# Lyft Cancellation Thresholds



## dctcmn (Sep 21, 2017)

It's no secret that cancelling too many rides on Lyft with get you deactivated, but does anyone know their specific thresholds and how they calculate it? I'm assuming that it's a certain percentage of cancelled rides vs the total rides given, but I can't get a straight answer from Lyft support (shocker, I know). 

I'm looking for the exact percentage and the total ride history that they base it on. For example, 10% of your past 100 rides or 15% of your last 500 rides, etc. Is it an average per market?

Anybody know?


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## Lyfted13 (Jul 26, 2017)

Be sure to let us know what it is when you get deactivated  lol


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## dctcmn (Sep 21, 2017)

Lyfted13 said:


> Be sure to let us know what it is when you get deactivated  lol


Oh, I'm definitely getting deactivated soon, but I doubt it'll be for cancellation (I'd put odds on me murdering a gogograndparent).

I just like to know how much slack I have before the hook sets.


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## beezlewaxin (Feb 10, 2015)

Has anyone on these forums been deactivated for this?

Call Lyft's support line everytime you cancel a ride. Put on a show. Confess and beg not to be deactivated. When they say its ok you wont be deactivated because of 1 cancellation, burst into tears immediately. "But this is my second cancelled ride this week... [sobbing]"

They may say, "its ok, 2 cancelled rides is ok. But you should only cancel if it's an emergency."

"Really? 2 is ok. Wait a minute, you're just making numbers up? Is this even Lyft?"

Ask to speak to their parents. Or supervisor. Have fun. Get answers. Keep at it. Good luck.

Or stop cancelling, lol...


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## UberAnt39 (Jun 1, 2016)

beezlewaxin said:


> Has anyone on these forums been deactivated for this?.


https://uberpeople.net/threads/lyft-account-deactivated.235485/


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## I.P.Daily (Jan 5, 2017)

dctcmn said:


> It's no secret that cancelling too many rides on Lyft with get you deactivated, but does anyone know their specific thresholds and how they calculate it? I'm assuming that it's a certain percentage of cancelled rides vs the total rides given, but I can't get a straight answer from Lyft support (shocker, I know).
> 
> I'm looking for the exact percentage and the total ride history that they base it on. For example, 10% of your past 100 rides or 15% of your last 500 rides, etc. Is it an average per market?
> 
> Anybody know?


Hahaha. Your demands are hilarious.
Why would you expect LYFT (or Uber) to hand out specific commercial in confidence info?
We are just contractor drivers. 
If you can't get the info from the web then expect to be deactivated sooner 

"Live by the sword.."


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## dctcmn (Sep 21, 2017)

beezlewaxin said:


> Or stop cancelling, lol...


So I should take all the infants without car seats, unaccompanied minors and not cancel no- shows?

Sage advice.



I.P.Daily said:


> Hahaha. Your demands are hilarious.
> Why would you expect LYFT (or Uber) to hand out specific commercial in confidence info?
> We are just contractor drivers.
> If you can't get the info from the web then expect to be deactivated sooner
> ...


You'll have to point out where I'm making "demands". Like I said in my original post, 
I'm not shocked Lyft won't give me the specific metrics, that's why I'm asking the question on this forum. I figure that someone here might know.


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## dctcmn (Sep 21, 2017)

Found my answer...

https://lyft.schoolkeep.com/outline/q158o41t/activities/6ewbcs34


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## dctcmn (Sep 21, 2017)

So, I had a ~10 email long exchange with a Lyft Support Representative today and one of his emails said this...

"_Your acceptance rate is the sum of your completed rides and rides marked as 'no-show' divided by your total ride requests. *We focus on your Acceptance Rate rather than your cancellation rate*.

The communication you received was based on the accumulation of instances within a specified number of rides, which varies by region and is automatically tracked by our system. In other words, this was sent due to a set of multiple incidents that have occurred.

*The best you can do at this time is reduce your number of cancellations as much as you can, and try to keep your Acceptance Rate on at least 90%*._"

When I pressed him about IC status and acceptance % he replied,

"_Cancellations create a negative experience for passengers and affect their view of the Lyft community as a whole.

We understand that drivers sometimes need to cancel a Lyft, and the system is set up to handle that occasionally. Drivers receive communications regarding high cancellations when they cancel 15% or more of their recent (up to 100) accepted rides. Drivers with a high cancellation rate are at risk of deactivation._"

He changed his tune (and tone) pretty quickly when pressed about IC status and acceptance %. It's odd because I've only cancelled 6 of my last 100 rides and all of them were due to infants/toddlers with no car seats and unaccompanied minors (all of which were reported and I was told that the cancellation would be taken off my record). However, my acceptance rate hasn't been over 50% for a long time. I suspect that Lyft is targeting drivers with low acceptance rates under the pretext of driver cancellations.


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## Leo1983 (Jul 3, 2017)

Your acceptance rate can be zero and you won’t get deactivated. It’s the cancellations that will do it.


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## dctcmn (Sep 21, 2017)

Leo1983 said:


> Your acceptance rate can be zero and you won't get deactivated. It's the cancellations that will do it.


 I know that's the line that we all believe to be true. I think the emails I quoted show otherwise.


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## Leo1983 (Jul 3, 2017)

dctcmn said:


> I know that's the line that we all believe to be true. I think the emails I quoted show otherwise.


They're trying to intimidate you. You can't be deactivated for acceptance rate. Only cancellations. 
When I used to do Lyft my acceptance rate rarely went above 8%


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## MrMikeNC (Feb 16, 2017)

Yeah neither can deactivate you for low acceptance rate. The closest they can do is lock you out temporarily. It has something to do with the difference between IC and employee, and deactivation for acceptance rate means you were an employee and they need to pay you (back-pay you) accordingly. This all came about around April 0f 2016 thanks to a lawsuit against Uber in California. Lyft typically follows whatever big brother Uber does (usually off a cliff) so it applies to them too.


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## Mista T (Aug 16, 2017)

To further add to that...

When you accept a ride and then cancel, the pax is affected, and you damage the brand.

If you never accept the ride then the pax just waits longer, but does not know why. You cannot be held responsible for poor company reputation in that case, any more than someone who took a day off.

So said the judge, basically.


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## dctcmn (Sep 21, 2017)

MrMikeNC said:


> Yeah neither can deactivate you for low acceptance rate. The closest they can do is lock you out temporarily. It has something to do with the difference between IC and employee, and deactivation for acceptance rate means you were an employee and they need to pay you (back-pay you) accordingly. This all came about around April 0f 2016 thanks to a lawsuit against Uber in California. Lyft typically follows whatever big brother Uber does (usually off a cliff) so it applies to them too.


Sorry for the wall of text, but I think this is important.

I know about the Uber settlement in MA and CA, but there's a few things to note about that settlement. First, technically it only applies to Uber drivers in MA and CA. Lyft was not a party to that settlement and I do not drive in MA or CA. Second, because there was no actual judgment, there is no case law setting precedent for Lyft or drivers in states other than MA and CA.

On these message boards, we throw around the idea that Lyft can't deactivate for low acceptance rates like it's a fact (and it might be a fact), but we don't KNOW it's a fact. The only thing that we do know is that Lyft hasn't tried to deactivate for low acceptance rate, so far. Uber will flat out tell you that low acceptance rate doesn't affect your status on the platform. To my knowledge, Lyft has not ever come out and explicitly stated that. If I'm wrong on that and someone can show me proof otherwise, I'll be extremely happy to admit that I'm wrong.

Even if it is true that Lyft can't deactivate based on acceptance rate, they certainly can deactivate drivers with low acceptance rates under the pretext of other behavior (cancellation %, false pax reports, etc.). That's what's so troublesome about the statement, "_We focus on your Acceptance Rate rather than your cancellation rate. The communication you received was based on the accumulation of instances within a specified number of rides, which varies by region and is automatically tracked by our system. In other words, this was sent due to a set of multiple incidents that have occurred. The best you can do at this time is reduce your number of cancellations as much as you can, and try to keep your Acceptance Rate on at least 90%." _This rep is plainly saying that acceptance rate is a factor, just not the only factor.

Even the statement "which varies by region" is not consistent with Lyft's website, which clearly states that the threshold is 15 cancelled rides out of your last 100. Which is it?


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## MrMikeNC (Feb 16, 2017)

dctcmn said:


> Sorry for the wall of text, but I think this is important.
> 
> I know about the Uber settlement in MA and CA, but there's a few things to note about that settlement. First, technically it only applies to Uber drivers in MA and CA. Lyft was not a party to that settlement and I do not drive in MA or CA. Second, because there was no actual judgment, there is no case law setting precedent for Lyft or drivers in states other than MA and CA.


Lyft is a rideshare company, like Uber. All it would take is for one driver deactivated for low acceptance rate to sue them and have their lawyer site precedence with the Uber case.



> On these message boards, we throw around the idea that Lyft can't deactivate for low acceptance rates like it's a fact (and it might be a fact),


Well thank goodness us lost souls have found you, huh?

0.005 seconds of Googling brought up the California case. I could Google more about how the law works, precedents, cases vs settlements etc etc....but to what end? I'd be wasting my energy since you already know better, so good luck with that.



Mista T said:


> To further add to that...
> 
> When you accept a ride and then cancel, the pax is affected, and you damage the brand.
> 
> ...


But see we need to stop "throwing around the idea" that Lyft can't deactivate us for low acceptance rate. See we've been doing it all wrong before dctcm showed up. Thankfully he's here to show us the true way.


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## Lyfted13 (Jul 26, 2017)

So a few months ago, I remember specifically reading in the Lyft help center that we are contractors who are free to accept or decline any ride request and we will never be penalized for not accepting requests. I just looked for it so I could post it on this thread but......surprise! It isn’t there anymore and it no longer says that. 

I totally get the logic behind not doing lines, I know they can be a pain in the ass. I personally do most lines, however I do cancel within a 5-10% overall window of 2nd or 3rd passengers who aren’t bringing anything to the party because I don’t like to feel like I am working for free and being taken advantage of. My thinking is that sure, they can’t deactivate you for a low acceptance rate, BUT if you get into a situation that could go either way in terms of deactivation, an overall low acceptance rate is not gonna help your case. I need this gig right now and I am gonna play it safe until I can just stop this all together, but that’s just me. If that wasn’t the case, I would cancel all 2nd and third passengers regardless, or maybe just not do lines at all.


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## dctcmn (Sep 21, 2017)

MrMikeNC said:


> Lyft is a rideshare company, like Uber. All it would take is for one driver deactivated for low acceptance rate to sue them and have their lawyer site precedence with the Uber case.
> 
> Well thank goodness us lost souls have found you, huh?
> 
> ...


Let's ease up on the over sensitivity. I'm just trying to gather and evaluate information and there's nothing in my posts that insulted you or anyone else here. We should be able to disagree without being disagreeable. We should be able to press each other's information and ideas without taking it personally. That's what helps us improve as people. However, if my posts make you feel mistreated, feel free to put me on ignore.

When I said "we throw around the idea", that includes me. I'm just as guilty of this as anyone else, but I believe it's important to differentiate between what we "think we know" versus what we actually know. My recent interaction with Lyft Support makes me suspect that something is afoot re: acceptance and cancellation rates.


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## Mista T (Aug 16, 2017)

I once drove a Lyft employee home. Asked her about AR. She said, point blank, it does not matter unless you are going for the PDB.

That was almost a year ago, and Lyft likes to change the rules without warning, but that's my add.


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

dctcmn said:


> (I'd put odds on me murdering a gogograndparent). .


In my market it shows you that it is a GOGOGRANDPARENT job before you accept it. If the same is true in your market, just do not accept those jobs.



dctcmn said:


> Found my answer...


I have about 225 trips. I know that I have cancelled more than 35 of them. *Gr*yft has not even threatened me with de-activation, Y-E-T.


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## dctcmn (Sep 21, 2017)

'


Another Uber Driver said:


> In my market it shows you that it is a GOGOGRANDPARENT job before you accept it. If the same is true in your market, just do not accept those jobs.
> 
> I have about 225 trips. I know that I have cancelled more than 35 of them. *Gr*yft has not even threatened me with de-activation, Y-E-T.


I was being facetious. I've never accepted a gogograndparent trip. I won't accept a trip where I know that the person booking the trip is not the person in my car.

225 trips with 35 driver initiated cancellations is more evidence that Lyft is up to shenanigans with acceptance % and cancellation %.


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## Trump Economics (Jul 29, 2015)

dctcmn said:


> It's no secret that cancelling too many rides on Lyft with get you deactivated, but does anyone know their specific thresholds and how they calculate it? I'm assuming that it's a certain percentage of cancelled rides vs the total rides given, but I can't get a straight answer from Lyft support (shocker, I know).
> 
> I'm looking for the exact percentage and the total ride history that they base it on. For example, 10% of your past 100 rides or 15% of your last 500 rides, etc. Is it an average per market?
> 
> Anybody know?


The answers is to "never cancel."

https://uberpeople.net/threads/never-cancel-another-call-again-beat-the-system-here%E2%80%99s-how.207571/


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

dctcmn said:


> Found my answer...
> 
> https://lyft.schoolkeep.com/outline/q158o41t/activities/6ewbcs34
> 
> View attachment 198956


However nobody seems to know what happens with pax cancel, cancelled by lyft, and no show rides...

Do they count same as completed rides? Do they not count as accepted rides? Or what?



dctcmn said:


> So, I had a ~10 email long exchange with a Lyft Support Representative today and one of his emails said this...
> 
> "_Your acceptance rate is the sum of your completed rides and rides marked as 'no-show' divided by your total ride requests. *We focus on your Acceptance Rate rather than your cancellation rate*.
> 
> ...


He's confused

I've had months of 1-4% acceptance rate... and they only bullied me if I pressed cancel



Trump Economics said:


> The answers is to "never cancel."
> 
> https://uberpeople.net/threads/never-cancel-another-call-again-beat-the-system-here%E2%80%99s-how.207571/


Works on city streets.... not so much buttdialed/fatfingered popup request from 30 minutes away, no primetime and/or in the wrong vehicle class in suburbia

And does verrry little good in airport situations, where you need to force a "cancelled by lyft" or get them to cancel it


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## dctcmn (Sep 21, 2017)

Adieu said:


> He's confused


It's possible that he was confused, but the emails seemed like canned responses, which makes me think it's Lyft boilerplate.



Adieu said:


> I've had months of 1-4% acceptance rate... and they only bullied me if I pressed cancel


That's my point. They won't do anything about low acceptance rate, if that's your only sin. However, if you cancel a trip AND have a low acceptance rate, they'll send the warning and start progressive discipline, which is contrary to their stated policy of allowing 15 cancellations in the past 100 completed trips.

In other words, someone who has a 90+ acceptance rate can cancel more often than someone with a 1-4% acceptance rate.


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

dctcmn said:


> It's possible that he was confused, but the emails seemed like canned responses, which makes me think it's Lyft boilerplate.


They often send template responses from old, depreciated policies


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