# Lyft testing scheduled rides



## Michaelv1143 (Apr 2, 2016)

"Uber competitor Lyft is adding a new level of convenience to catching a ride from an app on your iPhone. Starting today, Lyft is testing scheduled pickup times so you can arrange a car to pick you up before the moment you need it. Passengers will be able to set pickup times up to 24 hours ahead of time"


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## Michaelv1143 (Apr 2, 2016)

story on 9to5mac 
It wont let me post links on here.


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## Beur (Apr 14, 2015)

Here's the link.

http://9to5mac.com/2016/05/23/ride-sharing-service-lyft-testing-scheduled-pickups-from-mobile-app/

Smart move on Lyft's part, a lot of people ask about scheduling rides. Next option they should add is the ability to request a specific driver, I often get asked if I can pick someone up later after dropping them off.


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## Michaelv1143 (Apr 2, 2016)

Beur said:


> Here's the link.
> 
> http://9to5mac.com/2016/05/23/ride-sharing-service-lyft-testing-scheduled-pickups-from-mobile-app/
> 
> Smart move on Lyft's part, a lot of people ask about scheduling rides. Next option they should add is the ability to request a specific driver, I often get asked if I can pick someone up later after dropping them off.


Same here! It constantly comes up with pax i get. A few have even mentioned some website called favoride?


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## Beur (Apr 14, 2015)

Michaelv1143 said:


> Same here! It constantly comes up with pax i get. A few have even mentioned some website called favoride?


Never heard of that. Luckily here in Palm Springs they're aren't that many drivers, so I can head to their pickup after a call and get the ping.


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

It doesn't schedule drivers though does it? It will just dispatch a driver who should be able to make ETA.

What happens if we cancel because it's 20 minutes away? How are they going to insure a reliable service?


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## Beur (Apr 14, 2015)

MiddleClassedOut said:


> It doesn't schedule drivers though does it? It will just dispatch a driver who should be able to make ETA.
> 
> What happens if we cancel because it's 20 minutes away? How are they going to insure a reliable service?


The article isn't very clear on that. I would say it would have to schedule the driver as Lyft has no guarantee drivers will be on at the requested time.


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## Flarpy (Apr 17, 2016)

I'm foreseeing a lot of pissed off pax when their scheduled drivers don't show up.

Like I'm going to plan a day ahead to pick up some shmuck for a $3-4 ride. Yeah I'll get right on that.


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## macchiato (Sep 29, 2015)

No pt applied?


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## AllenChicago (Nov 19, 2015)

Flarpy said:


> I'm foreseeing a lot of pissed off pax when their scheduled drivers don't show up.
> 
> Like I'm going to plan a day ahead to pick up some shmuck for a $3-4 ride. Yeah I'll get right on that.


I'm visualizing a lot of pissed-off drivers...

*A scenario*:
Myrtle adores you, and wants you to take her to the WTF Saloon every Tuesday at 9pm and pick her up at 2am. She targets you as a "favorite driver" and schedules you for every Tuesday, 6 months in advance. Myrtle's pick-up location is 8 miles away, but the WTF Saloon is less than 1 mile from her apartment. As long as you show up on time (9pm / 2am) every Tuesday, your Lyft rating and bonuses will not be negatively affected.


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## Amsoil Uber Connect (Jan 14, 2015)

Its not going to benefit the driver unless its a min 20-30 mile trip.

Then Am I an employee when I am schedule for a pick up b4 my normal driving hrs.

And I better have a destination address of the trip b4 the scheduled one, we can't be to far and add even more dead miles to get the scheduled trip.

And if one gets a long distance trip b4 then one and no way to make it back in time.

I did one last year from Redlands to Sherman Oaks. 15 dead miles to RD. back then the trip netted $110, probably be 85 today.

Oh and BTW, Not a single Lyft trip today. 7 uber, slow for a Monday.


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## MattyMikey (Aug 19, 2015)

AllenChicago said:


> I'm visualizing a lot of pissed-off drivers...
> 
> *A scenario*:
> Myrtle adores you, and wants you to take her to the WTF Saloon every Tuesday at 9pm and pick her up at 2am. She targets you as a "favorite driver" and schedules you for every Tuesday, 6 months in advance. Myrtle's pick-up location is 8 miles away, but the WTF Saloon is less than 1 mile from her apartment. As long as you show up on time (9pm / 2am) every Tuesday, your Lyft rating and bonuses will not be negatively affected.


Lol. This wouldn't happen to me as the first time I had this rider they get rated 3 or below so no future pairing.


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## Flarpy (Apr 17, 2016)

I looked at the blog post and the new service is pretty meaningless. It just means a car will be found at a specific time and place without the rider having to do it at that time. The rider can schedule beforehand.

I have a feeling there will be lots of drivers collecting 5 dollar cancellations when riders forget they scheduled a trip.

It's like delaying the sending of an email.. the request doesn't ping out until the scheduled time. Not exactly revolutionary.


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

I'm guessing it will just do a normal request like any other, it would be like using a script to trigger a Lyft request at a certain time on your phone...If no driver responds, the PAX is out of luck. There has to be some incentive for the driver to be there...

Really be interested to see how they incentivize drivers to have downtime and go to some stupid scheduled pickup...


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## Flarpy (Apr 17, 2016)

It will just ring a local driver at the appointed time. There is no guarantee that one will actually show.


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

MiddleClassedOut said:


> It will just dispatch a driver who should be able to make ETA.
> 
> What happens if we cancel because it's 20 minutes away? How are they going to insure a reliable service?


That is how we used to do the time calls on taxi voice dispatch. Of course, we only ran a driver if it were worth it. Back in the Zone days, here, airport trips were good, train stations and bus no good. The result was that we could run a driver for an airport, but not a train/bus. This resulted in made aeroplanes but missed busses and trains. The computer, while it can be programmed to do that, will not. Here, at least, voice dispatch was operated more to favour the driver than passenger. In retrospect, that is one minor contributor to the rise of Uber, here, at least.

There is where there is going to be a problem. The application does not tell the driver where the trip is going. If the driver knows that he is running for a profitable trip, he will do it. If he does not, odds are that he will not. Perhaps, if the customer types in "airport", the application could ask if the customer wants the destination shown. What this might do, and has done here, is cause the customer to be less than honest about his destination. I have a few stories about that.



Flarpy said:


> I'm foreseeing a lot of pissed off pax when their scheduled drivers don't show up.
> 
> Like I'm going to plan a day ahead to pick up some shmuck for a $3-4 ride


...........and a _*lotta' pee-yo-ed*_ drivers over the second one. When My Taxi was here, it allowed what it called "pre-books". I tried them three times, did not get one decent job, so three strikes and you are O-W-T. After that, I would not do the "pre-books". Considering the reasons that people want time calls here, I would not even accept them on a TNC platform; not here, at least.



AllenChicago said:


> I'm visualizing a lot of pissed-off drivers...
> 
> *
> 
> ...


They should set it up so that you can decline a "favourite" request with no adverse consequences. What are you supposed to do if your car is in the shop that Tuesday and the mechanic has to keep it? What are you supposed to do if you cover a request that makes you late? We had regulars in the cab business, but we were careful to take on regulars that made it worth covering them. I declined more than a few because it simply was not worth my trouble to make sure that I covered them. For the most part, it was because they failed to understand what it took to make it profitable.


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## Flarpy (Apr 17, 2016)

Allowing people to request a favorite driver would require the rewrite of the entire app and likely the back-end software too. Not gonna happen.

It also goes against the theory of modern TSNs. Uber and Lyft want riders to have a permanent relationship with the companies themselves, not with individual drivers. Drivers are fungible and ultimately disposable, as you'll see when they're finally able to get the self-driving cars working.


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## CatchyMusicLover (Sep 18, 2015)

I don't see anything in the article that implies anything about requesting anyone specific


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## Amsoil Uber Connect (Jan 14, 2015)

Flarpy said:


> I looked at the blog post and the new service is pretty meaningless. It just means a car will be found at a specific time and place without the rider having to do it at that time. The rider can schedule beforehand.
> .


Yeah scratch what I wrote above.


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## McGillicutty (Jan 12, 2015)




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## AceManShow (Sep 24, 2015)

Michaelv1143 said:


> "Uber competitor Lyft is adding a new level of convenience to catching a ride from an app on your iPhone. Starting today, Lyft is testing scheduled pickup times so you can arrange a car to pick you up before the moment you need it. Passengers will be able to set pickup times up to 24 hours ahead of time"


There's gonna be a lot of flakes on both sides. I don't see this going too smoothly.


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## elelegido (Sep 24, 2014)

I don't see this working. Drivers would have try to remain close to the scheduled pickup location by turning away long distance trips before the pickup and/or deadmile it to the pickup in order to be at the scheduled pickup in time. Either way, they _will _lose revenue before the scheduled trip for these reasons.

Lyft promises a higher _minimum _fare for scheduled trips, but that's not going to be good enough. This increase in the minimum will probably be something derisory such as an extra 2 or 3 dollars, bringing it up to a whole $7 or $8. Nowhere near enough - in addition to a higher minimum, a higher rate per mile would be required to compensate for the lost revenue incurred before the scheduled trip. Pax may very well want scheduled rides, but will Lyft be willing to charge them a fair price for it? Their past and current performance shows that the odds are against it.

No thanks, Lyft!


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## Flarpy (Apr 17, 2016)

Guys, you're not listening. All Lyft will do is ping a driver near the scheduled time.

For example, rider schedules ride for 7:30. It's now 7:20 and the Lyft computers see that the closest driver is 10 minutes away. It pings him. He doesn't accept, it pings another driver.

there will probably be some sort of notification that it's a scheduled Fare along with a notice that the base fare is raised in order to incentivize drivers not to ignore the ping

That's about all Lyft can do without completely rewriting the server software and app.


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## Ben105 (Feb 27, 2016)

Except Lyft won't tell us it's a higher price fare until it's complete, just like PT now.

I received the same email.


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

It does not take that much to accomplish this. My Taxi does it in Germany, Spain and wherever else it is that it works. It used to do this when it was in Washington. One thing that My Taxi did do is put the "pre-books" up there as soon as they were received. If no one had taken the thing, it would put it out as it would a regular summons as the time drew close. It used to let you know that it was a "pre-book" and the due time.

The programming already is out there. It needs no special re-write.


It appears that Lyft is going to leave out the putting them up there as soon as it receives them step and go directly to putting out the thing as the due time approaches. On voice dispatch, the general rule was ten minutes before due time. As a dispatcher, I had an idea how long it was taking me to get people cabs in a given area, so, I knew when I should start calling a job. If the trip were profitable, I could run a driver for it. We accepted time calls only for Bus, Train and Aeroplane. Before we had meters here, the airports were profitable, the train stations were not and the Bus depots not only were unprofitable, but could be dangerous (criminals' hanging around the Bus depot). A computer does not distinguish between a good and a bad job. Given my experience with the My Taxi pre-books, drivers are going to wind up spending all sorts of time on mediocre and garbage trips. As a result, drivers will stop accepting them, just as many cab drivers here would not accept the My Taxi "pre-books". I stopped accepting them. I tried the m three times and never got a decent trip. That was enough.


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## Amsoil Uber Connect (Jan 14, 2015)

Dam, ! So let me get this straight, ...So peoples life's are such that they micro manage themselves down to the Nano Minute ?


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## DudeCity (Jun 22, 2015)

What if the pax is in Hollywood Hills, Bell Canyon or Some odd

Place off Topanga who's going to go There..........


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## SomeDrivingGuy (May 10, 2016)

Living in a world where common sense is not so common. Riders should order when they are ready to walk out the door.


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## JimS (Aug 18, 2015)

If I have to position myself for a scheduled pick up, yeah, that a guaranteed ride. But I have to go off the grid 1/2 hour to an hour before hand to avoid getting a ping that could take me to the other side of the universe.


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