# Lyft drivers lets share hidden tip:)



## JTR (Nov 13, 2015)




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## RockinEZ (Apr 29, 2015)

scams = no guarantees


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

Best advice I can give you:
Be available to drive 50 hours a week.
Keep your acceptance rate over 90%
Drive at least 10 peak hours.
Make your car a fun place, or at least a comfortable place for pax to enjoy and you'll get tips. 

Why in the world would you avoid long distance pick ups? Because "maybe" it will be a minimum fare? I want your crystal ball. 
Some of my best tips and longest rides were long distance pickups. Don't be "short sighted". 
Why in the world would you avoid fares during a guarantee? Equally dumb - you want to LIMIT yourself to the $16/hr or do you want to make money?

Scam the system if you want, you're only hurting yourself.


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## atomix (May 10, 2015)

ROFL. JTR, thnx for tips, buddy. While gunning for more than guarantee is ideal--most times--sometimes I'm not in it, but need to earn. Working bar scene, late hours, can be rough, 10pm-6am.



DieselkW said:


> Best advice I can give you:
> Be available to drive 50 hours a week.
> Keep your acceptance rate over 90%
> Drive at least 10 peak hours.
> ...


Equally good advice. Believe that having as many tools in toolbox as possible is in driver's best interests. Most certainly, Lyft, Uber and pax engage in practices in their best interest.


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## Ridesharedriver99 (Nov 1, 2015)

Take this down or they'll close gaps


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## atomix (May 10, 2015)

rioriorio said:


> Take this down or they'll close gaps


Oh, right. Just deleted OP's link/quote in my reply.

OP, delete.


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## NJ_PATS FAN (Oct 23, 2015)

JTR said:


> 1. How to avoid far pick up location with out acceptance rate going down = Close lyft app before timer runs out and reopen 2. How to give only 1 ride on guaranty hours = After ride wait 15 mins on rate passenger screen to fill each hours with out worrying about another request 3. Anyone like to share more please reply


Stop driving. You will make all of us look bad


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## NJ_PATS FAN (Oct 23, 2015)

Proof, you make 1000-1200 a week?


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

I understand your point of view, I just don't understand why you'd want to share it. Makes you look like a slug, and now you look like a slug "claiming" to make $1200 a week in PA while cherry picking pax and wasting valuable windshield time by delaying the "submit" for 15 minutes to end your ride. 

I regularly blow away the guarantee by driving as many pax as I can, I almost always make more than the guarantee is worth. Hiding after giving one ride so you can make the minimum guaranteed is not going to maximize your weekly pay. $150 in guarantee money, YOUR WORDS, means the balance of your week is over a thousand dollars in fares. In Pennsylvania? Really? You must be an extraordinary driver blowing away your Uber and Lyft competition.

Of course you're going to occasionally drive 20 minutes to pickup a $4 fare. In my market, that's about 5% of long distance pings. Passengers going 5 miles are not normally willing to wait 20 minutes for a pickup - they'll usually cancel within a minute or two and try again when they see a closer car appear on the app. Or just get an Uber - there's always a closer Uber willing to take a $5 rider with no tip.


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## Idunno (Nov 1, 2015)

DieselkW said:


> Best advice I can give you:
> Be available to drive 50 hours a week.
> Keep your acceptance rate over 90%
> Drive at least 10 peak hours.
> ...


Got any advice for part timers who cant't drive 30-50 hours due to daytime jobs?


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

Idunno said:


> Got any advice for part timers who cant't drive 30-50 hours due to daytime jobs?


Don't quit your day job.


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## ATL2SD (Aug 16, 2015)

Thanks for the tips but take this down. This forum is a popular hang out for the employees of these ride-share companies.


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## haji (Jul 17, 2014)

Thanks for info I will use it planning to give my first ride on Monday


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## MrPix (Oct 4, 2015)

What crappy tips. What you've said is, essentially, you're unemployable because you're a shirker. You don't believe in an honest day's work and you're entitled. With that work ethic, you'll go.... not very far.


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

OK, you're not a slug and I'm glad you are able to make $1000+ per week - that's pretty damn good. I max out around $700 in Indianapolis. I admit I didn't believe that claim. I thought the PPA was all over and in your business.

However, I don't understand how you can advocate for one ride per hour during a guarantee. That essentially LIMITS the money you're able to make and costs Lyft money. I want Lyft to succeed, I want Lyft to make Travis lose sleep at night. I need Uber to have a formidable competitor to keep them from making it worse for us.

This weekend's $20/hr guarantee for me didn't cost Lyft anything - I blew it away every hour, Prime Time rides were ending at $20 each, no sense in trying to "hide" to make Lyft pay me for doing nothing.... I got back into the blender after every ride and made bucks. I had one group from Michigan after Michigan State beat Iowa in the last 20 seconds - took them back to the hotel, ordered a pizza delivery for them on the car bluetooth, ended the ride in front of the Sheraton, and one guy tells his buddies: "Hey, it was only $58 - give the guy a tip"

I got a $15 tip on my report next morning.

I made more in tips per hour than the guarantee was worth.

Anyone that thinks Uber is better than Lyft is not paying attention.


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## Tequila_K (Sep 1, 2015)

I was a passenger last week, talking to a driver about his "tips". Same sort of BS - how to game the system to avoid having to actually work for the hourly guarantees. Also, how to tell pax to meet at an unauthorized area at the airport to dodge the cops. Funny thing: he actually believed the line in the weekly email saying he was "hand-selected" for guaranteed hours. If any human hand had been behind the selection, it would have been grasping the cord to pull the plug on him.

It did help me understand why Lyft is rolling out changes to the Power Driver promo. Whether it gets posted here or not, you can bet your little pink mustache that the analysts at Lyft know just what you're up to. (I should say, what we're up to... I'll confess to hiding out at home soaking up Power Driver hours! Though it's not like i wasn't available.)

BTW, I gave the driver five stars, though i was on the fence. Other pax aren't as generous, i don't think - his rating was 4.6, IIRC.


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## MrPix (Oct 4, 2015)

As a fellow typically over $1000/week driver, I think all the advice given so far is bad. 

How about some constructive advice?

Have your own heat map in your head of where rides start and when, and stage yourself there. When not on a ride, if in a populated area just stage, don't drive. Driving uses gas and adds miles so it's sucking away your income. It's better to wait 10 minutes for the next ping that to drive 5 miles to get it. Always go for the 20% power bonus if you can (my day job allows it by being internet-based). Accept every ride even if it's far away and accept every repeatedly cancelled ride. If it's over 10 mins away, just call and confirm before heading out. Keep your car clean. Open the windows to clear out the smell of previous passengers (too much cologne, smokers) before next pax. Brush your teeth and comb your hair. Dress well. Smile a lot. Ask questions. Don't have a view about politics or religion, or just smile and not if you disagree. Dress your tires - most people relate a car's condition to the blackness of the tires, because that's the biggest indicator, ask any used car dealership. Drive to the pin, not the address - it's where the phone is. Drunk people tip less, groups of friends tip more. Check the car between every pax. Remove gum right away. Keep a tube of pro-solve gel in the car just in case. Keep glass cleaner handy too. People touch the glass. Don't ask for tips or you won't get them. Accept cash tips politely then move on. Maintain your car. Service is cheaper than repairs. Brake progressively and accelerate gently, so your passengers feel they're being chauffeured instead of taking a fairground ride. Replace your shocks every 60k miles. Inspect your car before every shift - oil, transmission, washer fluid, brake lights, tires. 

If you're in a bad mood and can't keep it to yourself, stay home. You'll just be hurting the platform and ALL the drivers on it, not just yourself.

IMVHO.


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

DieselkW said:


> However, I don't understand how you can advocate for one ride per hour during a guarantee. That essentially LIMITS the money you're able to make and costs Lyft money. I want Lyft to succeed, I want Lyft to make Travis lose sleep at night. I need Uber to have a formidable competitor to keep them from making it worse for us.


I disagree because whether or not to try to beat the guarantee depends on your current location, the degree of driver saturation during guarantee hours, and the number of long rides you average during a shift.

In my estimation even the new lower $18/hr guarantees are worth sitting around for. That's because in my experience, once downtown, only one ride in 10 is going to exceed $10. Most are minimum fairs up to $9-10. Unless it's extremely busy, I can't do more than 3 rides/hr, which nets at $12. assuming all minimum fares. Now I've been doing this a while and I know where to go, believe me. Given that I have a 1 in 10 chance of any ride going beyond $10, I will take the guarantee and lower expenses each and every time. During the rush hour guarantees, sometimes it's difficult to get more than one ride an hour anyway, because there are literally cars on every block.

I disagree that we should care about how Lyft is doing. We are independent contractors. Think like an entrepreneur, not an employee. In free market capitalism, we all must strive to maximize probability within the limits of the system. Lyft will doubtless change the Power Driver system eventually, whether you're "exploiting" it or not. And we have to maintain an acceptance rate - if you ignore too many requests, you're shooting yourself in the foot and will never make the bonus. So no matter where you are, it's not unfair to stay online as much as you can to maximize your bonus. Passengers are much happier with Lyft - I hear over and over how Uber drivers constantly cancel on them. They like that Lyft is more reliable and one of the reasons it's more reliable is because we have a lot of incentive to maintain that 90% acceptance rate. It's a really good system IMO, and I hope they don't change it.

On weekends, before 2am, it's even more foolish to do more than one ride an hour when you're getting $22/gross. You're really unlikely to beat that downtown without Prime Time fares. What Lyft hopes to happen is that you will get lucky and break the guarantee at 2am, thus they include 2-3 as a guarantee hour. On the other hand if you get unlucky and don't get a good Prime Time fare at 2am, the guarantee is there for you. This is one of the reasons I love Lyft. They know how to keep us doing this with minimal frustration - people want good pay, but they also want REGULAR pay that doesn't fluctuate insanely.

You also have to constantly keep in mind how you're doing - for instance, I can often beat the rush hour guarantees because I start in the suburbs and will often get a long ride into town. If I've already grossed over 13-14, then I will keep working to beat the guarantee, if not I will take my one ride/hour and sit if I can.

Here are some additional tips:

1) On weekends before the 2am bar rush make sure you are offline at 1:50, assuming you have been on for the entire guarantee hour. Use this time to position yourself better. This also reduces supply and will cause Lyft to surge faster.
2) Frontload your acceptance rate. I actually went as high as 97% this week. I then try to only spend my acceptance rate during Prime Time surges. Lyft surge areas appear right around the bars at 2am, therefore any request you get too far from those areas will probably not be a Prime Time or a smaller one. I rejected two requests at 2am because they came from areas that would have a lower surge, or none at all. The third request I got came from Chestnut and 16th, where Lyft will also go to 2 or 3x surge at the bar closings. It was a 200% fare to East Falls, an easy $45. KNOW YOUR MARKET AND CANCEL/ACCEPT ACCORDINGLY.

If you're going for the 50 hour bonus, you may find that you're just too exhausted to do anymore. I drove home Sunday night at 1:30 having already hit the guarantee for the hour with a $7 ride. I then left the app on until 2am, and had to reject two requests that hour. Finally at 3 I hit my 50 hours and finished the week with a 94% acceptance rate having only rejected 5-7 rides.

3) Because there tons more Lyft drivers, I no longer am having a problem with many long distance requests. If you do get one over 10 mins/4 miles away, text the passenger this: "I'm showing an ETA of over ten minutes/3 miles. I'm happy to pick you up if you'll agree to a $10 pickup fee to compensate me for my gas and time. If not, please cancel. There may be another driver closer to your location in a few minutes." It works every time. Two weeks ago I actually had someone 20 minutes away accept, and I should have taken them up on it because I was not going to get back to the bar areas in time...Instead I rejected it and probably left some good money on the table.

4) If you are going only for the guarantees and not trying to beat them, always go offline the last 10 minutes of the hour (or :51 if you want to be safe.) This is because rides count toward the hour they were requested in. Then go back online at the top of the hour, and look for your ride for the hour. If everyone did this, we might also get some more surges - people often make requests at the top of the hour, especially at rush hour (8am, 5pm, 7pm, 11pm, 2am).

5) Soon you will be able to check if an area is on surge like Uber does. In the beta we now see the Prime Time percentage when you move your pin around. You can still do this with the current version but you actually have to hit request ride, and then it will pop-up. Use this to check if a request is coming from a surge zone or not.

6) Now I know many people will switch back to Uber during the high surges at 2am on Saturday night. That's fine but consider this - everyone is doing that. If you stay on Lyft you probably have a higher chance of getting a good ride. Most Uber users will not pay over 3x I find, ever. Lyft caps at 3x, and people know to compare now. Often on Uber if I got a good surge at 2am it was a short ride, and sometimes I've even found myself unable to get a ride until the surge had died down. Compared to Lyft, Uber surges higher and faster than it really ought to when there are plenty of cars. This means that every week, a large number of guys are not getting those surge fares. I know I was one of them.

JTR - congrats on your performance. I do similarly well on Lyft, sometimes exceeding $1100. This week I'll probably net $900-950 because I was lazy and took two full days off and then had to pull a double shift Sunday to hit 50 hours. This time of the year is slow, so that's a great performance.

Sorry for the length of this message, but you'll be rewarded for reading it over until you completely grasp all this to make the most money you can on Lyft.


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## JTR (Nov 13, 2015)

MiddleClassedOut said:


> I disagree because whether or not to try to beat the guarantee depends on your current location, the degree of driver saturation during guarantee hours, and the number of long rides you average during a shift.
> 
> In my estimation even the new lower $18/hr guarantees are worth sitting around for. That's because in my experience, once downtown, only one ride in 10 is going to exceed $10. Most are minimum fairs up to $9-10. Unless it's extremely busy, I can't do more than 3 rides/hr, which nets at $12. assuming all minimum fares. Now I've been doing this a while and I know where to go, believe me. Given that I have a 1 in 10 chance of any ride going beyond $10, I will take the guarantee and lower expenses each and every time. During the rush hour guarantees, sometimes it's difficult to get more than one ride an hour anyway, because there are literally cars on every block.
> 
> ...


Middleclassedout - You are alway the best of all  i learned alot from your advise!


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## MrPix (Oct 4, 2015)

It is mostly good advice. However, if Lyft or Uber ever get wind of you requiring additional payments to turn up, they will immediately deactivate you.


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

MrPix said:


> It is mostly good advice. However, if Lyft or Uber ever get wind of you requiring additional payments to turn up, they will immediately deactivate you.


No, they can't. We're independent contractors. I asked Lyft directly about it and they said to cancel but they did NOT say I could not charge a fee. I was going to quote the email but that poses a real risk I could be personally identified. It took them a long time to reply, longer than the usual abysmal Lyft support times, so I'm guessing it went up the corporate ladder a bit.

You will probably get bad ratings from passengers though - that's the real risk. But only once have I ever had someone agree to the fee. Everyone else has canceled. Uber's contract explicitly says that the rates are "default rates" as they cannot force us to accept the rates since they are not transportation companies. Lyft's contract says "EACH TRANSPORTATION SERVICE PROVIDED BY A DRIVER TO A RIDER SHALL CONSTITUTE A SEPARATE AGREEMENT BETWEEN SUCH PERSONS."

Obviously except for this specific situation this loophole doesn't matter. However, imagine if drivers unionized or associated in some ways....And all the drivers refused to provide service unless passengers paid pick-up fees. There would be nothing the companies could do given our employment status. Now I'm not a lawyer but clauses like that one in caps are pretty damn clear and would stand up in court.


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

Well said, but we will have to disagree on this point


MiddleClassedOut said:


> I disagree that we should care about how Lyft is doing. We are independent contractors. Think like an entrepreneur, not an employee.


We have no business, entrepreneurial or not, if the TNC model falls apart. Are you going to still be in business if TNC's fail? Without the clearinghouse to join rider with driver, we have no business. Lyft must survive for this to work for us.

If Lyft fails, Uber will be able to do anything it wants. Without competition, the engine that drives capitalism, we will be serving a very greedy master unchecked by a formidable competitor. You can kid yourself that you can operate your own business, but you are still a slave to the TNC. Sending a text demanding a pickup fee, by your own admittance, results in cancellation of the "contract", therefore you are not really able to enforce a pickup fee. The customer has too many choices and they will choose another driver to "contract" with since they can end a contract with two clicks and zero lawyers.

I blow away every guarantee. Lyft doesn't guarantee if they don't have a reasonable expectation of increased demand. During the guarantee surrounding the Big Ten Iowa/Michigan State game Saturday I averaged $35/ride. I ended the night with a fare that took me 2 miles from home at 3am for $58 and they left me a $15 tip. Half hour drive. A $20 guarantee became moot in the first ten minutes.

I agree with much of what you wrote MiddleClassedOut , but you need to realize it's not all Philly out here in the rest of the country. Every market is different from yours. I don't know how you avoid running across the PPA in Philly. I regularly get pinged for a 20 minute pickup and I go fetch. Sometimes I do it for a $5 fare, most times I do it for a $40 fare. Occasionally I do it for a $75 fare. Roll the dice - I get 40 mpg and those long distance pings generally bring me to where the action is anyway. If it's a short fare, I'm still in the hot zone. So, I can go there because I was requested, or I can go there because I think it's going to be an active place for my business. Does it matter if the dead miles are requested, or just the nature of the business?


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## MrPix (Oct 4, 2015)

MiddleClassedOut said:


> No, they can't. We're independent contractors.


You're sure about this, but you decline to include your original email in case they can identify you? Sounds hinky.

Here's the deal: Lyft provides the payment platform and the insurance. You're sub-contracted to deliver the service. If you charge a separate fee, they stop being Lyft's customer and start being yours, which creates all kinds of liabilities for you and problems for Lyft. Lyft does deactivate people for trying to charge separate fees -I am personally aware of two instances of this happening.

One driver received a Lyft Plus request which was for one person and a lot of banker boxes. They wanted a fee to carry the boxes. Pax informed Lyft, driver confirmed and was de-activated. The other was just like you. $5 to go ten miles to pick you up. De-activated. They had a copy of the call because it goes through Lyft and they record/keep the calls. They played it to him when he denied saying that and de-activated him.

Enough for you?


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

If they are doing that, they're breaking their own contract and those drivers should sue. Lyft's contract specifically says it's a separate agreement - they are only matching riders and drivers and providing insurance. I'm PMing you the email.


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## andaas (May 19, 2015)

While I do disagree with the OP's thoughts on gaming the guarantees, it did occur to me recently that if you are working during a guarantee period, and you happen to pick up a great fare early in the hour (say you get a $40 airport fare at 5:01 pm; dropping off at 5:45 pm). That it would be to your benefit to disqualify yourself for that hour if you can by signing off for more than 10 minutes before the end of that hour if possible.

It would be a fairly rare occurrence, but it would help make sure your other guarantee hours in that pay tier have a lower average to balance against. And would only be viable when you are doubling the guarantee rate or more.


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

I've thought about this too - I haven't really tried it. The issue is obviously if you log off to avoid hitting 50 minutes you may be idle for quite some time (30 minutes or more if you had a 20 minute expressway ride.) 

It also depends on if you're going for the full Power Driver bonus or not...If going for 20%, then I wouldn't stop working if you're already beating the guarantees. You will get gross fare, rather than the the guarantee which is still subject to commission. You have to make a snap decision depending on where you end up and your knowledge of your market...


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## MrPix (Oct 4, 2015)

MiddleClassedOut said:


> If they are doing that, they're breaking their own contract and those drivers should sue. Lyft's contract specifically says it's a separate agreement - they are only matching riders and drivers and providing insurance. I'm PMing you the email.


They're not breaking their contract. It looks like we disagree on this and we both have good reasons for doing so. You have your expertise in this area of contract law, and I have anecdotes. You're talking about what Lyft should do, and I'm talking about what they do do. Why can't we all just get along?!?!


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

I blew away the guarantee again - averaged $28 an hour. Damn, if only I had made less money, I could have gotten Lyft to give me $20 an hour.

I don't know how to make the statement above drip with sarcasm.


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## andaas (May 19, 2015)

DieselkW said:


> I blew away the guarantee again - averaged $28 an hour. Damn, if only I had made less money, I could have gotten Lyft to give me $20 an hour.
> 
> I don't know how to make the statement above drip with sarcasm.
> View attachment 19807


I blow away the guarantees sometimes also, however, I have also sat parked in high-request areas during $20/hour guarantees and barely receive 1 request an hour (in some cases, getting the request in the final minutes of the hour). Lyft isn't consistent enough (at least not here), to rely on beating the guarantee rates.

So yeah, if I average $4/hour for the first 3 hours of a $20/hour guarantee - and I get a $45 fare in the 4th hour - yes, I would much rather that 1 ride/hour not bring my average up ($38.40 payout vs. $18.40 payout).


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

Nice Diesel, what's your market? You're able to get a lot of long rides or Prime Time fares in yours I guess...


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

I beat the $18 one barely this week...I'm probably just gonna try to beat those. I barely worked them and beat them...Couple of long rides I guess during those hours. 

The best guarantee was Thanksgiving eve...$22 all that night, I made bank on the guarantees that night because it was dead as hell in Philadelphia. I couldn't have beat them if I'd tried...

I also got my first Lyft cleaning fee today! Woo! Took them two weeks. Temple student spilled a Long Island Ice Tea on my front car mat. I made him toss it, but he kept the glass and it still had liquid in it, so of course he spilled the rest...


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## Atlwarrior (Nov 2, 2014)

You are generally able to cash out daily around 65.00


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

Hmm...I think Lyft will bail you out too. But I'd love to hear from any drivers who did get stopped by the PPA if they were made whole...

But frankly I find airport pickups almost totally riskless. I call, make sure they're at the baggage claim area where I can get them, take my phone off its mount, and ask them to sit up front. To a casual observer, there is no way to tell you're doing a Lyft pickup. I'm still worried about stings, and there was an UberBlack driver who posted something threatening, but they haven't done anything yet.

I think it's fine for Lyft to pick up at the airport, the taxi drivers and UberBlack drivers are just trying to keep their monopoly at the airport. They don't want competition. It's actually the PPA that's the bad guy here - they are almost certainly being bribed by the taxi drivers and chauffeurs to maintain an illegal monopoly at the airport.

Lyft and UberX are legal at a lot of airports now. Philly and Chicago I think are some of the biggest holdouts.


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## JTR (Nov 13, 2015)

NJ_PATS FAN said:


> Proof, you make 1000-1200 a week?


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## Manotas (Dec 2, 2015)

JTR said:


>


Nice job. Is all of this after gas, mileage depreciation, gas, lunch, car wash, etc, etc?


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## JTR (Nov 13, 2015)

After over 600 uber support emails i sent... im sorry again sir


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## JTR (Nov 13, 2015)




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## Trump Economics (Jul 29, 2015)

JTR said:


>


Hidden Tip: Quit before it's too late.


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## JTR (Nov 13, 2015)

Trump Economics said:


> Hidden Tip: Quit before it's too late.


Uber?


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## Trump Economics (Jul 29, 2015)

JTR said:


> Uber?


You're going in the WRONG DIRECTION. It goes like this: Uber > Lyft > McDonald's > entry level.


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## AuxCordBoston (Dec 3, 2016)

"Hello name. Uber driver is here!! Now wait 5 min


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