# First day with lyft



## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

Will be my last unless they fix their system. They over saturated the Miami market with drivers fine I don't care. What I do care about is why am I in coconut grove getting pings to Miami beach a 30+ minute drive when there are drivers on Miami beach? Why am I getting pings to downtown a 20 minute drive when there are drivers literally next to where they requested. Another problem I have is the accuracy of the pin drop, it is grossly inaccurate, I am having to circle blocks from where it shows me the pin drop to find people.

I drove uber last week and wanted to do a comparison of lyft this week and it took me only a few hours to see how flawed it is. Uber hates their drivers but at least you are able to gets a pax in your area. If I go online from my house I usually get a ping from less than .5 miles away and start from there. The dead miles with lyft are insane.

With uber I had 2 cancels in 84 rides, with lyft I have had 2 in 7 rides, one I canceled because the lady never showed the other was just another lyft driver trying to mess with me.


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

I also forgot to mention, what is with Lyft riders who never put a destination in, they prefer to give you the turn by turn directions. I have never had this with Uber, they all put the directions or at least give me cross streets if they don't, I only had 1 Uber pax not give me a destination and I think it was because she was a stripper and didn't want me to say anything like I would have anyway.

I am not an Uber advocate, I wish Lyft worked better as they pay slightly better, I wanted them to be the better app., I gave it a shot of 7 hours straight signed on and just kept getting more and more frustrated.


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## Pedruber (Jan 8, 2015)

Very similar experiences for me with lyft, if they don't fix it they wont survive here at least. I've pretty much stopped turning the app on anymore. Last week only did 45 bux in fares with lyft and they way it's looking that'll go down as I don't think they think it's a problem to send us pings from miles away.


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

If they are gonna send pings from 9 miles away they need to compensate us for it so pax aren't getting canceled on all the time and their customer base grows.


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## Pedruber (Jan 8, 2015)

One of my last / recent lyft rides, I was on Washington and 9th on sobe, got a ping from mary brickell, was headed back to the gables so i took a chance and accepted it, i call the guy to let him know where i was and that it would be a good 15 minutes or more before i could get there, he says that's ok that they'd been trying to get a lyft for over 1/2 hour and everyone kept cancelling on them. I told him I'd pick them up not to worry thinking i'd get a decent tip out of it. Get there and they're going to aventura, sucks for me as i was ready to call it a night but being who i am, I take them. It was a long ride but unfortunately for me in the opposite direction of where i wanted to go. Drop them off at the gate of a fancy gated community, they say thank you. I rated them 5 as what was I to know they wouldn't tip, well next day I see no tip after all that. With all of the recent increase in pax traffic on lyft that have come over from fuber and were getting free rides until last week i think, i've seen less tips on lyft lately than when i started with lyft in jan. lyft is screwing themselves imo as they cannot expect for drivers to pile on the dead miles, tolls and time and not make money. i don't do this bc i'm a community activist!


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## scrurbscrud (Sep 11, 2014)

From a functional reality standpoint full time drivers are still getting a power driver bonus from Lyft which amounts to Lyft not taking any percentage of the fares. Their entire 20% is eliminated. Don't know how much longer it's going to last, but that does play into the equations on long distance fares, to keep the percentage of ping acceptance up. And it's usually only an issue during the weekdays. Weekends there is usually plenty of biz to go around. A lot of drivers ain't got **** all to do half the time during the weekdays anyway.

If I'm concerned about distance, I just call the pax and see how far they are going. If it's a short haul and I don't want to do it I just give them a little spiel and have them cancel so it doesn't adversely affect the acceptance rate and turn off the app for a bit til they clear with somebody else. If I do decide to do it after that out of sheer boredom I make sure they know that I don't know why Lyft sent me so far on a long distance haul, but I'm on my way so hang tight. Tip percentage on these fares is fairly high, so takes the hard sting out somewhat.

IF the power driver bonus wasn't in play I probably wouldn't think twice of blowing them off entirely.

For the opening posters complaint on Lyft pax not forking over a hard address or destination, a lot of new Lyft Uber drivers have that complaint. I did as well. You just have to 'take' it from them. Not something we're used to on Uber. A lot of Lyft pax are frequent local users and like to just toss out vague directions. You have to train yourself to take an address or the name of the place the pax are going to and hit it. Annoying at first but it no longer bothers me. I just say 'give me the name of the place you're going to or an address so I can plug it into the system.'


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)




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## Dcspride (Mar 3, 2015)

Hold on... Am I seeing this correctly? You are in the drive mode and you can see where other drivers are? When I log in, I can only see my car. I don't know how many cars are around me until I log out of driver mode.


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## scrurbscrud (Sep 11, 2014)

Driver saturation is definitely an issue with Lyft after their last promo.


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

Dcspride said:


> Hold on... Am I seeing this correctly? You are in the drive mode and you can see where other drivers are? When I log in, I can only see my car. I don't know how many cars are around me until I log out of driver mode.


I have the special super duper account, seriously I have no clue it has always let me see the other drivers.


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## scrurbscrud (Sep 11, 2014)

Dcspride said:


> Hold on... Am I seeing this correctly? You are in the drive mode and you can see where other drivers are? When I log in, I can only see my car. I don't know how many cars are around me until I log out of driver mode.


I don't even see a car. Just a blue dot with an arrow indicating my direction of travel.


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## duggles (Aug 25, 2014)

limepro said:


> I have the special super duper account, seriously I have no clue it has always let me see the other drivers.


Definitely jealous. I'm always logging off to coordinate being away from other drivers and to verify PT zones.


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## scrurbscrud (Sep 11, 2014)

duggles said:


> Definitely jealous. I'm always logging off to coordinate being away from other drivers and to verify PT zones.


I run two phones. Since Lyft's app is just pathetic to identify prime time, when it is a little busier I punch in the ping address on the second phone for longer pings to see if it's prime time. It often is but isn't indicated as such. You have to log if it is and then double check the pay when it reports through to see if you got it. Not a perfect system from my end but at least I'm keeping tabs.


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## duggles (Aug 25, 2014)

scrurbscrud said:


> I run two phones. Since Lyft's app is just pathetic to identify prime time, when it is a little busier I punch in the ping address on the second phone for longer pings to see if it's prime time. It often is but isn't indicated as such. You have to log if it is and then double check the pay when it reports through to see if you got it. Not a perfect system from my end but at least I'm keeping tabs.


Gah, two phones seems like too much hassle though. I don't even own an extra phone that could run the Lyft app. But I bet it's profitable to do so. A lot of further away rides are PT, when I don't accept, log out, and then check. Likely going to downtown, meaning a good fare. But in the times where I've gambled and it hasn't been a PT ride, I kick myself the whole way.


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## scrurbscrud (Sep 11, 2014)

duggles said:


> Gah, two phones seems like too much hassle though. I don't even own an extra phone that could run the Lyft app. But I bet it's profitable to do so. A lot of further away rides are PT, when I don't accept, log out, and then check. Likely going to downtown, meaning a good fare. But in the times where I've gambled and it hasn't been a PT ride, I kick myself the whole way.


It's really not. I can keep an eye on both Uber and Lyft driver locations perpetually on both phones to plot my driving strategy at any given time. It also works great if I run two apps. No messing around. Just turn off the app on one phone and hit the active ping. It's very convenient. It also works great to have a second nav app running so I don't have to 'write down' the original address if the pax has an interim address/location to stop at or multiple pax drop off destination addresses. I just punch them into the second phone and off we go with the original destination intact. I don't have to re ask the pax or remember or write down the original destination. In addition to being able to determine if a longer distance Lyft ping is P.T. which there is no way to tell on a single phone.


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## ElectroFuzz (Jun 10, 2014)

Dcspride said:


> Hold on... Am I seeing this correctly? You are in the drive mode and you can see where other drivers are? When I log in, I can only see my car. I don't know how many cars are around me until I log out of driver mode.


It used to be like that last year.
You could also tap any car and see the name of the driver.
They changed this somewhere in August 2014.


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## Dcspride (Mar 3, 2015)

So op is using old version of lyft application? But how? That looks a lot better.


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

Dcspride said:


> So op is using old version of lyft application? But how? That looks a lot better.


I just was just forced to update and didn't even get the first version until 2 weeks ago so no clue.


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

Does the lyft driver mode show heat maps like uber? I don't see any so unless I toggle out of driver mode I never know where is in primetime.


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## duggles (Aug 25, 2014)

limepro said:


> Does the lyft driver mode show heat maps like uber? I don't see any so unless I toggle out of driver mode I never know where is in primetime.


With more and more drivers out each weekend it is tough to fool around with Lyft PT as the zones aren't large enough or stable enough. But when demand is higher, there are shades of pick that will display in boxes to represent PT+Demand. However, sometimes, zones without any pink will be PT rides. You can only tell with another phone signed in as a rider, as @scrurbscrud does, and I am getting close to doing myself.


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## duggles (Aug 25, 2014)

Actually, @scrurbscrud, do you use iPhones? What's the deal? Set my primary phone up as a hotspot and then connect wi-fi on the other phone with lyft app. No phone #/sim/line needed?


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

K I got one ride today that was 100% pt but didn't know until after, I saw on their site a hotspot map but have never seen anything on mine so was curious.


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

I decided to give lyft another try, yesterday I did 4 rides and netted $48 but the accuracy is still really off by streets. I'm doing it again today for the guarantees. The big problem seems to be downtown, everywhere else it seems to do alright.


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## scrurbscrud (Sep 11, 2014)

duggles said:


> Actually, @scrurbscrud, do you use iPhones? What's the deal? Set my primary phone up as a hotspot and then connect wi-fi on the other phone with lyft app. No phone #/sim/line needed?


I have one phone/# for 'personal and other businesses' and one phone/# for TNC driving. Use them both constantly while driving. Both most recent Android versions.


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## duggles (Aug 25, 2014)

scrurbscrud said:


> I have one phone/# for 'personal and other businesses' and one phone/# for TNC driving. Use them both constantly while driving. Both most recent Android versions.


I'm trying to figure out if I need a # on the other phone. Can I just use lyft on wi-fi, perhaps put in a Google # for Lyft if it requires it, then run the 2nd phone off a hotspot from my primary phone?


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## scrurbscrud (Sep 11, 2014)

duggles said:


> I'm trying to figure out if I need a # on the other phone. Can I just use lyft on wi-fi, perhaps put in a Google # for Lyft if it requires it, then run the 2nd phone off a hotspot from my primary phone?


I've never tried tethering a phone to another phones hotspot so couldn't tell ya. Don't know why a wi-fi connection hotspot from another phone wouldn't work. Don't know about how the actual phone connections for the TNC apps would work.


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

I think uber is winning the battle in Miami, I am seeing lyft drivers numbers dwindle away. They also brought back guaranteed hours $30/h for 4-6pm monday-thursday and even more on the weekend. I'm gonna do uber mornings and then switch for the guarantees. It is sad because there are things I like much more on the lyft app and things I hate.

If lyft showed your progress up to the minute it would be great, I love seeing exactly what I'm at with uber at anytime.


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## Pedruber (Jan 8, 2015)

limepro said:


> I think uber is winning the battle in Miami, I am seeing lyft drivers numbers dwindle away. They also brought back guaranteed hours $30/h for 4-6pm monday-thursday and even more on the weekend. I'm gonna do uber mornings and then switch for the guarantees. It is sad because there are things I like much more on the lyft app and things I hate.
> 
> If lyft showed your progress up to the minute it would be great, I love seeing exactly what I'm at with uber at anytime.


are you still getting far away pings; i haven't had the lyft app on all week, no way i can keep up a decent acceptance rate with the pings i was getting


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## limepro (Mar 7, 2015)

Pedruber said:


> are you still getting far away pings; i haven't had the lyft app on all week, no way i can keep up a decent acceptance rate with the pings i was getting


Friday and Saturday was much better with that.


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