# Who here does regular non surge rides regularly??



## LA#1x3 (Jul 9, 2015)

I'm just wondering how many drivers do regular rides and how they feel about it. For example taking PAx to lax from Hollywood for 23-24$


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## Jcposeidon (Oct 3, 2017)

LA#1x3 said:


> I'm just wondering how many drivers do regular rides and how they feel about it. For example taking PAx to lax from Hollywood for 23-24$


I do a lot of non surge rides. I dont chase surges or drive only during those times. Surges come and go so quickly that i wont see a surge and get a ping with a surge.


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## LA#1x3 (Jul 9, 2015)

Jcposeidon said:


> I do a lot of non surge rides. I dont chase surges or drive only during those times. Surges come and go so quickly that i wont see a surge and get a ping with a surge.


Totally understand some days you can waist your whole day chasing surge and not make money.


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## melusine3 (Jun 20, 2016)

Get a job at Starbucks and make more money while not ruining your car. Only, only, only drive if you see a surge where you happen to be. Regular driving tends to be a wash-out once you factor in all expenses, wear and tear, depreciation. This type of driving should be for taxis, actually, which are larger and heavier for a reason.


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## LA#1x3 (Jul 9, 2015)

melusine3 said:


> Get a job at Starbucks and make more money while not ruining your car. Only, only, only drive if you see a surge where you happen to be. Regular driving tends to be a wash-out once you factor in all expenses, wear and tear, depreciation. This type of driving should be for taxis, actually, which are larger and heavier for a reason.


So true bro so true. The new drivers don't realize all the factory, but they will when they driver for 2 to 3 years



Jcposeidon said:


> I do a lot of non surge rides. I dont chase surges or drive only during those times. Surges come and go so quickly that i wont see a surge and get a ping with a surge.


How long have u been driving for bud. If u don't mind me asking


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## twnFM (Oct 26, 2017)

I NEVER chase the surge. It’s there one minute and gone the next.


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## Jcposeidon (Oct 3, 2017)

LA#1x3 said:


> So true bro so true. The new drivers don't realize all the factory, but they will when they driver for 2 to 3 years
> 
> How long have u been driving for bud. If u don't mind me asking


2 almost 3 yrs. 3 different markets.


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## LA#1x3 (Jul 9, 2015)

Jcposeidon said:


> 2 almost 3 yrs. 3 different markets.


Cool thanks for the respond


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## Raven087 (Jul 10, 2017)

I never drive for non surge. If its not a typical surge/primetime time & area, will drive only if its a boost or power zone. 
I only drive at night so I do well.


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## DrivingForYou (Aug 6, 2017)

I take non-surge rides while in destination mode.

I take non-surge rides when chasing the powerdriver bonus on Lyft, or some quests on Uber.

I am more likely to take non-surge when in areas of no traffic, and especially low traffic areas wheee people are more likely to tip, like parts of OC.

I STOPPED taking non-surge in areas of traffic congestion, such as most of LA.

I generally stay offline until I get into a surge zone, and obviously I never accept a non-surge ping when I'm in a surge zone.

I don't waste time with Lyft Powerzones because the pings are too infrequent.

I avoid any non-surge pool or line rides.


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## Lyfted13 (Jul 26, 2017)

I take pretty much most of all requests, PT and regular (but if I am in the middle of a prime time area, I won’t accept regular fare rides). Regular rides can be extremely lucrative as I have had several (including lines) range from $50-$100 for a single trip (just yesterday I had $55 and $65 regular fare rides). Plus, all of the other regular rides add up quickly so for me, it is worth it and I have been driving for over 2 years. All you dudes that only do surge, keep doing it. More rides for us that don’t lol


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## LA#1x3 (Jul 9, 2015)

Value your time and car, I just don’t see the sense of doing non surge calls with high gas prices, wear and tear on ur car. I know some drivers are forced to do non sugar rides because they have no other choice.


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## Lyfted13 (Jul 26, 2017)

LA#1x3 said:


> Value your time and car, I just don't see the sense of doing non surge calls with high gas prices, wear and tear on ur car. I know some drivers are forced to do non sugar rides because they have no other choice.


I respect your opinion....one mans trash is another mans treasure


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## LA#1x3 (Jul 9, 2015)

I just want everyone to make money and not be taken advantage of.


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## ROTA (Jun 23, 2017)

Lyfted13 said:


> I take pretty much most of all requests, PT and regular (but if I am in the middle of a prime time area, I won't accept regular fare rides). Regular rides can be extremely lucrative as I have had several (including lines) range from $50-$100 for a single trip (just yesterday I had $55 and $65 regular fare rides). Plus, all of the other regular rides add up quickly so for me, it is worth it and I have been driving for over 2 years. All you dudes that only do surge, keep doing it. More rides for us that don't lol


Dont forget to explain how long it toke and how many miles you drove on base fare to reach that 100.
Probably over 130 miles.
You could have done 100 in 10-20 miles on primetime.
Now multiply those 130 for your 3 years of driving, tell me now how much you really did


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## LA#1x3 (Jul 9, 2015)

ROTA said:


> Dont forget to explain how long it toke and how many miles you drove on base fare to reach that 100.
> Probably over 130 miles.
> You could have done 100 in 10-20 miles on primetime.
> Now multiply those 130 for your 3 years of driving, tell me now how much you really did


Shit load of miles and wear and tear on our cars. Probably not even minimum wage.


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## Lyfted13 (Jul 26, 2017)

ROTA said:


> Dont forget to explain how long it toke and how many miles you drove on base fare to reach that 100.
> Probably over 130 miles.
> You could have done 100 in 10-20 miles on primetime.
> Now multiply those 130 for your 3 years of driving, tell me now how much you really did


Don't need to because you are anti and I don't really feel the need or desire to change your mind. It doesn't matter to me one way or the other. But FYI That is on top of that $100 you talk about I already made during the PT morning commute hours. You don't want regular fare rides, that's fine. Doesn't matter to me in the least.

I really don't come here to argue and debate with folks, just share experiences and read about other people's experiences. I have no desire to prove or disprove anything. Respect my views and I will do the same. Peace drivers


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## ShinyAndChrome (Aug 18, 2017)

Lmao. I have 43 lifetime rides with lyft now. 1-2 were surged. Yes you read that right. Try driving in upstate ny.


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## LA#1x3 (Jul 9, 2015)

ShinyAndChrome said:


> Lmao. I have 43 lifetime rides with lyft now. 1-2 were surged. Yes you read that right. Try driving in upstate ny.


Dame


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## Skinny1 (Sep 24, 2015)

Never ... plus and xl reg rates are ok.

I just spent 3 hours in a regular car. Every ride had some sort of cheese or boost... period. All at least 50% or more.

Did the same last night...


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## polar2017 (Jul 1, 2017)

LA#1x3 said:


> I'm just wondering how many drivers do regular rides and how they feel about it. For example taking PAx to lax from Hollywood for 23-24$


All posters on uberpeople only take surge rides and average $35-$45/hr.



ShinyAndChrome said:


> Lmao. I have 43 lifetime rides with lyft now. 1-2 were surged. Yes you read that right. Try driving in upstate ny.


This is what's best for the rideshare community. Need to keep the platform operational. Riders depend on you.


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## Woohaa (Jan 15, 2017)

Driving during nice PT or in high zones justifies even doing rideshare. But driving base makes no sense considering you make more doing Caviar or Door Dash then you will at base. And put far fewer miles on your vehicle. 

And Amazon Flex pays better than driving base on either Uber or Lyft. 

Not knocking your hustle but unless you're going for a PDB or an 80 for $900 deal then driving base just doesn't make a whole lot of economic sense.


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## LA#1x3 (Jul 9, 2015)

It’s ok guys the new driver have to pick up the non surge rides so the map will surge.


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## Jennyma (Jul 16, 2016)

LA#1x3 said:


> I'm just wondering how many drivers do regular rides and how they feel about it. For example taking PAx to lax from Hollywood for 23-24$


A base ride is fine if there is no queue waiting for ride, somewhere i don't have to deadmile back and under 6 mins to pickup. Those are fine as base rides.


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## Raven087 (Jul 10, 2017)

I only drive late nights so I will take some on occasion, but even then their usually needs to be a quest attached. I couldn't imagine taking non surge/quest trips during the day in a major metro area.


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## spaceship (Nov 12, 2017)

LA#1x3 said:


> I'm just wondering how many drivers do regular rides and how they feel about it. For example taking PAx to lax from Hollywood for 23-24$


ive done rides from hollywood to lax for less than 23 dollars i think...but to answer your question i do accept basically every ride maybe because im on the rental platform but also because i watched a youtube video from a driver who basically said he didnt cherry pick and did fine yet did worse surgechasing/cherrypicking. in my short experience that has indeed seemed to be the case. except this week when they suddenly stopped giving me PT rides and sending me outside the pink zones. My opinion is that since i got my $1k signup bonus this week that theyre algorythm said i made too much and should be working friday and saturday night going 15 out of the primezone to get rides. hasnt happened before this week, always got a FAIR mixture of prime and regular rides. trust me i live in hollywood its not hard to get surrounded by miles of prime. im going to wait to see if next week since my bonus isnt falsely inflating my earning maybe the algorythm will go back to normal and not "PT doomswitch" me for earning too much (ie: working hard)


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## Skinny1 (Sep 24, 2015)

There is no PT doom switch, don’t give yourself that much credit. 
Drive elsewhere...be on the move if a spots not working.


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## JJS (Jan 5, 2016)

In my market there are areas that surge or PT frequently and they are pretty -predictable. 

If any of you hunt or fish there is not any difference with humans fish and animals. They all move the same and are equally as lazy. Path of least resistance. 

Where do people sleep? When do they go to work? When do they go home? When do they go out? When do they get paid? When does shift change at the large employers occur? What days are busiest at your airport? With a little research you can learn all about the market you work. Population density and demographics are also important. Are you hunting if there is no animals or fish to catch/kill.

Focus on large groups when they are in the same place that would use rideshare. Unloading a venue will lead to PT and Surge depending on the crowd and potential to use rideshare over other means of moving around.


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## Merc7186 (Jul 8, 2017)

I get that you guys drive in Neverland and tinkerbell flies around with her magic wand popping up surges everywhere but in the most real world markets, surges are hard to come by and even harder to 'Just drive surgs' only.

Put it in perspective. While it would be great to drive only surges but most people in most markets have to take non surge fares....they shouldn't be looked down upon for that.



ShinyAndChrome said:


> Lmao. I have 43 lifetime rides with lyft now. 1-2 were surged. Yes you read that right. Try driving in upstate ny.


Yeah...but you're a slacker. LOL.

You could always head over to a certain college town to change that.


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## ShinyAndChrome (Aug 18, 2017)

JJS said:


> In my market there are areas that surge or PT frequently and they are pretty -predictable.
> 
> If any of you hunt or fish there is not any difference with humans fish and animals. They all move the same and are equally as lazy. Path of least resistance.
> 
> ...


Your analogy with hunting makes it sounds like if my area isn't surging I can go to a new one where there's less pressure. Except my entire city is the equivalent of a tiny piece of public hunting land with a thousand guys on opening day shooting anything that moves. There are no high-surge areas here, period.


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## Jesses (Oct 30, 2017)

i've never gotten a surge ride out of 221 lifetime rides. And there is one day where it was so busy that myself and three other drivers delivered 118 rides total (I had 29 myself that day). We were getting back-to-back rides for over an hour.

I suspect in some of the newer expanded areas where cities are ~50k people, they just don't even enable primetime.

Of the few local drivers we have, some go to nearby larger cities because they can easily make 5x as much when there are events. Those drivers do get PT / surge fares, especially with Uber.


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## JimKE (Oct 28, 2016)

Jesses said:


> i've never gotten a surge ride out of 221 lifetime rides.


I have 250-something, and I've only had one PT ride (25%), never tried for PDB, and never paid any attention to Lyft guarantees.

But that's mostly because Uber is much busier than Lyft here, so when it might be surging somewhere my Lyft app is offline. I'm also very dissatisfied with Lyft because of all the re-dispatches and may actually never turn the app back on.

I work part-time, mostly days, and no late nights -- so I don't get very much Uber surge either except during major events.


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## Jesses (Oct 30, 2017)

JimKE said:


> I have 250-something, and I've only had one PT ride (25%), never tried for PDB, and never paid any attention to Lyft guarantees.


That's interesting to hear. Lyft doesn't offer driver incentives here except a per-ride bonus for new drivers. So no PDB, etc because power zones and primetime don't exist yet.

The drivers that i talk to who go to others areas also rarely get surge rates, and primarily use uber in bigger cities. Lyft's gambit to expand to areas where Uber hasn't is likely really important to their name recognition.


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## spaceship (Nov 12, 2017)

spaceship said:


> ive done rides from hollywood to lax for less than 23 dollars i think...but to answer your question i do accept basically every ride maybe because im on the rental platform but also because i watched a youtube video from a driver who basically said he didnt cherry pick and did fine yet did worse surgechasing/cherrypicking. in my short experience that has indeed seemed to be the case. except this week when they suddenly stopped giving me PT rides and sending me outside the pink zones. My opinion is that since i got my $1k signup bonus this week that theyre algorythm said i made too much and should be working friday and saturday night going 15 out of the primezone to get rides. hasnt happened before this week, always got a FAIR mixture of prime and regular rides. trust me i live in hollywood its not hard to get surrounded by miles of prime. im going to wait to see if next week since my bonus isnt falsely inflating my earning maybe the algorythm will go back to normal and not "PT doomswitch" me for earning too much (ie: working hard)


ok so now that ive done this a bit longer i get it. its bc i need to keep at least a 90% acceptance rate for my bonuses. apparently guys who own their own cars are telling me they have acceptance rates as low as 6% bc they just let all the bs timeout until the PT hits. ya live and ya learn..

ps: i just got beer spilled in my car tonight, and friday night a nice wad of gum smushed in...yay


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