# Is Detroit a real opportunity for Lyft?



## JHawk (Oct 27, 2015)

With the recent rate cut in Detroit down to $.30/mile, is this a real opportunity for Lyft? I don't know any specifics about the Detroit market, but if I'm working for Lyft in that area, I'm sending every employee I have to take Uber rides, and use it as a recruitment tool. Get in contact with as many drivers as possible, and simply ask them..."how would you like a 3X surge on every ride you provide?" Lyft would still have to create the rider volume to make all the drivers happy, but it seems like an opportunity to control a significant portion of the driver supply. 

There does seem to be an inverse discrepancy in the per minute rates, with Uber paying $.30 and Lyft only $.15 so maybe if a lot of the trips are short but take a long time due to traffic the difference might not be so big, but a 3x difference on the mileage seems pretty crazy to me.


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## vesolehome (Aug 2, 2015)

JHawk said:


> With the recent rate cut in Detroit down to $.30/mile, is this a real opportunity for Lyft? I don't know any specifics about the Detroit market, but if I'm working for Lyft in that area, I'm sending every employee I have to take Uber rides, and use it as a recruitment tool. Get in contact with as many drivers as possible, and simply ask them..."how would you like a 3X surge on every ride you provide?" Lyft would still have to create the rider volume to make all the drivers happy, but it seems like an opportunity to control a significant portion of the driver supply.
> 
> There does seem to be an inverse discrepancy in the per minute rates, with Uber paying $.30 and Lyft only $.15 so maybe if a lot of the trips are short but take a long time due to traffic the difference might not be so big, but a 3x difference on the mileage seems pretty crazy to me.


There is an opportunity for both Lyft to grow and to grab some Uber drivers. But Detroit has been an unpaid market for a long time now. We were at .70 a mile before the drop to .30 cents a mile. So you already had drivers running both apps. Lyft doesn't have enough demand in the market to run just them unless you are willing to drive up to 30 minutes for some pings and drive 50 hours or more a week. 
With that said, Lyft's partnership with GM now opens new doors. If Lyft allows the GM employees to use their service for free their first rides, or offer codes to friends, family, that sort of thing - the dynamics change. GM has tens of thousands of employees in our backyard.

My experience with Lyft is they are really behind - slow to respond - slow to act - slow to grow in this market. Hopefully they will take advantage of this opportunity.


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## Ubernomics (Nov 11, 2015)

vesolehome said:


> There is an opportunity for both Lyft to grow and to grab some Uber drivers. But Detroit has been an unpaid market for a long time now. We were at .70 a mile before the drop to .30 cents a mile. So you already had drivers running both apps. Lyft doesn't have enough demand in the market to run just them unless you are willing to drive up to 30 minutes for some pings and drive 50 hours or more a week.
> With that said, Lyft's partnership with GM now opens new doors. If Lyft allows the GM employees to use their service for free their first rides, or offer codes to friends, family, that sort of thing - the dynamics change. GM has tens of thousands of employees in our backyard.
> 
> My experience with Lyft is they are really behind - slow to respond - slow to act - slow to grow in this market. Hopefully they will take advantage of this opportunity.


Pax hearing about the new rates think it is ridiculous and are swapping to lyft. I'm in Detroit, been to a couple bars and talked to regular pax and they want the drivers to be compensated correctly, a lot really don't know about how much drivers earn or if it is legitimate to tip..still!. Had a couple Uber users convert to LYFT app tonight as well. Yes s lyft is The Jimmy Buffet of rude share but ya never know how customers will respond to different persona. They could still just defect, all depends on the one they like.


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## Neil Yaremchuk (Sep 28, 2015)

If Lyft is smart, they will seize this as a true opportunity to roll a plan that involves innovation, creativity and relationship development with both drivers and passengers. It's a blank canvass right now in Detroit and Lyft can capitalize on Uber's greed and folly but they're going to have to impart some "out-of-the-box" thinking that goes well beyond discounts at Starbucks and movie theaters. Detroit could be a model, and flagship, for Lyft. Especially with the North American International Auto Show just days away.


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## JHawk (Oct 27, 2015)

Here's a good example of the difference in Lyft's thinking....Chicago didn't get hit with an Uber rate cut....but Lyft is cutting the rider rate by 30% during weekdays in order to stimulate the demand....but unlike Uber, they are still paying the drivers as if the rates are unchanged. Lyft also does this with LyftLine, where the riders get a reduced fare for using the "Line" option, but the drivers are still paid the same, unlike UberPool which has it's own discounted rate/pay structure for both the rider and the driver.


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## JimS (Aug 18, 2015)

JHawk said:


> Here's a good example of the difference in Lyft's thinking....Chicago didn't get hit with an Uber rate cut....but Lyft is cutting the rider rate by 30% during weekdays in order to stimulate the demand....but unlike Uber, they are still paying the drivers as if the rates are unchanged. Lyft also does this with LyftLine, where the riders get a reduced fare for using the "Line" option, but the drivers are still paid the same, unlike UberPool which has it's own discounted rate/pay structure for both the rider and the driver.


I almost agree. But Uber pays X rates even if you have a single pax Pool ride - at least in Atlanta.


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

Optimistically thinking that Uber drivers will switch to Lyft and Uber passengers will be waiting so long for a pickup they'll take a look at the pickup times for Lyft and cancel their Uber request.

If this happens enough, former Uber passengers will become Lyft passengers and the ratio of driver to pax will be normalized.

Might take a while.


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## Idunno (Nov 1, 2015)

a real opportunity to get a real job with bennies with all that down time cause who is going to ride with lyft when the other side is so cheap?


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## ClevelandUberRider (Nov 28, 2015)

JHawk said:


> Here's a good example of the difference in Lyft's thinking....Chicago didn't get hit with an Uber rate cut....but Lyft is cutting the rider rate by 30% during weekdays in order to stimulate the demand....but unlike Uber, they are still paying the drivers as if the rates are unchanged. Lyft also does this with LyftLine, where the riders get a reduced fare for using the "Line" option, but the drivers are still paid the same, unlike UberPool which has it's own discounted rate/pay structure for both the rider and the driver.


Yeah that seems to be the way Lyft does things. Glad to see two players in the market being dinstictive from each other, hence providing different choices for riders and drivers alike.


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