# Scheduled Pickups... beware...



## DidIDoThat (Jan 9, 2017)

I will say I am a bit of a fan of the scheduled pickups, or at least was for a little over a week until yesterday. Prior to having the scheduled rides, I did little driving for Lyft as it has been dead around here, however after having scheduled rides enabled and being able to snag rides in it (yes you have to be extremely fast) I have been doing extremely well, until yesterday.

Seems they either have a new glitch or are trying to control the rides more then they want to appear to be doing. Yesterday I had the destination filter on for the location for the scheduled pickup (note all the rides I will be talking about are $30-$50 rides)and as I approach the area, ahead of time, I turn off the destination filter and go to my scheduled pickups to verify address so I can be ready. Needless to say the ride is no longer listed in my scheduled pickups (it was 10 minutes prior) and I don't get the ride, even though I am online and most likely the closest person. Well this happens two more times, each time I used the destination filter prior to getting close to where the request was at.

So needless to say I no longer use the destination filter within 15 minutes of the "online" time for the pickup.

Well today, I go to my second scheduled pickup, 4 minutes from the rider, online, waiting, and then get the message that "its time to go online to get your scheduled ride!" message. Needless to say I check the rider app and can see that I am visible and the driver app does say I am online, yet nothing. Waited, waited, then headed to the rider address just to see whats up, sure enough another Lyft driver was there for them. They gave it away. 

An hour later at the next big ride, same thing, 3 minutes from rider, online, text message telling me to go online, check rider app and can see that I am visible, nothing. 4 minutes later I get a request for a short $3 ride (so I guess I was online wasn't I?).

Early requests...

I also had one two days ago, where I used the destination, but as soon as the ride left my pickup queue, I turned destination off, and just as I did, I actually got the ride. The only issue here was, that instead of the request going out 10 minuted prior to the scheduled pickup, I received it almost 30 minutes prior to the scheduled pickup. I was only 10 minutes from the rider, and they were actually happy I was early and where waiting for me outside (40 mile drive to cruise terminal).

I believe it was either earlier that day I had a similar issue where I was sitting waiting for rides, 10 minutes from a scheduled pickup, no destination filter on, just figured I would see what happens (3am, and away from any action). Well to my surprise, the scheduled pickup request comes in 30 minutes earlier then the pickup time (instead of the 15 minutes online time Lyft wanted me). Figured, ok, not doing anything else, drove to the rider, who was awaken by the fact that Lyft sent her a message that the rider was on the way, and she promptly called me, all concerned about not being ready yet, told her to not worry, would wait and it was Lyft's fault for requesting earlier then they should have. (again long haul drive, so worth the wait in my books).


Needless to say, they have issues with this, and I am suspecting that some of them aren't "technical" issues, but control issues, as I find it extremely hard to believe that they have that much of an issue sending a specific rider request to a specific driver.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

If you develop a way to make money with Rideshare
They will Ruin it.


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## Ride-Share-Risk-Manager (Mar 16, 2017)

DidIDoThat said:


> I will say I am a bit of a fan of the scheduled pickups, or at least was for a little over a week until yesterday. Prior to having the scheduled rides, I did little driving for Lyft as it has been dead around here, however after having scheduled rides enabled and being able to snag rides in it (yes you have to be extremely fast) I have been doing extremely well, until yesterday.
> 
> Seems they either have a new glitch or are trying to control the rides more then they want to appear to be doing. Yesterday I had the destination filter on for the location for the scheduled pickup (note all the rides I will be talking about are $30-$50 rides)and as I approach the area, ahead of time, I turn off the destination filter and go to my scheduled pickups to verify address so I can be ready. Needless to say the ride is no longer listed in my scheduled pickups (it was 10 minutes prior) and I don't get the ride, even though I am online and most likely the closest person. Well this happens two more times, each time I used the destination filter prior to getting close to where the request was at.
> 
> ...


Your observations are correct. Lyft are constantly manipulating which driver gets which ride. They move rides to drivers who they have on guarantees or incentives. The existing drivers are sent the crappy Lyft line rides into the ghetto or are pinged to pick up requests that are a half hour away. I suggest you use Lyft only as a supplement to when Uber is quiet or if they offer you guaranteed rates per hour.


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## DidIDoThat (Jan 9, 2017)

Ride-Share-Risk-Manager said:


> Your observations are correct. Lyft are constantly manipulating which driver gets which ride. They move rides to drivers who they have on guarantees or incentives. The existing drivers are sent the crappy Lyft line rides into the ghetto or are pinged to pick up requests that are a half hour away. I suggest you use Lyft only as a supplement to when Uber is quiet or if they offer you guaranteed rates per hour.


I don't do PDB, and Uber has been very quiet as well, but with Uber I can do XL only, so when I do take a ride it is worth it. Since I do early mornings only, the scheduled pickups works great for me, at least I know I have rides before I leave the house (or at least I used too), and I know where I will end up, which is important as I also have a full time job and don't need to end up in Kendall at 8:30 am when I need to be in North Broward by 9am.

I'm sure I made a few drivers happy this morning, dumped my scheduled rides after the second loss and went home today. (especially when I got the $3 ride a couple minutes after I was supposed to have the second scheduled ride).

Funny thing is, Lyft just released their "Drivers Digest" today with the caption "Drivers First, Always". Sad thing is, people will believe they are speaking the truth, when we the drivers know better. With Lyft it appears to me that this is all about perception and there is no real meaning behind it which is sad.

I also don't think that Lyft really considers how this impacts their riders. The drivers are basically the "face" of Lyft, and when I have issues like this, and they seem to not care, instead of encouraging riders to use the "Scheduled Rides" I may start to discourage them due to all the problems us drivers have with it which in turn can leave a negative impact from the riders perspective.


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## Woohaa (Jan 15, 2017)

Scheduled pickups are for pax, not drivers. They guarantee a pax that a driver will be there at a scheduled time. They don't guarantee you the fare with that same pax though!

It's the biggest waste of time for drivers ever.


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## RideShareJUNKIE (Jun 23, 2017)

The great thing about pre scheduled rides is the $10 pax cancellation policy. Its a frustrating system they have set up intentionally. From what some described, to dropped AR% when I had the PDB only to lose it due to all these random pings while waiting for prescheduled ping. 

I usually don't leave the house until I actually receive and accept the ping. Since im way closer than the LYFT alloted travel time, i often leave 10 min after i get the request. This seems to create a bit of panic for edgy pax. They sometimes cant help it and cancel. I have no choice but to collect the fee. Then they get assigned to a random driver in the middle of 400% PT, but the driver doesnt get the live PT%. Vicious cycle.


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