# Stick a fork in ‘em, Lyft is DONE



## SOLA-RAH (Dec 31, 2014)

I'll only pick up a lyft ride if it's on a filter to where I'm heading for the day or if there's a juicy bonus attached, which was practically never up until just recently. Two weeks ago in DC lyft tossed out a $14 PER RIDE bonus practically begging drivers to come out, which I milked to the fullest. But I had lots of odd conversations with riders saying they had waited 30, 45 minutes, even up to an hour for a driver to show up. There were quite a few pings that got stacked right at the beginning of a 20-30 minute ride since I was the stacked ping's only chance to ever catch a whiff of a driver being close their neighborhood...AND THEY ALL WAITED & WERE HAPPY THAT I SHOWED UP. Also had quite a few ~15minute pickups which NEVER happens in DC and I'd never typically accept, but worth doing with the $14 bonus attached.
This evening I pulled down $95 in six rides between 9pm-midnite on uber which had a 3for$11 streak offered. There's also a decent ~$3/ride quest going so there were plenty of drivers out chasing it but also still enough business to go around. Three of my riders commented that they literally couldn't get a lyft ride. I figured they really just didn't want to wait so I tested it myself when I got home and got the below for around 15 minutes straight until I just gave up and cancelled. I never once actually got connected to a driver.
If this is how it's really gonna be going forward, I don't see lyft standing much of a chance to exist much longer. And how can they stay in business if they're just gonna give away money like the bottom screenshot just so every ride request gets covered? How's the lyft experience currently in your city?


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## Slackware (Jul 29, 2020)

That's awesome.


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## beezlewaxin (Feb 10, 2015)

They are desperate in my market.










I can tell from the passenger app that there are a lot more drivers out. I don't know if they are doing any random ride bonuses like on your screenshot.

In my experience I used to get those kinds of bonuses alot before the pandemic on airport drop offs. I would check the passenger app and could see that those trips were under a stealth 100% PT.

For a few weeks it seemed that all long trips from the outer suburbs cost double in the passenger app. That hasn't happened since March. It seemed like ride bonuses didn't happen without the pax paying for it but on your trip it seems like Lyft ate most or all of that bonus.


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## nonononodrivethru (Mar 25, 2019)

They are charging 3x to their pax and giving their drivers 1/3 of the fare. They are only staying afloat by stealing from drivers. That's why you can't see what the pax payed anymore.



beezlewaxin said:


> They are desperate in my market.
> 
> View attachment 492574
> 
> ...


They have a quarterly report coming out on the 12th and they're hoping not to get murdered, considering they had zero revenue for March April and May.


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## Daisey77 (Jan 13, 2016)

nonononodrivethru said:


> They are charging 3x to their pax and giving their drivers 1/3 of the fare. They are only staying afloat by stealing from drivers. That's why you can't see what the pax payed anymore.












Definitely doing this . Back when they first changed over to power zones and Before they made their API private, I often caught them priming at 250 to 350% with not $1 being offered to the driver. The whole city was on a constant 25% Prime 24- hours a day almost. How long had that been going on for?


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## SOLA-RAH (Dec 31, 2014)

beezlewaxin said:


> They are desperate in my market.
> 
> View attachment 492574
> 
> ...


Then maybe what I'm really seeing is the now usual lack of drivers due to Covid + uber just offering better bonuses this week. I do find it interesting that riders had lots of issues getting a ride during that week when lyft was handing out crazy bonuses to drivers, but maybe demand was just overwhelming at the time with lots of drivers still unwilling to risk it.
But lyft is definitely shooting themselves in the foot if riders can't get a reliable ride at any time of day or night. Two of my riders last night said they only used lyft and had to get a friend to order an uber for them...I'm guessing they're both probably new uber riders now. Unreliability like that drives away customers in droves.


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## Fusion_LUser (Jan 3, 2020)

Far less Lyft drivers in my area covering 35+ miles of different cities. Turn on Lyft and you will an immediate ping for a ride 15-25 minutes away. Going by the riders app most of the time its a 15+ minute wait to get a ride however the amount being charged to pax are pretty close to what Uber would charge... but usually a little higher.

In the same area there are plenty of Uber drivers and from my casual observation when I see them they all have Lyft stickers so they must be tired of Lyft as well.


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## Illini (Mar 14, 2019)

There have been many times over the past couple months where I'm the only driver within a 10 mile radius of me.


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## Kurt Halfyard (Dec 13, 2017)

I pretty much drive at base rates anyway, it is the nature of my 'home location' in my market, and the times of the day I can drive. 
1 ride in 100 has a surge multiplier on UBER.
So I don't mind being one of the very few LYFT drivers in my neck of the woods.
If the pick-up time is 5 minutes or less, I take the ride.
If the pick up time is greater than 5 minutes, I decline.
My AR is generally about 50% and I can live with that. I am making no more and no less on a LYFT ride than I am on an UBER ride.
I'm also using the LYFT-Beta-APP, which allows me to 'report bugs' to the mother ship.
Every Pick-up that is greater than 12 minutes, I report as a bug in the system. This amuses me.


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## waldowainthrop (Oct 25, 2019)

Lyft is massive in DC, so that is a really bad sign for them.


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## Dice Man (May 21, 2018)

Lyft soon have to show destination on the Pings for everyone like Uber.
Or else many drivers won't drive for them.


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## New2This (Dec 27, 2015)

**** Lyft


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## 25rides7daysaweek (Nov 20, 2017)

Illini said:


> There have been many times over the past couple months where I'm the only driver within a 10 mile radius of me.


Hey im in elk grove where are you?
I generally drive to the city for work..


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## BigBadDriver (Sep 12, 2017)

Daisey77 said:


> View attachment 492584
> 
> 
> Definitely doing this . Back when they first changed over to power zones and Before they made their API private, I often caught them priming at 250 to 350% with not $1 being offered to the driver. The whole city was on a constant 25% Prime 24- hours a day almost. How long had that been going on for?


It's been going on for as long as you signed the TOS accepting that you were paid by time + distance + whatever extra crumbs Lyft decides to give you (or not give you).


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## #professoruber (Feb 19, 2018)

No need to check the rider app. The airport queue is a accurate indication of how many drivers are on the road. With the unemployment cheddar gone, drivers are out in full force. I expect with the lack of demand and millions losing the unemployment bonus, all market will soon be saturated with drivers.

For the past few months, our airport queue has been sitting at 1-5 drivers and consistently surging. Pre COVID, this same queue would stack with 200-300 drivers consistently.


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## Illini (Mar 14, 2019)

25rides7daysaweek said:


> Hey im in elk grove where are you?
> I generally drive to the city for work..


I'm in Orland Park, and usually drive around the W, SW, and S Burbs.


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## AllenChicago (Nov 19, 2015)

Lyft paid a $5.00 bonus per ride in the Chicago region last week. I used my "Arrive on Time" filter to do lots of short rides. Less wear on the car, less gas, less overall stress.

Then, all the Lyft drivers "came alive" due to Unemployment expiring on July 25th. This week, the bonus is $31 for 26 rides. No thank-you.


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## LyftUberFuwabolewa (Feb 7, 2019)

The problem is not enough drivers on the Lyft platform. Here's a few reasons:

1. No long pickup premium. Combine that with no ride duration/distance details. A driver isn't going to drive 10+ minutes to a an unknown ride.

2. Because of number 1 above, drivers aren't going to go online unless they are in an urban location where chances are they'll get a nearby pickup. If you're a rider in the boonies, you'd better use Uber. Drivers will make a long pickup IF they get reimbursed.

3. In my market, 95% of the time or more, Uber is surging nicely while Lyft isn't. Guess which platform I'll pick.

4. Though there are losers on Uber, most of the bottom-of-the-barrel riders are on Lyft.


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## CheepShot (May 11, 2020)

SOLA-RAH said:


> Then maybe what I'm really seeing is the now usual lack of drivers due to Covid + uber just offering better bonuses this week. I do find it interesting that riders had lots of issues getting a ride during that week when lyft was handing out crazy bonuses to drivers, but maybe demand was just overwhelming at the time with lots of drivers still unwilling to risk it.
> But lyft is definitely shooting themselves in the foot if riders can't get a reliable ride at any time of day or night. Two of my riders last night said they only used lyft and had to get a friend to order an uber for them...I'm guessing they're both probably new uber riders now. Unreliability like that drives away customers in droves.


I suspect the lack of drivers has been created by the fear of covid and in the case of the states of Illinois and California trying to make RS drivers employees by buying them off with un-employment pay. It's still workable for me but, there is little doubt that I will leave if they try to make me an employee. I don't want to be forced to drive for 8hrs with two, ten minute breaks and a half hour lunch like a bus driver. Not to mention we would lose the right to refuse rides that are not in our better interest. I'll take Lyft over Uber any day but, I'm still happy Uber is around. It's when there is no competition is when there is a bigger problem.



LyftUberFuwabolewa said:


> The problem is not enough drivers on the Lyft platform. Here's a few reasons:
> 
> 1. No long pickup premium. Combine that with no ride duration/distance details. A driver isn't going to drive 10+ minutes to a an unknown ride.
> 
> ...


1. The no long pickup premium is negated by Lyft's algo that tries to keep us all at a certain gross/hr.

2. That's not the case in with Lyft and chicagoland suburbs.

4. Honestly, after doing thousands of rides with both Uber and Lyft, my experience has been Lyft's riders are nicer and more appreciative. They just seem happier if only for the fact that they have an option. I have been asked by many riders why I chose Lyft and I always say two things. I net the same amount of money with either company but with Lyft I drive less and the riders are happier. I have sat at home for over 2 hrs with Lyft but at the end of my normal working hours I'm at the usual net, I'll get a long last run. Things can change but before, I noticed riders were either happy that they could tie their ride-share account to a refillable credit card or were technically savvy to find out and use Lyft. I've literally had billionaires in my car thru Lyft, definately not the bottom of the barrel.


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## Daisey77 (Jan 13, 2016)

BigBadDriver said:


> It's been going on for as long as you signed the TOS accepting that you were paid by time + distance + whatever extra crumbs Lyft decides to give you (or not give you).


 yes ol wise one. I'm very familiar with the agreements and changes of the agreements over the last 6 years. I didn't ask how long it has been going on. I asked how long HAD it been going on. Obviously when they went to the power zones their public API made it more obvious.


#professoruber said:


> No need to check the rider app. The airport queue is a accurate indication of how many drivers are on the road. With the unemployment cheddar gone, drivers are out in full force. I expect with the lack of demand and millions losing the unemployment bonus, all market will soon be saturated with drivers.
> 
> For the past few months, our airport queue has been sitting at 1-5 drivers and consistently surging. Pre COVID, this same queue would stack with 200-300 drivers consistently.
> 
> View attachment 492737


Wait, you can still see the Q at your Airport? Is that only on your black account?


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## #professoruber (Feb 19, 2018)

Daisey77 said:


> yes ol wise one. I'm very familiar with the agreements and changes of the agreements over the last 6 years. I didn't ask how long it has been going on. I asked how long HAD it been going on. Obviously when they went to the power zones their public API made it more obvious.
> 
> Wait, you can still see the Q at your Airport? Is that only on your black account?


In the Dallas market they are still showing it for all. For Dfw they don't show XL which I think is more a programming error.


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## crusoeatl (Apr 6, 2017)

Daisey77 said:


> Wait, you can still see the Q at your Airport? Is that only on your black account?


You can't see it in Atlanta anymore. Why did they have to change it?


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## CheepShot (May 11, 2020)

You can see the que in chicago.


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## Daisey77 (Jan 13, 2016)

CheepShot said:


> You can see the que in chicago.


Are you an Uber black driver?


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## SOLA-RAH (Dec 31, 2014)

crusoeatl said:


> You can't see it in Atlanta anymore. Why did they have to change it?


No issues seeing the uber or lyft queue any time in DC.

And lyft's problems are still happening on a Friday evening, prime time for making money in DC. Zero drivers on the map. My one uber rider today finally gave up on waiting for a lyft. And my one lyft rider waited AN HOUR until I got her ping and covered it. Pretty simple strategy here: get in a PPZ, slap on a filter to where you really wanna go, collect the easy money. And with all that, uber is still paying more which I guess explains the no drivers being available.


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## CheepShot (May 11, 2020)

Daisey77 said:


> Are you an Uber black driver?


No, sorry I thought you were talking about Lyft since this is the Lyft area and the number in the que stop being displayed on the Lyft app for a while as well.


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## Fusion_LUser (Jan 3, 2020)

Lyft was MIA for most of the night. One couple told me the whole night there were never any Lyft's available and before I picked them up with a 4.5x surge they said Lyft would "send an e-mail" when a driver was available.

Plenty of Uber drivers last night though. Instead of 4.0x rates all night long I had to settle for 2.5x to 3.0x most of the night! 😂


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## TGK (May 31, 2018)

SOLA-RAH said:


> I'll only pick up a lyft ride if it's on a filter to where I'm heading for the day or if there's a juicy bonus attached, which was practically never up until just recently. Two weeks ago in DC lyft tossed out a $14 PER RIDE bonus practically begging drivers to come out, which I milked to the fullest. But I had lots of odd conversations with riders saying they had waited 30, 45 minutes, even up to an hour for a driver to show up. There were quite a few pings that got stacked right at the beginning of a 20-30 minute ride since I was the stacked ping's only chance to ever catch a whiff of a driver being close their neighborhood...AND THEY ALL WAITED & WERE HAPPY THAT I SHOWED UP. Also had quite a few ~15minute pickups which NEVER happens in DC and I'd never typically accept, but worth doing with the $14 bonus attached.
> This evening I pulled down $95 in six rides between 9pm-midnite on uber which had a 3for$11 streak offered. There's also a decent ~$3/ride quest going so there were plenty of drivers out chasing it but also still enough business to go around. Three of my riders commented that they literally couldn't get a lyft ride. I figured they really just didn't want to wait so I tested it myself when I got home and got the below for around 15 minutes straight until I just gave up and cancelled. I never once actually got connected to a driver.
> If this is how it's really gonna be going forward, I don't see lyft standing much of a chance to exist much longer. And how can they stay in business if they're just gonna give away money like the bottom screenshot just so every ride request gets covered? How's the lyft experience currently in your city?


Your $14 per ride bonus was a "Personally Tailored Bonus", some received the same, some received other amounts, more and less, even none at all. The AI was searching for the sweet spot in your area. Usually bonuses are planned out weeks in advance, based on expected demand and offered before the week begins. Sometimes the AI underestimates demand and available drivers, or just misses the mark with the bonuses offered to bring out the drivers, that is when the per ride offers are made. The AI seldom makes these miscalculations and will determine the cause, adjusting for that possibility in the future. The riders that actually received drivers normally would be those higher on the AI's list of frequent or more profitable riders, those not getting rides would be the dregs and least favored riders (low profit, poor ratings, previous problems or constant complainers, etc).


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## joebo1963 (Dec 21, 2016)

Lyft missed a big opportunity by not developing a food delivery Can’t believe it’s that hard to develop and they have a fleet of drivers. This Covid isn’t ending until there’s a vaccine and it’s widely distributed which mess as nd the middle to end of 2021.


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## TheDevilisaParttimer (Jan 2, 2019)

#professoruber said:


> No need to check the rider app. The airport queue is a accurate indication of how many drivers are on the road. With the unemployment cheddar gone, drivers are out in full force. I expect with the lack of demand and millions losing the unemployment bonus, all market will soon be saturated with drivers.
> 
> For the past few months, our airport queue has been sitting at 1-5 drivers and consistently surging. Pre COVID, this same queue would stack with 200-300 drivers consistently.
> 
> View attachment 492737


True but the elderly retired drivers are gone for good. That segment of the driver pool is huge and should be respected when making predictions.


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## Atavar (Aug 11, 2018)

This elderly retired driver is getting ready to come back. I’m just waiting to see if CARES gets extended. I’ll be putting in a partition and I have a stock of K/N95 masks to sell to people before they get in the ODY.


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## TGK (May 31, 2018)

Atavar said:


> This elderly retired driver is getting ready to come back. I'm just waiting to see if CARES gets extended. I'll be putting in a partition and I have a stock of K/N95 masks to sell to people before they get in the ODY.


LOL, Walmart is selling masks from China that say "N95" in quotes printed on the mask, that you can see through the packaging but does not say it on the packaging, it is just a disposable paper mask. People were buying them 10 packs at a time, fools.


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

Gr*yft* must be desperate for drivers in my market, to-day. I have received four*five* texts in the last thirty*-five* minutes that inform me of Gr*yft*'s offering a twelve banana streak bonus to-day.

Editorial changes made.


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## SOLA-RAH (Dec 31, 2014)

Tropical storm in DC and not a single lyft driver on the map. Lyft HQ meanwhile is not even trying.


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## Fusion_LUser (Jan 3, 2020)

SOLA-RAH said:


> Tropical storm in DC and not a single lyft driver on the map. Lyft HQ meanwhile is not even trying.
> View attachment 494477


Oh Lyft is going to be nice and give the ants $3.70? They must be charging pax 10x that amount then. Of course you won't know what Lyft is charging the pax...


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