# How to Fix Lyft's Scheduled Ride Pickups



## Dropking

Earlier this summer, Lyft introduced a feature that allows drivers to "book" a passenger's scheduled ride. The driver can see where the passenger is going and "claim" the ride in advance of the date.

If implemented well, this feature would give Lyft a tremendous competitive advantage over Uber because pax going to obscure places or leaving at odd times would be matched with a willing driver. The rider would have a more cheerful experience. And, drivers would get their day started with a great ride, inevitably driving more for Lyft that day. Less cancellations, happier riders & drivers would be the result. I would drive more for Lyft if the implementation of this feature were done well because once I start my morning on Lyft, I don't switch to Uber until there is a good reason.

Unfortunately the implementation was done so poorly that there are severe unintended consequences for Lyft riders and drivers who are actually driving less for Lyft as a result. Let me explain.

*Problem #1 - Ping Spam (excessive irrelevant ride requests).*

If you log on a minute before the time given to log on, you may be met with a barrage of immediate ride requests that you do not intend to take because you are specifically online only for the scheduled ride. This especially happens early in the morning when I've "booked" a scheduled ride (usually to the airport). I will get 3-4 immediate pings from other riders, many from far away places, all of which I ignore because I really intend to do the scheduled ride that I actively worked to book.

An unintended consequence is that Lyft ruins my acceptance rate for the week so I will have no chance of maintaining a 90% acceptance rate required for power driver bonuses. So I drive less for Lyft and MUCH more for Uber than I would otherwise.

A second unintended consequence is that all those other pax will wait longer for their ride because Lyft is spamming their ride request to drivers who are only online for their scheduled pickup.

*Problem #2 - Scheduled pickup given away to another driver.*

This is killer. You go to the trouble of booking a scheduled pickup, you sleep in until the appropriate time or arrange your family's weekend activities around the scheduled ride. Then the time comes and you see the scheduled ride still in your queue, you login at the right time, and then poof. It just goes away into thin air.

What has happened here is that Lyft gave the ride away to another driver, presumably still honoring the concept that every ride must be given to the closest driver despite the fact that they are offering scheduled rides to drivers. Makes no sense. After one of my scheduled pickups vanished, interesting circumstances allowed me to speak with the driver who was given my scheduled pickup. When he received the ping, he just happened to be slightly closer in the moment (like 5 minutes instead of 7). I would have still arrived 13 minutes early.

The unintended consequence of this nonsense is that I immediately open Uber, and if I'm annoyed enough I shut off Lyft entirely. Chances are very high I will be driving Uber passengers within the next five minutes, thus removing a driver from the Lyft grid at early am times when they are badly needed in my area. Or I just might choose to stay home that day and cut the grass (happened exactly this way today!).

A second unintended consequence is for the poor passenger. Her ride was just given away from a driver who badly wanted to do the ride to a driver who is clueless about where she is going. The driver may arrive, find out the passenger is going to Timbuktu and cancel the ride! Or, he might just be grumpy about it and the passenger will have a poor experience.

*Problem #3 - Drivers hoard scheduled rides*

This is a consequence of problem #2. Because Lyft does not honor scheduled rides, offing many of them to other drivers, drivers are undoubtedly double-booking rides (note: you are not suppose to do this). So if you book a 4am scheduled ride to the airport, a cunning driver might also book a 4.30am ride to the airport just to be safe. If Lyft gives the first ride away, you might still get the second.

These scheduled rides are golden tickets to where a driver from the suburb wants to go, whether that might be to a high earning zone or to a far away lake for a personal fishing trip. There is a mad scramble every day to capture scheduled rides, with drivers incessantly refreshing the scheduler page hoping for that golden ticket that will get tomorrow off to a good start. The choice rides are only available for a few seconds until snatched up by drivers. And if a driver is double-booking, another driver will miss out.

This is all very bad for Lyft. What should be a superior feature that induces driver loyalty and rider satisfaction is currently a debacle fraught with unintended problems and stress. These problems are easily fixable, but will Lyft wake up?


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## Trafficat

I've tried the scheduled ride thing maybe 3-4 times when it first rolled out but so far Lyft hasn't been able to connect me to anyone I signed up for. It instead sends me pings the other way or gives them away.


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## Dropking

Trafficat, here is a tip: 

Because Lyft is giving your ride away to the nearest driver, play their game. You have the pax address so drive really really close to the pax and then go online at the right time. You will get the ride more often that way. Then call the rider and explain that you are early. They will usually be thrilled and ready themselves to leave early so you aren't wasting downtime. 

But it should not be this way. Lyft should honor the system they created. They falsely tell drivers that they will be placed in the front of the queue for their scheduled pickups. What they are actually doing is making you the fallback plan for a scheduled ride. They want to make sure that a driver is available, so you become their safety net when you have signed up for a scheduled pickup. You will get the ride if nobody else is closer.


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## LEAFdriver

Problem is: If your scheduled ride is not ALL THAT GREAT.....getting there early is just a guarantee you will be sitting there 30-45 minutes until they are ready!

I've gotten a scheduled ride from the local mall here going to a suburb about 2-3 towns away...about a 20-30 minute ride (only worth about $10-$15 after Lyft's cut). I'll get there early.....and I sign on a few minutes earlier than they told me to...and WHAM...the scheduled ride ping comes in! I'm 2 minutes away....and the pick up isn't for about 25-30 minutes! 

After I accept, I called the pax...and he wasn't even getting off work until the earlier time in the pick up time frame aka 7:00-7:10 pm.
So I texted him back saying I would cancel....because I can't wait that long! 

So, why does Lyft SEND the request out so EARLY if we are RIGHT THERE already? If they requested for 7-7:10 pm....and I signed on...2 minutes away....at 6:40 pm and then get the ping....do they really expect us to sit there for half an hour?


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## YourPrivateDriver

use the destination filter with the pax's destination and you should be parred with the pax. that should solve #1


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## Mista T

This part of their system needs a serious overhaul.

Yesterday in the late afternoon I received a scheduled request (not reserved, just randomly) that was 18 minutes away. How is it that 1. No one else had reserved this request, and 2. I'm the closest driver, in a city the size of Portland, on a Saturday afternoon, at 18 MINUTES away???

I feel more and more that Lyft is systematically trying to regulate how many rides per hour, or how much $$ per hour each driver makes. Why else would they send me on an 18 minute pickup?


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## Goduckies

So you cancel and don't qualify for bonus


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## RideShareJUNKIE

DF doesnt work with pre scheduled rides in my experience/market.


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## Dropking

I do about one scheduled ride per driving-day here in the SF Bay Area, usually to SFO or OAK. But you have to fight hard for those rides by click click clicking and snatching them up within a few seconds before another driver does. Of those rides, "only" about 25% of my scheduled pickups get given away (now) because I've learned to get as close to the passenger as possible before going online at the designated time. Incidentally, you are much more likely to get the actual ping for those early morning scheduled rides when few drivers are around. 

But it shouldn't be that way. Once a driver has committed to a scheduled pickup, Lyft needs to bend over backwards to give that driver their ride as longs as you are close enough to get there on time. Not doing that means they are losing a lot of my driving to Uber, because when I lose a scheduled ride into thin air I turn on the Uber destination filter (works better than Lyft's) and attempt an airport run that way.


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## MSUGrad9902

I didn't schedule this ride with lyft. I had a ping 11 minutes away. On my way they "re-routed" me to a scheduled pickup (that I did not schedule). It was closer and in a nicer area, so I was initially ok with it. Then I get there and lyft asked me to wait 45 minutes for the scheduled ride. I wrote to support who actually admitted that it shouldn't have done that. But it did make me turn lyft off completely for the next 5 days.


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## beezlewaxin

The scheduled rides feature isnt designed for drivers in Lyft's existing metropolitan markets.

There are tens of dozens of hidden toggle settings that Lyft can use to tweak how the apps works, and one such passenger app setting is described as, "Fallback to requesting a scheduled ride if no drivers in area?"

A few months ago this toggle settings didnt seem needed except for in maybe a handful of new or tiny Lyft markets. But existence of the toggle setting help me possibly understand why the drivers scheduled rides feature existed.

It is now a few months later and Lyft announces this:

*Lyft Is Now Live Across 40 States*

What? How are they going to do that? Oh, duh, thats why they added the scheduled rides feature. And now it all makes sense.

I don't think Lyft really cares if we have problems with this feature and rightfully so. Because we don't need to use it and it wasnt designed for our markets anyway.

Well this is all just a guess, anyway..


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## Tese

I've been doing some scheduled trips and routinely get the pings from 20-30 minutes away instead of the trip I had in my queue. I just turn on Uber and sometimes I end up getting the Lyft rider who just ended up with a driver that is 20 minutes away instead of me. Makes for a fun ride, but an even better tip because the rider thinks I did them a huge favor by turning on the Uber app. I've complained to Lyft support and get the response - no guarantee that you will receive the ride request just because it is in your queue. Ummm...then why is there a queue?!?

Lyft just announced that your acceptance rate "may" be affected if you have a scheduled trip in your queue and remove it. sure enough, it does. a $6 (high value-LOL) trip was in my queue. I removed it after I received the 1 hour reminder text from Lyft and my acceptance rate dropped, just as Lyft promised.


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## Dropking

_"*Ummm...then why is there a queue?!?"
*_
There is a "queue" because Lyft needs to work harder for passengers that have scheduled a ride so that they do not learn to hate Lyft. Imagine a passenger who scheduled a ride 6 days ago, and this morning she gets a message that "no rider is available." That cannot happen or they lose the rider's business to Uber for keeps. So what they've done with these scheduled rides is turn you into the fallback plan. You are not at the front of the line, but instead a driver of last resort. When they send their pings out the normal way to the closest driver, if nobody responds then they know that have a sucker to fall back on who claimed the scheduled ride. That's what seems to be happening in my experience.

_*"The scheduled rides feature isnt designed for drivers in Lyft's existing metropolitan markets."
*_
I agree that the scheduled ride & pickup feature is especially important in the boondocks because it allows drivers who might not have driven to decide to drive because of a neighbor's scheduled ride. But it is also important in metropolitan areas. I've discussed in the opening presentation why I drive less for Lyft now because of how they handle scheduled pickups, and why passengers are suffering. This is a real consequence in all markets.


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## Tese

Uber has a scheduled ride feature. Just curious how Uber drivers see/select the trips. does anyone know?


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## DidIDoThat

YourPrivateDriver said:


> use the destination filter with the pax's destination and you should be parred with the pax. that should solve #1


Not! Use of DF will ensure you don't get the ride, only do it if the ride vanishes, as there is a chance no other rider has it yet.

I have had rides vanish, only to continue to that pickup address and have it come back around to me and I still end up with the ride. This is rare, but it has worked for me several times.


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## Dropking

_*"I have had rides vanish, only to continue to that pickup address and have it come back around to me and I still end up with the ride. This is rare, but it has worked for me several times."
*_
I've had this happen too. It's just nuts. I've done probably 50-75 scheduled ride pickups and have seen everything. What you are describing is the scenario where you have picked up a scheduled ride in advance, then the time comes and you don't get the ping. The ride may disappear from your scheduled ride pickup list. It may actually even briefly re-appear on the master scheduled ride list until you reclaim it or another driver steals it from there. It may be lost forever or it may be ping you as a normal ride if you lucky.

What has happened? It's about giving your ride away to the nearest driver. In these scenarios Lyft attempted to give your ride away to a closer driver. It may be that a driver accepted the ping (and later canceled) or it may be that the 10-second ping request itself (for another ride you don't want) was enough to blow the ride out of your queue. Nuts.

Also, remember that Lyft will at the same time try to spam you with irrelevant ride requests. So when you log on, you may be hit with a barrage of ping requests that you don't want. While that is happening Lyft believes that you are busy and will give your ride away.

This is an unbelievably naive implementation from Lyft. Unfortunately their teams don't communicate well within the company so it's going to take longer for them to fix this than it should. An analyst may in fact be learning from this thread, but she will not get the attention of her peers at Lyft the way things would happen at a better managed company.


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## Dropking

Update: again this morning, I log in for my 5am scheduled pickup and get two immediate pings from unrelated rides. I ignored them of course, which ruins my acceptance rate. The third ping was my scheduled pickup ride. Crazy.


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## Jo3030

Dropking said:


> Update: again this morning, I log in for my 5am scheduled pickup and get two immediate pings from unrelated rides. I ignored them of course, which ruins my acceptance rate. The third ping was my scheduled pickup ride. Crazy.


Not even worth it.


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## NHDriver

Mista T said:


> This part of their system needs a serious overhaul.
> 
> Yesterday in the late afternoon I received a scheduled request (not reserved, just randomly) that was 18 minutes away. How is it that 1. No one else had reserved this request, and 2. I'm the closest driver, in a city the size of Portland, on a Saturday afternoon, at 18 MINUTES away???
> 
> I feel more and more that Lyft is systematically trying to regulate how many rides per hour, or how much $$ per hour each driver makes. Why else would they send me on an 18 minute pickup?


 Make no mistake, neither Lyft or Uber ride requests go to the closest driver. I have had ride requests that are 20 min away, open my rider app and see 8 ants much closer than I am. I sit in a surge area for the entire surge and don't get a single ping. We can all relate to this. Nearest driver is complete BS.


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## TNCMinWage

NHDriver said:


> Make no mistake, neither Lyft or Uber ride requests go to the closest driver. I have had ride requests that are 20 min away, open my rider app and see 8 ants much closer than I am. I sit in a surge area for the entire surge and don't get a single ping. We can all relate to this. Nearest driver is complete BS.


Really? Did you sleep with an Uber and Lyft engineer to confirm this? How do you know that those other drivers didn't either turn down that ping, are unmatched from the pax, and/or have destination filters set? I love when drivers say they know how the algo works, when they are purely speculating!

Schedule rides btw are a scam. They should cost the pax more to guarantee a ride. We on the other hand should pay a penalty if we cancel. Its the only viable way for it to "really" work. Right now its just luck that there are drivers that will take those rides and pax things they really have a guaranteed ride. This is a premium service, and pax should pay up for it.


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## NHDriver

TNCMinWage said:


> Really? Did you sleep with an Uber and Lyft engineer to confirm this? How do you know that those other drivers didn't either turn down that ping, are unmatched from the pax, and/or have destination filters set? I love when drivers say they know how the algo works, when they are purely speculating!
> 
> Schedule rides btw are a scam. They should cost the pax more to guarantee a ride. We on the other hand should pay a penalty if we cancel. Its the only viable way for it to "really" work. Right now its just luck that there are drivers that will take those rides and pax things they really have a guaranteed ride. This is a premium service, and pax should pay up for it.


it has been confirmed many times over with many threads on it. I have had a pax in my car then request the ride and not get it. oh i must be too close, move down the street, nope didnt get, move further down the street didnt get it. Ya pretty sure it doesnt work that way. Also, with 6 -8 others closer to a 20 min ping, it is a safer bet that it doesn't go to the closest drive than all 6-8 didnt accept the ping, especially 4.9+ rider. So ya I am very sure. I love how trolls come on here to dispute what has been proven 100 times over by other drivers... smh.


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## TNCMinWage

NHDriver said:


> it has been confirmed many times over with many threads on it. I have had a pax in my car then request the ride and not get it. oh i must be too close, move down the street, nope didnt get, move further down the street didnt get it. Ya pretty sure it doesnt work that way. Also, with 6 -8 others closer to a 20 min ping, it is a safer bet that it doesn't go to the closest drive than all 6-8 didnt accept the ping, especially 4.9+ rider. So ya I am very sure.


Were the other drivers closer to pax driving wise or geographically? I always get pings from pax that are closer geographically than other drivers, but I'd have to literally drive my car across a lake to get to them faster than several other drivers that are closer to them driving wise.

Maybe you are right. Maybe they go by higher driver rating if there are a plethora of drivers and the eta differential is immaterial. But normally I would say that geographic proximity is the number one factor for assigning a ping.


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## NHDriver

TNCMinWage said:


> Were the other drivers closer to pax driving wise or geographically? I always get pings from pax that are closer geographically than other drivers, but I'd have to literally drive my car across a lake to get to them faster than several other drivers that are closer to them driving wise.
> 
> Maybe you are right. Maybe they go by higher driver rating if there are a plethora of drivers and the eta differential is immaterial. But normally I would say that geographic proximity is the number one factor for assigning a ping.


We would all think that and I use to think that. However, i carry a 4.94 rating and still get pings for sub 4.0 pax all the way up to 5.0 newbie riders. I have read on posts, that new drivers get preference for the first few weeks. I have read that it is paired by rating. I have read it is the closest driver. I believe it is a combination of many things, but in no way "just" the closest rider.


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## TNCMinWage

NHDriver said:


> We would all think that and I use to think that. However, i carry a 4.94 rating and still get pings for sub 4.0 pax all the way up to 5.0 newbie riders. I have read on posts, that new drivers get preference for the first few weeks. I have read that it is paired by rating. I have read it is the closest driver. I believe it is a combination of many things, but in no way "just" the closest rider.


In a crowded market, you are probably right. But out here in the suburbs, where drivers are scarce, I can almost assure you with certainty that it is geographic proximity.


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## Mista T

As someone with a years experience with the Lyft "poor assignment" pings I will quickly confirm that proximity is NOT the primary factor. I suspect your cancellation rate, acceptance rate, star rating, and how close you are to achieving a good PDB all play a major role.

Just yesterday Lyft tried to pull me from downtown to a pickup 20 minutes away in a distant suburb, during rush hour. 20 minutes??? Are you f.ing kidding me? You cant tell me that theres not a single driver available on the major freeway, during rush hour, along a 13 mile stretch of road.


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## Jennyma

I asked for a scheduled ride because my ride was a shorty. Minimum fare in the am and I wanted to get one of the seveal cars on my street with the lyft emblem or someone that would be in the area and be okay to start the day with one close to home.

I asked the driver and she was no where near me, her last ride was about 12 miles away and her home about 8 miles, she said she just got the ping and wanted another ride before going home. It defeated the purpose of having my destination known so the driver was aware and not drive far for it.


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## NHDriver

Mista T said:


> As someone with a years experience with the Lyft "poor assignment" pings I will quickly confirm that proximity is NOT the primary factor. I suspect your cancellation rate, acceptance rate, star rating, and how close you are to achieving a good PDB all play a major role.
> 
> Just yesterday Lyft tried to pull me from downtown to a pickup 20 minutes away in a distant suburb, during rush hour. 20 minutes??? Are you f.ing kidding me? You cant tell me that theres not a single driver available on the major freeway, during rush hour, along a 13 mile stretch of road.


Exactly what I was saying earlier.


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## Ghwwe72

Lyft in its help section tell you you are not guaranteed a scheduled pickup even if you select it


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## NHDriver

Ghwwe72 said:


> Lyft in its help section tell you you are not guaranteed a scheduled pickup even if you select it
> 
> View attachment 159847


Short version translated. Ya we love to watch the drivers run around trying to get to the scheduled pick up. We laugh here at corporate watching the ants on our GPS monitor screen. We place bets to see who actually gets it. You drivers are hilarious for believing it's even legit.

At least that's what I got out of it


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## Dropking

All very good points. The way to look at scheduled pickups is that you are their fallback plan. Lyft says you are at the front of the line but that is a fib. They will first offer the ride to the nearest driver, and failing that, they know that you will be available if all else fails. You'll (usually) get the ride if you are the closest driver, hence drive very close to the pickup location before going online, or if you are the only driver reasonably available. That's my experience and I'm sticking with it after doing at least 70 scheduled pickups. This applies to the suburbs with fewer drivers. In the cities with very many drivers around, I'm sure that other factors come into play at the margins.


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## beezlewaxin

In my experience with scheduled pickups I will get the ping and *most* of the time I am not anywhere near the closest and am usually 10-15mins away. In my market Lyft pings are *rarely* more than 5mins away and *never* more than 10mins away, for normal pings.

The only thing that tends to make me lose the pickup is if I am not available 5mins prior, either because I am not online or am on another ride. And by 'prior' I dont mean prior to the pickup but prior to when I will be pinged based on how far away I am.

For example, if I notice I am quite far, maybe 25mins away, from pickup and it's at 630am, then I need to go online by at least 600am. But this isnt always a hard rule I might get pinged at 610am or 615am in this case, which has happened and I am a couple mins late or almost late.

Usually I am driving beforehand and of course I try to end up near the pickup beforehand but doesnt always work out like that. 

I was able to use this feature for about 2 or 3 weeks before they turned it on for everyone. There was always about 10-20 rides in the scheduled rides pool that I could choose from. And it tends to be the same times and same pickup/destinations each day, and was mostly doctors appts during day or airport rides if super early.

I have done maybe 50 of these and I never had a ride stolen from me. If I didnt get pinged it was always something I did but it was never because I was too far away. I have gotten a scheduled pickup ping when I was 30mins away and in that case I woulda been fine not getting it..

FYI when I say scheduled ride or scheduled pickup I am only referring to rides that I saw ahead of time and added to "My Pickups". I am not referring to normal pings that happen to be a scheduled ride, even though I didn't choose that ride ahead of time.


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## DidIDoThat

I have done around 200 scheduled pickups, and have learned that....


There is no guarantee you will get the ride, you are just placed first in line for the ride. (you have to learn to accept this)
Lyft has to protect the scheduled ride and has to be able to properly predict if the preferred driver will be able to accept the ride and get to the rider in time. I believe they are getting better at this, and can tell that they are making certain adjustments.
Due to their vision of Destination mode, the use of this feature within 65 minutes is not recommended. Lyft assumes that when they see you go into that mode that you will be offline at the destination once you arrive to that destination. The fact that you will be offline lowers your chances of getting the ride by about 60%.
To expect to get additional requests once I am online for my SP. I would say that 9 time out of 10 I get the scheduled ride right away (they will actually start to send you a request for the ride 5 minutes prior to your online time), so a lot of this has to do with timing.
Make sure you have good cell coverage and there are no data issues. Any request coming to your phone via GCM will have a TTL and timeout while being sent if not received within a certain period of time, and in some cases may hit your phone, but the OS will cancel/ignore it due to TTL issues and it becomes a missed ride (with no consequences). I have also discovered that due to the GCM/TTL issue I have possibly missed many rides in the past, all due to crappy cell coverage in the area I was waiting. 
...right now 90% of my rides are all scheduled pickups. (I drive part time)

Something that would be fun to see them do with SP, is to allow riders to add drivers to a preferred driver list, then when scheduling a ride, they could select a preferred driver, and that schedule would be added to that drivers pickup list. If the driver can't make the ride, then the regular scheduling system will ensure another driver is able to pickup the ride in time. (there would still be no guarantee the preferred driver would get the ride, but would be highly likely).


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## surlywynch

DidIDoThat said:


> Something that would be fun to see them do with SP, is to allow riders to add drivers to a preferred driver list, then when scheduling a ride, they could select a preferred driver, and that schedule would be added to that drivers pickup list. If the driver can't make the ride, then the regular scheduling system will ensure another driver is able to pickup the ride in time. (there would still be no guarantee the preferred driver would get the ride, but would be highly likely).


This is basically what UZURV does.


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## DidIDoThat

surlywynch said:


> This is basically what UZURV does.


Requires an additional app and requires a fee to UZURV, not interested. Would rather the TNC's built the feature into their app. Would better guarantee that they would retain the rider and guarantee that the rider always has a driver (even if not the preferred driver).


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## surlywynch

I would prefer TNCs to build that feature too, but they don't, and they won't. I don't care about the "fee" to UZURV, it's paid for by the rider. All rides I accept include an incentive paid by the rider. I think of it as a built in tip. I'm free to accept or ignore the request.


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## Dropking

*Much of what you are saying does not apply to our SF market, particularly the suburbs where I tend to pickup scheduled rides. It sounds like what a Lyft employee would say who doesn't understand how things actually work in their system. Let's take your ideas one at a time:*
_*
FALSE: "1. There is no guarantee you will get the ride, you are just placed first in line for the ride. (you have to learn to accept this)"*_
This is a false statement in our busy market. There is no guarantee you will get the ride (correct), but you are not placed first in line. Rides are routinely given away to a closer driver, as experienced by other commenters here. You are their fallback plan. The reason for this behavior by Lyft seems pretty obvious. If a rider scheduled a ride 7 days ago, and yet nobody picks them up, Lyft looks really incompetent and will likely lose the client to Uber. By first attempting to give your ride away to another driver, they are maximizing the chance that a scheduled ride will actually be given on time. They cannot be sure you will accept your own scheduled ride pickup.

_*NONSENSE: "2. Lyft has to protect the scheduled ride and has to be able to properly predict if the preferred driver will be able to accept the ride and get to the rider in time. I believe they are getting better at this, and can tell that they are making certain adjustments."*_
Of course but this doesn't excuse Lyft giving away rides when a driver logs in at the appropriate time and within the appropriate driving distance, and why they spam you with irrelevant ride requests right before the scheduled ride is to be accepted. This is a bug that Lyft needs to fix, whether you want to make excuses for their poor implementation or not. It is removing drivers from their grid (hello Uber) who would have done that ride for Lyft.

_*PARTLY RIGHT: "3. Due to their vision of Destination mode, the use of this feature within 65 minutes is not recommended. Lyft assumes that when they see you go into that mode that you will be offline at the destination once you arrive to that destination. The fact that you will be offline lowers your chances of getting the ride by about 60%."*_
Generally right. That is my experience generally as well, although 65 minutes is not a rule in my market. Like a lot of multi-variable equations it seems to depend.

_*FALSE; "4. To expect to get additional requests once I am online for my SP. I would say that 9 time out of 10 I get the scheduled ride right away (they will actually start to send you a request for the ride 5 minutes prior to your online time), so a lot of this has to do with timing."*_
Does not work this way in my SF market. If I were to log on 5 minutes ahead of time using your method, particularly at early morning hours (like 4am for airport runs) I would get about 15-20 pings over the next 5 minutes from irrelevant ride requests up to 30 minutes away, rate of perhaps 3-4 pings per minute. This problem was mentioned in my opening post. Did you read it? I learned to log on about 1-2 minutes ahead of time and reduce these irrelevant ride requests to 3-4 unwanted pings. Still, just one scheduled ride shoots my acceptance rate for the week as mentioned in my original post so I drive much less for Lyft now because I'm not slave to their power bonuses. In my market area, the actual scheduled ride ping (with a couple of ridiculous exceptions) comes precisely at the designated time. That designated time (given to the driver ahead of time) is 20 minutes prior to the scheduled ride in the suburbs, 15 minutes prior in the SF neighborhoods, and 10 minutes prior around the airport.

_*YES, BUT NOT THE PROBLEM: "5. Make sure you have good cell coverage and there are no data issues. Any request coming to your phone via GCM will have a TTL and timeout while being sent if not received within a certain period of time, and in some cases may hit your phone, but the OS will cancel/ignore it due to TTL issues and it becomes a missed ride (with no consequences). I have also discovered that due to the GCM/TTL issue I have possibly missed many rides in the past, all due to crappy cell coverage in the area I was waiting."*_
Right. Always do that. But in particular, Lyft is not a stable app. It will lose and regain connectivity frequently. Best test for Lyft connectivity is check the scheduled ride board right after logging on. If it just hangs and hangs, better reboot the app quickly. If it refreshes properly, you are connected. But Lyft will still give away your ride and send unwanted pings, as I mentioned.


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## Dropking

I did two of my three scheduled rides today, and only one vanished into thin air. Only two spammy pings for irrelevant rides between the three of them. Progress or blind luck?


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## Dropking

Today, my scheduled morning ride was given away again. I logged on one minute ahead of time, noted my scheduled pickup was on my list, then immediately got 3 spammy pings for irrelevant rides, and suddenly the actual ride I logged on to do vanished. I was 12 minutes away, well within the requisite 20 minutes to get there on time. I would have been 8 minutes early. 

So I'm staying home today instead of doing the usual 15-or-so rides for Lyft.


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## Dropking

Seriously, thought I would try driving for Lyft again tonight. Picked up a scheduled ride for 5.30pm. Logged in at 5.29pm. My scheduled pickup was still there and then I got spammed with an annoying line ride from somewhere else. After waiting that ping spam out, I saw that my scheduled ride had been given away again. I went offline and returned home. 

This is twice in one day that Lyft's awful implementation of scheduled rides took a driver off their grid.


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## Wesleyrian

My question is why does it now only show the drop off address instead of the pickup address like they used to? I think it would be more important to know the pickup spot so drivers can plan to be in the area as opposed to the drop off which I am fine with it being slightly vague and just gives me the general area


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## LEAFdriver

Wesleyrian said:


> My question is why does it now only show the drop off address instead of the pickup address like they used to? I think it would be more important to know the pickup spot so drivers can plan to be in the area as opposed to the drop off which I am fine with it being slightly vague and just gives me the general area


I know. I don't get it either.


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## polar2017

Dropking said:


> Earlier this summer, Lyft introduced a feature that allows drivers to "book" a passenger's scheduled ride. The driver can see where the passenger is going and "claim" the ride in advance of the date.
> 
> If implemented well, this feature would give Lyft a tremendous competitive advantage over Uber because pax going to obscure places or leaving at odd times would be matched with a willing driver. The rider would have a more cheerful experience. And, drivers would get their day started with a great ride, inevitably driving more for Lyft that day. Less cancellations, happier riders & drivers would be the result. I would drive more for Lyft if the implementation of this feature were done well because once I start my morning on Lyft, I don't switch to Uber until there is a good reason.
> 
> Unfortunately the implementation was done so poorly that there are severe unintended consequences for Lyft riders and drivers who are actually driving less for Lyft as a result. Let me explain.
> 
> *Problem #1 - Ping Spam (excessive irrelevant ride requests).*
> 
> If you log on a minute before the time given to log on, you may be met with a barrage of immediate ride requests that you do not intend to take because you are specifically online only for the scheduled ride. This especially happens early in the morning when I've "booked" a scheduled ride (usually to the airport). I will get 3-4 immediate pings from other riders, many from far away places, all of which I ignore because I really intend to do the scheduled ride that I actively worked to book.
> 
> An unintended consequence is that Lyft ruins my acceptance rate for the week so I will have no chance of maintaining a 90% acceptance rate required for power driver bonuses. So I drive less for Lyft and MUCH more for Uber than I would otherwise.
> 
> A second unintended consequence is that all those other pax will wait longer for their ride because Lyft is spamming their ride request to drivers who are only online for their scheduled pickup.
> 
> *Problem #2 - Scheduled pickup given away to another driver.*
> 
> This is killer. You go to the trouble of booking a scheduled pickup, you sleep in until the appropriate time or arrange your family's weekend activities around the scheduled ride. Then the time comes and you see the scheduled ride still in your queue, you login at the right time, and then poof. It just goes away into thin air.
> 
> What has happened here is that Lyft gave the ride away to another driver, presumably still honoring the concept that every ride must be given to the closest driver despite the fact that they are offering scheduled rides to drivers. Makes no sense. After one of my scheduled pickups vanished, interesting circumstances allowed me to speak with the driver who was given my scheduled pickup. When he received the ping, he just happened to be slightly closer in the moment (like 5 minutes instead of 7). I would have still arrived 13 minutes early.
> 
> The unintended consequence of this nonsense is that I immediately open Uber, and if I'm annoyed enough I shut off Lyft entirely. Chances are very high I will be driving Uber passengers within the next five minutes, thus removing a driver from the Lyft grid at early am times when they are badly needed in my area. Or I just might choose to stay home that day and cut the grass (happened exactly this way today!).
> 
> A second unintended consequence is for the poor passenger. Her ride was just given away from a driver who badly wanted to do the ride to a driver who is clueless about where she is going. The driver may arrive, find out the passenger is going to Timbuktu and cancel the ride! Or, he might just be grumpy about it and the passenger will have a poor experience.
> 
> *Problem #3 - Drivers hoard scheduled rides*
> 
> This is a consequence of problem #2. Because Lyft does not honor scheduled rides, offing many of them to other drivers, drivers are undoubtedly double-booking rides (note: you are not suppose to do this). So if you book a 4am scheduled ride to the airport, a cunning driver might also book a 4.30am ride to the airport just to be safe. If Lyft gives the first ride away, you might still get the second.
> 
> These scheduled rides are golden tickets to where a driver from the suburb wants to go, whether that might be to a high earning zone or to a far away lake for a personal fishing trip. There is a mad scramble every day to capture scheduled rides, with drivers incessantly refreshing the scheduler page hoping for that golden ticket that will get tomorrow off to a good start. The choice rides are only available for a few seconds until snatched up by drivers. And if a driver is double-booking, another driver will miss out.
> 
> This is all very bad for Lyft. What should be a superior feature that induces driver loyalty and rider satisfaction is currently a debacle fraught with unintended problems and stress. These problems are easily fixable, but will Lyft wake up?


Had a ping today & message indicated scheduled pick up at xyz time. Accepted it as I was 6 minutes away. Drive 3 minutes & the ride is cancelled. Lmao 
Had 4 lyft rides cancelled this morning. Turned off the app. Had 100 percent PT disappear with no reason provided too.
Lyft has some serious flaws.


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## LyftinCG

Since this thread is still going - does anyone know the radius to see scheduled rides? In my area these scheduled rides are often good rides - so I check for them frequently. But many times there will be none showing - and then I ll get pinged for a scheduled ride (even though I had not accepted it in advance) - but they are often a little further away. 

Any insights?


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## Dropking

Radius varies by zone. Examples:

SF city is 15 minutes
Berkeley 25 minutes
Parts of Contra Costa 20 minutes
SF airport 10 minutes

There is often nothing listed because the good rides get snatched up by other drivers in seconds. You have to be checking the list constantly to get one.


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## LyftinCG

Dropking said:


> Radius varies by zone. Examples:
> 
> SF city is 15 minutes
> Berkeley 25 minutes
> Parts of Contra Costa 20 minutes
> SF airport 10 minutes
> 
> There is often nothing listed because the good rides get snatched up by other drivers in seconds. You have to be checking the list constantly to get one.


Thanks - I am in a exurb - so they are probably not getting picked up in seconds - and I get my fair share - and leave a lot for others that don't make sense. But that explains why I do not see some of them and then they get assigned to me later in the "normal" course of events.


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## Dropking

My experience is that the further away you are from an earning zone... the furthest into the suburbs and rural, the more drivers will compete with you for those high value rides.


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## 68350

LyftinCG said:


> Since this thread is still going - does anyone know the radius to see scheduled rides? In my area these scheduled rides are often good rides - so I check for them frequently. But many times there will be none showing - and then I ll get pinged for a scheduled ride (even though I had not accepted it in advance) - but they are often a little further away.
> 
> Any insights?


I'm in the southern part of Gilbert, near the 202 and Val Vista. I'll see scheduled trips up to 20 min away from my location, up by the 60, down southeast in Queen Creek, middle of Chandler, not in Tempe though. There's quite a range. And yes, there are usually none showing available. When you get one that you hadn't signed up for, it could be either the driver decided very late they didn't want it and removed it from their list, or couldn't make it in time and it got "redirected" to you. I play with airport trips sometimes being a bit too close together and they will disappear if I'm not on track to get there on time after a drop off at Sky Harbor. I like scheduled trips a LOT, except when Gateway airport is involved...


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## Dropking

68350 said:


> I'm in the southern part of Gilbert, near the 202 and Val Vista. I'll see scheduled trips up to 20 min away from my location, up by the 60, down southeast in Queen Creek, middle of Chandler, not in Tempe though. There's quite a range. And yes, there are usually none showing available. When you get one that you hadn't signed up for, it could be either the driver decided very late they didn't want it and removed it from their list, or couldn't make it in time and it got "redirected" to you. I play with airport trips sometimes being a bit too close together and they will disappear if I'm not on track to get there on time after a drop off at Sky Harbor. I like scheduled trips a LOT, except when Gateway airport is involved...


In our area the random pings for scheduled pickups usually mean another driver booked the ride but Lyft is sending you the request because you are closer. Imagine how infuriating that is for the other driver that you are unknowinly stealing their ride.

It can also mean, as you say, that the other driver isnt logged in or is too far away, but dont lose sight of what Lyft willfully does. We've seen plenty of examples where Lyft is dispatching TWO cars just to make sure the pax is covered.


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## 68350

Dropking said:


> but dont lose sight of what Lyft willfully does


No worries, they've screwed me over enough times too. $50 scheduled pickup at Gateway airport at 10pm (when I don't normally drive). I'm proceeding exactly as they had told me to handle an airport queue combined with a scheduled pickup, and the trip disappears from My Pickups just as I should be seeing the request. This has happened all 3 times with these scheduled pickups at Gateway, *nowhere else though*. They can't/won't give me a straight answer as to why this only happens to me at Gateway, and EVERY time. Of course I'm no longer grabbing those pickups when they pop up... waste of time and effort.


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## RJThomasville

I got something to say on this one lmao..

I carried a couple from Sylvester, GA to Macon, GA to pic up their newborn from the hospital.

It was a scheduled pickup I arrived picked them up and drove them to Macon. 

I only got the scheduled pick up the day before because I passed through the area of Sylvester. $85 fair. Heck yea I snagged it. Figuring I would get the return trip would make the whole ordeal worth doing. The trip there paid for the Fuel of both trips. I am from way further south and it was about an hour ride just to pick them up. I along the way talkyd to the couple and asked if they would call their 3rd party booking agency about 45 minutes before they was ready to leave and have schedule a pic up for at that time wold have been 10:30am. 

The father walked outside conversed with me after drop off making sure I was still there etc.. I'm a man of my word so yes I was still there. They called the 3rd party booking company the 3rd party booking company accommodated the request.

I grabbed the scheduled pick up and moved into the loading zone as soon as I grabbed it and realized I had 1 minute before I was supposed to go online. So I went online. Waiting for the ping.

I sat there got a ping from abother rider 1 mile away. Did as Lyft had told me to do the day before when a similar incident happened. Accepted and then canceled the ride. A few seconds later same person same location set my ping off again. I'm sitting there looking at the rider app another driver was closer to this rider than I was yet I was getting the ping.

I accept and cancel again. Then at 10:30am the scheduled pic up time I noticed the scheduled ride had vanished.

I called lyft. While on the phone with lyft trying to figure out why it Vanished here comes another lyft driver. 

The lyft driver gets the Fair I was waiting on and that's when I noticed something.

IT WAS THE PERSON PINGING THE HE'LL OUT OF ME FOR A RIDE!!! The very rider was also a lift driver and has figured out how to take scheduled rides using the rider app.

This is exactly why Lyft needs to implement the reserved feature. If you have a scheduled ride that requires you to go online 15 minutes before the scheduled pick up then your app if in offline mode should go into reserved mode automatically if your near the pickup 30 minutes ahead of the pickup time. If your in online mode the same should also happen but 45 minutes ahead of the pick up time allowing you to finish your current ride and get back to the scheduled pick up. While in reserved mode you only get the ping for the scheduled pickup you have.

This would solve every issue with scheduled pickups


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## Sacto Burbs

Dropking said:


> In our area the random pings for scheduled pickups usually mean another driver booked the ride but Lyft is sending you the request because you are closer. Imagine how infuriating that is for the other driver that you are unknowinly stealing their ride.
> 
> It can also mean, as you say, that the other driver isnt logged in or is too far away, but dont lose sight of what Lyft willfully does. We've seen plenty of examples where Lyft is dispatching TWO cars just to make sure the pax is covered.


Excellent news. By refusing to take scheduled ride pings I am being virtuous and protecting another driver


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## Dropking

Sacto Burbs said:


> Excellent news. By refusing to take scheduled ride pings I am being virtuous and protecting another driver


That is so honorable of you. Thank you, on behalf of the world.


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## UberPyro

Tese said:


> Uber has a scheduled ride feature. Just curious how Uber drivers see/select the trips. does anyone know?


It is not the same as the Lyft side. All it is is an auto scheduler that submits the request at the time specified


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## Jennyma

Eveytime I see a scheduled pick up it doesn’t tell me where the pick up is. How am I supposed to be on 10 minutes before the pick up somewhere 10 minutes away from an unknown pickup.


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## UberPyro

Jennyma said:


> Eveytime I see a scheduled pick up it doesn't tell me where the pick up is. How am I supposed to be on 10 minutes before the pick up somewhere 10 minutes away from an unknown pickup.


It may not give you an exact address but here it gives me the general area(within a block or two)
Note: I have never actually received a pre-scheduled ride. The only ones that ever show up are under $5 at usually surge times


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## Tnasty

FUber and Gryft are not just data mining.They are making us drive longer distances so they can manipulate the data.


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## Dropking

Lyft appears to have made a substantial improvement this week which is documented here.


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## Jo3030

Dropking said:


> Lyft appears to have made a substantial improvement this week which is documented here.


Noticed / Agreed / Confirmed on my end.


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## RJThomasville

At 28 minutes before pick up time a ping goes out on a scheduled pick up to determine if your online and available not how far away you are. (gotten pinged from 48 miles away before, which wasn't a big deal cause I was on the interstate headed that direction anyway was only 2-3 minutes late.) I remembered to take this pic 5-6 minutes after getting a 28 minute till pick up ping to show proof. Will try for an actual 28 minute time next time I think about it.


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## Jo3030

Signed up for a Scheduled Ride and same thing that used to happen before happened.
It disappeared from my list and no notice as to what happened.


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## T&W

Jo3030 said:


> Signed up for a Scheduled Ride and same thing that used to happen before happened.
> It disappeared from my list and no notice as to what happened.


Try writing to support and complaining about it messing up your schedule...add a little drama. For some odd reason, Lyft has been quick to give out $10 bonuses. If you still have that message from Lyft about the changes they made to scheduled rides, it would be great to have for the day Lyft doesn't pay for their error. I didn't keep mine.


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## Sunshinedazie

Dropking said:


> Earlier this summer, Lyft introduced a feature that allows drivers to "book" a passenger's scheduled ride. The driver can see where the passenger is going and "claim" the ride in advance of the date.
> 
> If implemented well, this feature would give Lyft a tremendous competitive advantage over Uber because pax going to obscure places or leaving at odd times would be matched with a willing driver. The rider would have a more cheerful experience. And, drivers would get their day started with a great ride, inevitably driving more for Lyft that day. Less cancellations, happier riders & drivers would be the result. I would drive more for Lyft if the implementation of this feature were done well because once I start my morning on Lyft, I don't switch to Uber until there is a good reason.
> 
> Unfortunately the implementation was done so poorly that there are severe unintended consequences for Lyft riders and drivers who are actually driving less for Lyft as a result. Let me explain.
> 
> *Problem #1 - Ping Spam (excessive irrelevant ride requests).*
> 
> If you log on a minute before the time given to log on, you may be met with a barrage of immediate ride requests that you do not intend to take because you are specifically online only for the scheduled ride. This especially happens early in the morning when I've "booked" a scheduled ride (usually to the airport). I will get 3-4 immediate pings from other riders, many from far away places, all of which I ignore because I really intend to do the scheduled ride that I actively worked to book.
> 
> An unintended consequence is that Lyft ruins my acceptance rate for the week so I will have no chance of maintaining a 90% acceptance rate required for power driver bonuses. So I drive less for Lyft and MUCH more for Uber than I would otherwise.
> 
> A second unintended consequence is that all those other pax will wait longer for their ride because Lyft is spamming their ride request to drivers who are only online for their scheduled pickup.
> 
> *Problem #2 - Scheduled pickup given away to another driver.*
> 
> This is killer. You go to the trouble of booking a scheduled pickup, you sleep in until the appropriate time or arrange your family's weekend activities around the scheduled ride. Then the time comes and you see the scheduled ride still in your queue, you login at the right time, and then poof. It just goes away into thin air.
> 
> What has happened here is that Lyft gave the ride away to another driver, presumably still honoring the concept that every ride must be given to the closest driver despite the fact that they are offering scheduled rides to drivers. Makes no sense. After one of my scheduled pickups vanished, interesting circumstances allowed me to speak with the driver who was given my scheduled pickup. When he received the ping, he just happened to be slightly closer in the moment (like 5 minutes instead of 7). I would have still arrived 13 minutes early.
> 
> The unintended consequence of this nonsense is that I immediately open Uber, and if I'm annoyed enough I shut off Lyft entirely. Chances are very high I will be driving Uber passengers within the next five minutes, thus removing a driver from the Lyft grid at early am times when they are badly needed in my area. Or I just might choose to stay home that day and cut the grass (happened exactly this way today!).
> 
> A second unintended consequence is for the poor passenger. Her ride was just given away from a driver who badly wanted to do the ride to a driver who is clueless about where she is going. The driver may arrive, find out the passenger is going to Timbuktu and cancel the ride! Or, he might just be grumpy about it and the passenger will have a poor experience.
> 
> *Problem #3 - Drivers hoard scheduled rides*
> 
> This is a consequence of problem #2. Because Lyft does not honor scheduled rides, offing many of them to other drivers, drivers are undoubtedly double-booking rides (note: you are not suppose to do this). So if you book a 4am scheduled ride to the airport, a cunning driver might also book a 4.30am ride to the airport just to be safe. If Lyft gives the first ride away, you might still get the second.
> 
> These scheduled rides are golden tickets to where a driver from the suburb wants to go, whether that might be to a high earning zone or to a far away lake for a personal fishing trip. There is a mad scramble every day to capture scheduled rides, with drivers incessantly refreshing the scheduler page hoping for that golden ticket that will get tomorrow off to a good start. The choice rides are only available for a few seconds until snatched up by drivers. And if a driver is double-booking, another driver will miss out.
> 
> This is all very bad for Lyft. What should be a superior feature that induces driver loyalty and rider satisfaction is currently a debacle fraught with unintended problems and stress. These problems are easily fixable, but will Lyft wake up?


Unfortunately I've had my ride given away so many times with lyft. Im not sure what is going on with it. Today for example i arrived to the location early the lady was ready to go early. My app had been on since 6 am scheduled was at 6:15. She was IN MY CAR AND IT WAS ASSIGNED TO SOMEONE ELSE. She and i both were astounded and upset about this. My app had been on i had full service i was at the location and it still didn't pop up for me to accept it. The other driver pulled up and was very confused because i was already there. This makes lyft look so bad and not to mention disorganized. She was also baffled that lyft will not compensate me for the ride at all. Interested to see their excuse for me not getting the ride this time.


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## notouber

I only use Lyft for scheduled rides these days and I have done over 3,000 scheduled rides. I will pass along my method and I hope it helps. Do not go online before your scheduled ride. You will get a text from Lyft telling you to go online either 11 minutes or 21 minutes before your ride. After you receive the text, go online and and you should receive the request within seconds (remember the name of the pax so you don't pick-up a different request). You do not have to be parked in front of someone's house to get the request. I have been over 20 minutes away many times and I still receive the request.


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## Sunshinedazie

notouber said:


> I only use Lyft for scheduled rides these days and I have done over 3,000 scheduled rides. I will pass along my method and I hope it helps. Do not go online before your scheduled ride. You will get a text from Lyft telling you to go online either 11 minutes or 21 minutes before your ride. After you receive the text, go online and and you should receive the request within seconds (remember the name of the pax so you don't pick-up a different request). You do not have to be parked in front of someone's house to get the request. I have been over 20 minutes away many times and I still receive the request.


Yeah i always go online when it tells me to but for some reason it keeps giving my rides away. Lyft keeps giving me excuses and not listening so they dont havr to compensate me


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