# Distance to pick-ups



## kevink (Apr 18, 2016)

Been driving for Uber for about two months in the Philly area and decided to give Lyft a shot as well.

I have a question for the more experienced "Lyfters" out there and that is distance to pick ups. Being new to Lyft I can't really afford to turn down fares due to acceptance rate considerations, so I basically take what comes my way. However, every pick-up, without exception has been 15-20 minutes away. My question is whether or not anyone else had experienced this when they first started with Lyft, and if so, did you suck it up and deal for a while or is there an app setting you can change, or someone at Lyft that can be contacted?

On another note, I did use the destination filter last night as I was headed home, and actually got a fare. Granted it was a short fare, but since I was going that way anyway, it offset the cost of the deadhead move.


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## MattyMikey (Aug 19, 2015)

I think everyone faces it as Lyft does not do a great job being a "technology company" and instead of doing what Uber does to passengers and say "no drivers available" they expect their drivers to travel far distances for potentially minimum fares. Doing these rides are generally a losing proposition. I, like most drivers (at least the smart ones) do not accept them.


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## Manotas (Dec 2, 2015)

I do not accept requests over 10 min away... Also the lower the Pax rating, the shorter the distance I'm driving to do a pickup... Any Pax rated 4.5 isn't getting in my car (same I thing I did when I drove Uber)
To minimize long requests I usually pick my spots: large malls or crowded office complexes where I know my requests are going to be 2-3 min away during the week, hot spots or events on the weekends


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

Know your areas.

I have hunting grounds where 3:30am on a thursday gives out 4 minute pickups... and about 3 of them per hour.

Also, use pax mode, track rival cars, & keep some other sukcer between yourself andmajor freeways IF not in the mood to take them to a pickup

Ditto on using noobs to block gateds, shortrange airport runs, zones where the local cops run an the arbitrary road usage tax lottery, etc

Sittong around for an hour waiiting for a Lyft ping is A-OK, that actually makes an area a good candedate for guarantee farming

I'm NOT saying this because "lyft pax are g-d's gift to us all" or because "lyft is far superior to uber"... NO. Most pax are the same double dippers, and Lyfthas been practicing and expanding its list of nasty moves (PDB 2011; destinations redacted; "account blocked pending complaint review by human'; requiring plates from acckubts wuth still-valid temp tags; acting like so muchis done to help pax see ID you. Making mentor take pix of your car,etc
.,.and then post a stock pic that looks nothing like youra and refuse to allow you tochange or remove it

NO, its because 1 ride / hour on Lyft PAYS MORE... WAY MORE. Addin guarantees and ppowerdriver, commute a day or two to a high demand area, and suddenly... FOUR DIGIT WEEK$, ON THREE DIGIT ODOMETER MILES



kevink said:


> Been driving for Uber for about two months in the Philly area and decided to give Lyft a shot as well.
> 
> I have a question for the more experienced "Lyfters" out there and that is distance to pick ups. Being new to Lyft I can't really afford to turn down fares due to acceptance rate considerations, so I basically take what comes my way. However, every pick-up, without exception has been 15-20 minutes away. My question is whether or not anyone else had experienced this when they first started with Lyft, and if so, did you suck it up and deal for a while or is there an app setting you can change, or someone at Lyft that can be contacted?
> 
> On another note, I did use the destination filter last night as I was headed home, and actually got a fare. Granted it was a short fare, but since I was going that way anyway, it offset the cost of the deadhead move.


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## Ben105 (Feb 27, 2016)

I had a pick up that I didn't accept that was 35 minutes away.  I was not in my home area (took a 200X prime time ride that took me 60 miles away). I was leaving the area and kept my Lyft on hoping to get at least one local ping, but instead got one that was 35 minutes away in the OPPOSITE direction. I ignored and turned off the app until I drove about 20 miles and got into Davis where they had guarantees and guaranteed prime time. Got a ride there that took me back close to my home area. Got lucky.


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## macchiato (Sep 29, 2015)

There are ways to "accommodate" long pickup requests but I am not at liberty to say.


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## MattyMikey (Aug 19, 2015)

macchiato said:


> There are ways to "accommodate" long pickup requests but I am not at liberty to say.


So very helpful. Thanks.


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## macchiato (Sep 29, 2015)

Fine..to elaborate. 

The official Lyft response is to accept the ride, call pax and tell them to cancel (because the pickup is too far for you). This way it won't hurt your acceptance rating. If they don't, cancel the ride and email support that you had to cancel because the request is too far. 

There's another but it's not sanctioned by Lyft. It works all the time but apparently someone people think it's cheating the system.


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## MattyMikey (Aug 19, 2015)

macchiato said:


> Fine..to elaborate.
> 
> The official Lyft response is to accept the ride, call pax and tell them to cancel (because the pickup is too far for you). This way it won't hurt your acceptance rating. If they don't, cancel the ride and email support that you had to cancel because the request is too far.
> 
> There's another but it's not sanctioned by Lyft. It works all the time but apparently someone people think it's cheating the system.


Does that have anything to do with accept and drive opposite way until they get the point and cancel?


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## macchiato (Sep 29, 2015)

Not really. 

If you do that as a driver that's kind of messed up.


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## MiddleClassedOut (Jun 11, 2015)

Everything is permitted until it's not.

They flag you according to one guy who posted on here. 

I believe in the Prime Time Fairy who sometimes gives me Prime Time on long-distance fares. It happens just often enough to make me spend .54c/mile on occasion. 

They own me. But I don't have to show up to work if I don't want.

So. Still win/win.


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## CatchyMusicLover (Sep 18, 2015)

If you're actually spending 54c a mile to drive, you're doing something horribly wrong.


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## kevink (Apr 18, 2016)

Happened again...

I drive in Bucks County. Get a Lyft request for a pick up 30 minutes away in Pennington NJ. Even worse, it was a LINE request. The ride would have been a 10 minute ride, so barely above a minimum fare. 

I cancelled the request and e-mailed Lyft, but this is at the point of being silly.


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## macchiato (Sep 29, 2015)

Still don't see how hard it would be to add a request radius on the request server.


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## Sure (Apr 10, 2016)

Last night I had a line request come in, 6.9 miles away, they were going about a mile down the road... Cancelled as soon as I saw the drop off. I didn't mean to accept it in the 1st place, was trying to do something else on my phone and it came in.


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## macchiato (Sep 29, 2015)

Last night was the first time I've ever canceled on a pax after arriving to the pickup location and seeing the destination.

Pax sure would have been pissed but I would have been equally pissed that I would have to dead mile back to civilization on a busy Saturday night. I was still mad that I had to drive to him to find out the destination.


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## Amsoil Uber Connect (Jan 14, 2015)

macchiato said:


> Not really.
> 
> If you do that as a driver that's kind of messed up.


No it's not!

It's called Educating a pax. The C-B level pax will cancel on there own and the A level ones, will not even make the request.

And unlike uber, if you call to ask pax to cancel, it still goes against your accept rating. So the above is the only thing you can do.


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## Ben105 (Feb 27, 2016)

If you call a pax and ask to cancel with uber, one of the reasons a pax can choose is driver asked me to cancel and that can/will go against you.


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## Choochie (Jan 4, 2015)

Ben105 said:


> If you call a pax and ask to cancel with uber, one of the reasons a pax can choose is driver asked me to cancel and that can/will go against you.


Thanks, don't ever take rides, so do you remember the other reasons?


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## macchiato (Sep 29, 2015)

If pax cancels it doesn't bring your acceptance rating down.


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## Ben105 (Feb 27, 2016)

Choochie said:


> Thanks, don't ever take rides, so do you remember the other reasons?


I don't. It was posted in another thread that talked about calling pax and having them cancel to keep your acceptance rate high. The other choices were also posted. The other ones didn't seem to affect the driver but this one clearly does and I would think that Uber would flag you if you get too many of these.


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## kevink (Apr 18, 2016)

Ben105 said:


> I don't. It was posted in another thread that talked about calling pax and having them cancel to keep your acceptance rate high. The other choices were also posted. The other ones didn't seem to affect the driver but this one clearly does and I would think that Uber would flag you if you get too many of these.


I e-mailed Lyft and told them of the circumstances; they claim they will exclude the cancellation rating for the trip in question. We shall see.

I just can't see Lyft ever getting a good footing in the suburbs for this reason. I have no desire to go online for them at this point, or if I did, I run the real risk of making a choice between a 30 minute drive to a pick-up or a cancellation and my acceptance rate being in the toilet. They will have a hard time finding and keeping a steady supply of drivers which in turn will effect the passengers who will likely stop using Lyft. I see it as a vicious cycle.

Even if I decide to run PHL Airport, same deal - 1 hour to get there, get some fares, likely 1 hour plus to get back. But I may try it if for no other reason than to prop up acceptance rates.


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## Greguzzi (Jan 9, 2016)

kevink said:


> I e-mailed Lyft and told them of the circumstances; they claim they will exclude the cancellation rating for the trip in question. We shall see.
> 
> I just can't see Lyft ever getting a good footing in the suburbs for this reason. I have no desire to go online for them at this point, or if I did, I run the real risk of making a choice between a 30 minute drive to a pick-up or a cancellation and my acceptance rate being in the toilet. They will have a hard time finding and keeping a steady supply of drivers which in turn will effect the passengers who will likely stop using Lyft. I see it as a vicious cycle.
> 
> Even if I decide to run PHL Airport, same deal - 1 hour to get there, get some fares, likely 1 hour plus to get back. But I may try it if for no other reason than to prop up acceptance rates.


Unless you are chaisng some offered incentive, there is no reason to care much about your acceptance rate.


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## kevink (Apr 18, 2016)

Greguzzi said:


> Unless you are chaisng some offered incentive, there is no reason to care much about your acceptance rate.


Lyft is a back-up for Uber for me...thinking being that if one is slow, the other may be able to balance things out. For right now I don't chase Lyft incentives simply because it is a contingency largely because of the issues I have described. But can't they boot you for low acceptance rates?


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## MattyMikey (Aug 19, 2015)

kevink said:


> Lyft is a back-up for Uber for me...thinking being that if one is slow, the other may be able to balance things out. For right now I don't chase Lyft incentives simply because it is a contingency largely because of the issues I have described. But can't they boot you for low acceptance rates?


They'll likely going to follow Uber's new national policy of not deactivating for acceptance rates. To keep from another lawsuit themselves.


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## STLCardsinCLE (Jul 15, 2015)

It's the exact same in Cleveland. When I turn the app on in the suburbs, I get all requests greater than 25 minutes away. When I ignore several in a row, I get an email saying I've cancelled a lot lately and try to accept all trips. So I have forgotten driving on weekdays and I only do weekends


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## MattyMikey (Aug 19, 2015)

Anytime my Lyft acceptance rating is over 60% they got a good week from me . Besides the canned emails once in awhile they have done nothing. I will NOT EVER drive more than 9 or 10 minutes to pick someone up. Normally my threshold is about 5 but if it is 3am and it is slow I may once in awhile. Some technology company huh? SMH


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## Undermensch (Oct 21, 2015)

macchiato said:


> There are ways to "accommodate" long pickup requests but I am not at liberty to say.


Are you referring to the self-generated feature of being paid to drive to the pickup?

I've never done this... And I would only advocate doing it on the platform that you don't care about being deactivated on...

In the situations I've been in where I needed a ride I would have gladly accepted a request from the driver to start the trip at their current location and keep it running till they dropped me off. Never had anyone suggest it they always just ask about canceling.

I've been thinking about calling and offering it to someone who is in an area where there are no Lyft or Uber drivers at all.

Have you tried this or is this exactly what you aren't at liberty to talk about?


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## Greguzzi (Jan 9, 2016)

It's a trap.


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## Jimmy Bernat (Apr 12, 2016)

I won't drive more then 6 minutes when I'm in the city and more then 12 minutes when in the Burbs , that's just my personal policy . Unless it's the middle of the day on a weekday then sometimes I'll go a little further just because I'm board and hope it takes me to a good area .
Sometimes though if I get a ride out of the city in to a far suburb I'll go a little further knowing that it's a high probability that longer ping is gonna be going into the City and about 75% the time they are so it's worth gamble 

I always have a 90% + acceptance rating since I hit the 20% PDB every week , without that I don't think I would even do rideshare


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