyft. And for the lesser money, more miles, more headaches, I rather wait a few more mins, to get a better fare.


Amen.
I drove Uber one day last weekend, and saw, at least in my area, a diffent on he kind of people.


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## fairsailing (May 16, 2016)

So continuing this discussion with more data. I decided to do a week (I am part-time days only) taking every call Lyft gave me even though Lyft provided me no financial incentive to do so (though I may have had other reasons to do this). Here is what happened:

30 hours including off line surge hunting time and repositions, take home is after deducting 20% commission (not available to new drivers) and adding in tips. I use $0.30 per mile which does include paying all vehicle operating costs and eventual vehicle replacement.

~$500 Take Home
$207 Vehicle Expenses
-------
$293 earnings after expenses

$9.77 per hour (you don't see this number in Lyft marketing materials)

This will be the one and only week of this experiment.


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## fwtexguy (Sep 28, 2015)

Yea its crazy when you work an area the is notorious for 20+ min rides. in order to keep your 90% acceptance rating you must use the rider app to figure out where to "hide" to prevent having to decline one of these losing rides. I accepted one of these yesterday and after a 18 min trip to pick them up I made $3.80. I agree 10min+ pickups should have a minimum charge. In this business your either making money or losing money. I'm tired of "taking one for the team" Lyft can lose money for the team.


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## fwtexguy (Sep 28, 2015)

Let Lyft "take one for the team".. There is no team in this business


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## CatchyMusicLover (Sep 18, 2015)

Looks like you're not calculating tax, which is good as it makes it much more comparable to a job done by an employee...

But to be fair, some of that $9.77/hr is being able to sit and do whatever you want. On top of which, you can choose your own hours. And one thing a lot of people don't bring up, the lack of any sort of 'commute' time to get started (unless you do in fact start from some place other than home).
Consider if you, say, have to leave home 45 minutes before work at a 'normal' job, and you typically end up a half hour drive from home doing rideshare, that's an hour less of overall dedicated time....suddenly it's already looking better.

Now I'm not saying that's worth $9.77/hr necessarily, just that when put into perspective it's not necessarily worse than getting $11/hr to do mindless grunt-work with minimal breaks, and you have to do it when THEY want you to, show up every day, etc etc


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## fairsailing (May 16, 2016)

CatchyMusicLover said:


> Now I'm not saying that's worth $9.77/hr necessarily, just that when put into perspective it's not necessarily worse than getting $11/hr to do mindless grunt-work with minimal breaks, and you have to do it when THEY want you to, show up every day, etc etc


All absolutely true, and I continue to drive, though rarely more than 10 hours per week now, so I must find some value. For me, it is the flexibility, the sort of no boss part (although that is not really true judging by some of the recent Lyft communications) and the people. The Lyft 4.8 rated and above daytime folks in this market are always nice and often very interesting (and some of the lower rated folks too). They tip too.


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## autofill (Apr 1, 2016)

phirenze said:


> What? This is terrible advice. Really really bad.
> 
> 1. First of all no one signed up to lose money. Making money is questionable when the pax is 2 miles away. Forget it when they are 10+ miles away. You're driving around for free then.
> 
> ...


Lyft and uber depends on these type of drivers out there with no brains. Many can't add 1+3.


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## Yesmr (Feb 1, 2017)

That guy never responded. Did he or did he not get deactivated for LOW ACCEPTANCE RATE?

As far as i understand it. The acceptance rate is used as a carrot on a stick to make people accept everything so that they can get their promotions. Thats why they offer promotions. To make people say more more more. And yes. Sometimes you hit them and sometimes you dont. But these companies dont offer promotions to be nice. Its to make you shuck and jive when they tell you to. Otherwise theyd have people accepting furiously because if they let their acceptance rate fall theyd get deactivated and in that scenario, no promotion would be required. 

I ranted. The question is y did that guy never respond about getting deactivate for acceptance rate? Was that the reason? Is it a reason?

Wiz kids was the guy im talking about


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## Trump Economics (Jul 29, 2015)

Yea, I finished writing a lengthy post about this -- I'm so sick of Lyft and their half-a** responses. They will permanently deactivate you for missed calls and cancellations. I just got into it with one of their reps because they tried to threaten me with deactivation for canceling on two passengers this past week. One was because I had to pee and the other was because they weren't outside after 7 minutes. And yes, my acceptance rating went down when I cancelled the no-show. Not my fault, but Lyft counted it against me -- surprise, surprise. Did I email them? Yep. "Oh, we show you at 100% our end." Kick rocks, you POS, second rate public transportation service. Reps can't even put words together to form legible sentences and sh**. Acceptance rating on Sunday when I went home? 98% for 90 calls. Go ahead and deactivate -- let the Uber prostitutes and ex-cons come aboard. No one cares anymore.


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## Yesmr (Feb 1, 2017)

Thanks for replying. So there is a difference between not accepting requests and cancelling. They are two separate issues. I read your post and im not clear on what you are saying. Did they deactivate bcuz of too many CANCELS or bcuz of a low acceptance rate due to missed requests?


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

Trump Economics said:


> Lyft. They will permanently deactivate you for missed calls and cancellations.


For the past year, my acceptance rate on Lyft has ranged from eighteen to thirty three per-cent. I have maybe two driver cancellations in that time. Almost all of the rest were from pings that I let expire because they were either Lyft Lines or too far. There were a few that I did not accept because I had already accepted an Uber ping and when I went to go OFFLINE for Lyft, a Lyft ping came in before I could activate the OFFLINE button. There were several others that I let expire because I was trying to go OFFLINE, but the usual non-responsive touch-screen "technology" would not acknowledge what I was trying to do. Of course, I had to let expire the ping, then do some screen-cracking poking with my stylus or finger to get the non-responsive "technology" to respond.

Lyft keeps sending me nastygrams for not accepting pings, but it has yet to threaten to sack me. I have run something like one-hundred ten trips for the little over one year since I signed up for Lyft. This is due mostly to my driving Uber Taxi more than anything. When I do drive TNC, Uber's bonuses made it not worth my trouble to do Lyft. I would do one per week just to keep active the account. As Uber's incentives/bonuses have not been the best, lately, I have been doing more Lyft. The #DeleteUber business has sent more customers to Lyft, as well. I have picked up more than a few Lyft customers, of late, who told me that they had deleted the Uber.

I have talked to more than one Lyft driver whom Lyft had sacked for driver cancellations. A few of them mentioned that despite their cancellations being legitimate (no shows, incorrect addresses, name did not match), it still counted against them. When some of these drivers told me the areas and hours that they worked, (ralph crowd at night), the high cancellation rate was no surprise. Sadly, there is no appeal from a sacking from Lyft. Rule Number One: Lyft is always right. Rule Number Two: If Lyft is wrong, see Rule Number One.


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## Trump Economics (Jul 29, 2015)

Another Uber Driver said:


> For the past year, my acceptance rate on Lyft has ranged from eighteen to thirty three per-cent. I have maybe two driver cancellations in that time. Almost all of the rest were from pings that I let expire because they were either Lyft Lines or too far. There were a few that I did not accept because I had already accepted an Uber ping and when I went to go OFFLINE for Lyft, a Lyft ping came in before I could activate the OFFLINE button. There were several others that I let expire because I was trying to go OFFLINE, but the usual non-responsive touch-screen "technology" would not acknowledge what I was trying to do. Of course, I had to let expire the ping, then do some screen-cracking poking with my stylus or finger to get the non-responsive "technology" to respond.
> 
> Lyft keeps sending me nastygrams for not accepting pings, but it has yet to threaten to sack me. I have run something like one-hundred ten trips for the little over one year since I signed up for Lyft. This is due mostly to my driving Uber Taxi more than anything. When I do drive TNC, Uber's bonuses made it not worth my trouble to do Lyft. I would do one per week just to keep active the account. As Uber's incentives/bonuses have not been the best, lately, I have been doing more Lyft. The #DeleteUber business has sent more customers to Lyft, as well. I have picked up more than a few Lyft customers, of late, who told me that they had deleted the Uber.
> 
> I have talked to more than one Lyft driver whom Lyft had sacked for driver cancellations. A few of them mentioned that despite their cancellations being legitimate (no shows, incorrect addresses, name did not match), it still counted against them. When some of these drivers told me the areas and hours that they worked, (ralph crowd at night), the high cancellation rate was no surprise. Sadly, there is no appeal from a sacking from Lyft. Rule Number One: Lyft is always right. Rule Number Two: If Lyft is wrong, see Rule Number One.


Well said!


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

Another Uber Driver said:


> For the past year, my acceptance rate on Lyft has ranged from eighteen to thirty three per-cent. I have maybe two driver cancellations in that time. Almost all of the rest were from pings that I let expire because they were either Lyft Lines or too far. There were a few that I did not accept because I had already accepted an Uber ping and when I went to go OFFLINE for Lyft, a Lyft ping came in before I could activate the OFFLINE button. There were several others that I let expire because I was trying to go OFFLINE, but the usual non-responsive touch-screen "technology" would not acknowledge what I was trying to do. Of course, I had to let expire the ping, then do some screen-cracking poking with my stylus or finger to get the non-responsive "technology" to respond.
> 
> Lyft keeps sending me nastygrams for not accepting pings, but it has yet to threaten to sack me. I have run something like one-hundred ten trips for the little over one year since I signed up for Lyft. This is due mostly to my driving Uber Taxi more than anything. When I do drive TNC, Uber's bonuses made it not worth my trouble to do Lyft. I would do one per week just to keep active the account. As Uber's incentives/bonuses have not been the best, lately, I have been doing more Lyft. The #DeleteUber business has sent more customers to Lyft, as well. I have picked up more than a few Lyft customers, of late, who told me that they had deleted the Uber.
> 
> I have talked to more than one Lyft driver whom Lyft had sacked for driver cancellations. A few of them mentioned that despite their cancellations being legitimate (no shows, incorrect addresses, name did not match), it still counted against them. When some of these drivers told me the areas and hours that they worked, (ralph crowd at night), the high cancellation rate was no surprise. Sadly, there is no appeal from a sacking from Lyft. Rule Number One: Lyft is always right. Rule Number Two: If Lyft is wrong, see Rule Number One.


You WILL get sacked if you keep it up.

You were just enjoying the "no deactivation except for major misconduct for first 100 rides" feature

First 100 rides rating and other metrics don't count against you


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## charmer37 (Nov 18, 2016)

phirenze said:


> What? This is terrible advice. Really really bad.
> 
> 1. First of all no one signed up to lose money. Making money is questionable when the pax is 2 miles away. Forget it when they are 10+ miles away. You're driving around for free then.
> 
> ...


 I never accept a request that's too far away and that goes for uber and lyft, Majority of my Lyft trips vs uber are minimum fares so why respond to a request that's 10+ miles away just to go only 2 blocks and make less than $4.00, Accepting every ping is not good for any driver.


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

Adieu said:


> You WILL get sacked if you keep it up.
> 
> You were just enjoying the "no deactivation except for major misconduct for first 100 rides" feature
> 
> First 100 rides rating and other metrics don't count against you


........even though it took me over one year to accumulate one hundred rides? I find it curious that Lyft will de-activate for not accepting pings, considering that Uber got sued over that. Lyft is exposing itself to a lawsuit over that. Lyft might not have Uber's billions (if even Uber has those billions itself), but I am sure that some lawyer might be interested in its few millions.


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

Another Uber Driver said:


> ........even though it took me over one year to accumulate one hundred rides? I find it curious that Lyft will de-activate for not accepting pings, considering that Uber got sued over that. Lyft is exposing itself to a lawsuit over that. Lyft might not have Uber's billions (if even Uber has those billions itself), but I am sure that some lawyer might be interested in its few millions.


I got >2k lyft rides in like 8 months


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

Adieu said:


> I got >2k lyft rides in like 8 months


If I were trying, I would as well. I signed up for Lyft as an alternative to Uber and because Lyft offered a pretty good sing-on bonus. Shortly after I acheived my quota for the sign-on bonus, Uber began offering some good incentives and bonuses. They were so good, in fact, that I left the cab at home and drove UberX more frequently. Where before I was driving the cab mostly and driving UberX/Lyft only enough to stay in the game, suddenly I was driving the cab and Lyft only enough to stay in the game. Given the bonuses that Uber was passing out to its drivers, it made no financial sense to drive Lyft. Once Uber started to scale back the bonuses, I went back to the cab, as other than the sign-on bonus, Lyft's bonuses and guarantees are not that great. I will be driving UberX/Lyft more this week, as Congress is out, which puts even more of a dent in the cab business than it used to, since the arrival of the TNCs.

Still, I am not going to accept U-Pools or LLs. The LLs are a major waste of my time, as usually I do not get a passenger. Most of the Lyft users here who order LL do so "because it's the cheapest" and have no idea of the consequences of taking the cheap way out of it. When I explain that they must share the car, they cancel, order regular Lyft and the ping goes to another driver. The four dollars or three dollars seventy five that Lyft gives me for the cancellation does not compensate me for the time that I wasted. After four or five of those in a row, I resolved never to accept another LL.

In addition, many of the regular Lyft requests are too far. I am not travelling fifteen minutes to pick up a minimum. The customer might actually be there on Lyft, as Lyft users tend to be a bit more patient than are the Uber users, but, still, for three dollars seventy five net, I am not driving fifteen minutes. If Lyft is going to de-activate me for refusing to run totally unprofitable trips (as opposed to the marginally profitable trips that I actually can reach on regular Lyft), I am sure that some lawyer here would be interested in a few of Lyft's millions as Lyft would be treating me like an employee.


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## Fred Ex (Feb 21, 2017)

Reply and point out that the T&Cs say "drivers retain the option to accept or to decline or ignore a Rider’s request for Services via the Lyft Platform..", and they will reply confirming you have the choice. 
The IRS is looking over their shoulder, and Uber's, to catch them behaving like employers. 
Now that Lyft are adding Line and other unacceptable requests to your queue without asking you first, they're getting close to the edge, and causing drivers to cancel rides that they never accepted in the first place. I have 2 standard txts setup that I send to auto-added riders explaining why I'm cancelling them, just before I Cancel.


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## MyPerspective (Feb 14, 2017)

Fred Ex said:


> Reply and point out that the T&Cs say "drivers retain the option to accept or to decline or ignore a Rider's request for Services via the Lyft Platform..", and they will reply confirming you have the choice.
> The IRS is looking over their shoulder, and Uber's, to catch them behaving like employers.
> Now that Lyft are adding Line and other unacceptable requests to your queue without asking you first, they're getting close to the edge, and causing drivers to cancel rides that they never accepted in the first place. I have 2 standard txts setup that I send to auto-added riders explaining why I'm cancelling them, just before I Cancel.


Lyft automatically adds the passenger then the app reroutes the driver automatically via navigation.

This practice is problematic for two reasons:

1. It violates hands free mobile device laws if a driver attempts to cancel trips in a line queue: Drivers would need to pull over to "cancel" the new passenger and enter the previous address into navigation and resume the trip or drive to the new pick up destination and "ignore" the second passenger and resume the trip.

2. Lyft now retains control of the "HOW" the driver completes the initial trip request that was actually "accepted" (first line passenger) by forcing driver's to take a specified route for the end result.

The practice fails the common law test for independent contractors.

The employee classification issues have been enhanced by Lyft effort to _legalize_ lyft line service. In most cities lyft must show driver's charge one fare under one big contract because of current pool ride restrictions.

Lyft now has to pick their poison -

1. continue to collect the profits from matched line request fares as per their driver agreements and addendums...

And

2. classify driver's as employees (IRS is more concerned with nature of relationship than contracts)


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## uber1969 (Dec 22, 2016)

ANGRY UBER MAN said:


> In my market the average lyft request is over 10 miles away. I just let those pings pass. However Lyft now is trying to strong arm me to take those requests. Here one of the many emails they sent me.
> 
> Account Update
> 
> ...


Yes happened to me . They told me i was done . 45 days later it was activated again. No emails, nothing



Iraqvet505 said:


> Pick up your PAX!!!! Look, I don't like driving 10 miles away to get a Pax and then drive them where ever they desire. I get it, but you signed up to driveight and provide a service. I try to accept every Lyft or Uber ping unless the rider has less than a 4.6 rating then I make an appropriate decision. Remember, you can always accept and then cancel the trip.


No!! My car. My gas.


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## kevink (Apr 18, 2016)

Fred Ex said:


> Now that Lyft are adding Line and other unacceptable requests to your queue without asking you first, they're getting close to the edge, and causing drivers to cancel rides that they never accepted in the first place. I have 2 standard txts setup that I send to auto-added riders explaining why I'm cancelling them, just before I Cancel.


I had this happen to me on Friday night. Kinda ticked me off. Had no idea what kind of ride Lyft had decided to have me "accept." Cancelled it out of principle and didn't go online for Lyft the rest of the time I was out.

Of all the practices, this one is the most incredibly egregious at violating the idea of IC vs. Employee. As ICs, we have the right to decide to accept or decline work as we see fit. Lyft shouldn't get to decide for us. At least Uber gives you the choice.


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