# Dissapearing heat maps for prime time. manipulation?



## BaitNSwitch (May 12, 2015)

Anyone else having this issue?

Sitting in a biiiig zone with no drivers anywheres near. On the passenger app side its saying %200% prime time everywhere. But in driver mode no heat map to be seen..anywhere

The heat map appears randomly for a little bit then disappears.

Is this a glitch anyone else is experiencing?


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

Yeah...I think I have seen this...Sometimes the pink just vanishes. Sorry for the requests anyone, but I gotta check the PAX side...

It might be a little better in the beta I have. There is some REAL good stuff in the new Lyft beta - hint, some of the things Uber drivers have now Lyft also has.


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

MiddleClassedOut said:


> hint, some of the things Uber drivers have now Lyft also has.


What? Passengers that don't tip? Market Share?


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## BaitNSwitch (May 12, 2015)

How do you get the beta app?

It seems Lyft is manipulating the heatmap for the drivers for some weird reason. I'm guessing it's so that they don't pay up the prime time charges to the drivers, but I can't libel for no reason as I have not tried going in the surge areas and accepting a call yet.


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## cin90 (Nov 12, 2015)

What I understand about those pink 'heat' locations is there are more PAX than there are available drivers. SO, if they disappear then that high demand need is gone.


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## Mark Campagna (Oct 12, 2015)

I personally think the surge pricing for uber and power drive / bonus for Lyft is BS. It's a gimmick to avoid paying the "non-employee" workers. A decent wage. What is needed is a decent rate per mile. Do that and you will have plenty of quality drivers, allow both companies to weed out the bad and you would still beat the taxi business. But hey, what the F do I know. I've only been in the customer service business for almost 40 years so I'm sure I've missed the ball some where.


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## Idunno (Nov 1, 2015)

I'm so confused with prime time rates. Was at a location that was red for hours and the passenger admitted they kept cancelling prime time rates and somehow got a regular rate. And this happens in an area where you go online and within the minute you get pinged and passenger app shows no available drivers.


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

There is a lag between the end of the prime time and hot area disappearing from your screen.
Passenger simply pings and cancels until the "surge" is over. Once you accept a ride, the screen is changed anyway - so there's no way for you to know that prime time ended moments before you got pinged, except the price of the ride.

I've gotten prime time rides and didn't know it until the report came in the next day, the price was in blue on the web page.

Both prime time and surge are manufactured for _expected_ demand, not _actual_ demand.

If there were more requests for rides than there were drivers, would you need to be in the hot zone to get pinged? Of course not, we've all gotten pinged for 20 minute pickups, right?

The surge areas and the prime time areas are simply a ploy to get drivers to show up for a POTENTIAL demand.

Those that drive to the surge, or prime time pink zone, satisfy the TNC only. How many times have you been sitting in the shaded area and not gotten a ride? That's because everyone drives in to a "surge" or a "Prime Time" - when the high dollar fares are all taken, then you can have the scraps of regular fare riders.

Meanwhile, those that stayed put outside of the surge enjoy the extra business that you left behind.


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

I think there are ways to manipulate Prime Time rates in our favor on Lyft just as I have seen on Uber.

Here's an example:

I was in the NW Suburbs of my town, got a request from an apartment complex. I arrived, waited, and canceled. Then I got another request for a location a mile away. I started moving and the PAX canceled. Now I finally get one more request from the same guy. This time I called and asked if they were at that location, which was back at the complex. He was obviously a new user and confused the destination and pick-up locations.

The final request was on a 75% prime time...This was in an area with no other cars for at least 4-5 miles at a time. We might be able to deduce from this that the 3 requests to 1 car ratio in a short span of time (less than 10 minutes) resulted in the rate increasing 25% for each new request. Who knows, it could be that simple!

But just as on Uber, if you have enough people spamming requests you can create Prime Time zones. This does involve unethical behavior toward your fellow drivers.


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## RobGM84 (Oct 26, 2015)

I love how people seem to think that surge or heat maps are being "manipulated" simply because they appear and disappear quickly.

Listen people...Surge or prime time...Drivers are getting paid more and are being shown where to go. At the same time passengers are opening the app and seeing a higher cost. Simultaneously driver supply is going up and passenger demand is going down. Passengers are deciding to walk, take transit, or take cabs because they are cheaper. Surges and prime time used to last longer because there was not an oversupply of drivers. Now there are so many that as soon as surge/PT goes into effect it only takes seconds for the increasing supply to meet the decreasing demand.


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## ATL2SD (Aug 16, 2015)

MiddleClassedOut said:


> There is some REAL good stuff in the new Lyft beta - hint, some of the things Uber drivers have now Lyft also has.


Like what?...I'm itching to keep this Uber app off & go 100% Lyft. Gimme a reason, please good sir.


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## DieselkW (Jul 21, 2015)

ATL2SD said:


> Like what?...I'm itching to keep this Uber app off & go 100% Lyft. Gimme a reason, please good sir.


2 reasons. 
1) Power driver bonus is like Uber 1.5x surge every ride. 
2) Tips


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## ATL2SD (Aug 16, 2015)

DieselkW said:


> 2 reasons.
> 1) Power driver bonus is like Uber 1.5x surge every ride.
> 2) Tips


Indeed. I want to know what's in that beta though.


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## arybeats (Nov 16, 2015)

I've got 3 tips in my first 7 rides here in DC. Seems lyft is far superior, except for the fact that there is way less pings.


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

I guess on here it's not a big deal...The Express Pay thing is now in the regular app, but for Lyft Line they are also now allowing you to take new requests while still on a ride. 

But requests on Lyft are pretty slow, but still it wouldn't hurt. The thing is, unlike Uber, Lyft's algorithm takes into account how long you've been online without a request, so I don't think many drivers would ever get multiple requests anyway. There's always someone else who needs the work...


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## Lyft_94110 (Nov 16, 2015)

@RobGM94 said:
Surge or prime time...Drivers are getting paid more and are being shown where to go. At the same time passengers are opening the app and seeing a higher cost. Simultaneously driver supply is going up and passenger demand is going down. Passengers are deciding to walk, take transit, or take cabs because they are cheaper.​
To add to this -- in a locale like San Francisco, there are many employers who give free or reduced-cost Lyft rides to their employees. These passengers care less what the actual cost of the ride is, since their company pays it, not them. So they don't cancel when prime time pricing is in effect.


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