Anyone drive for Uber or Lyft?

#62
At a recent music festival, I needed a ride home and planned to use Lyft...but my phone died. After a few minutes' thought, I walked over to a hotel, into the lobby, and asked them to call a cab for me. It was there within 5 minutes.

Turned out the fare was almost identical to the one I paid to get to the music festival.

However, in other situations I've waited an eternity for cabs.
 
#63
Pilgrim said:
At a recent music festival, I needed a ride home and planned to use Lyft...but my phone died. After a few minutes' thought, I walked over to a hotel, into the lobby, and asked them to call a cab for me. It was there within 5 minutes.

Turned out the fare was almost identical to the one I paid to get to the music festival.

However, in other situations I've waited an eternity for cabs.
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True... A lot has to do with location. Touristy places like Las Vegas have cabs waiting in line outside the casinos much like they do at airports. Thus, the customers get fast service. But in other less touristy areas, the RideSare can be faster option.

Lyft had a glitch with their direct pay feature for the drivers in Vegas. Drivers weren't getting paid, for a few days. They claim the computer glitch has been resolved, and things are up and running as usual.
 
#65
Ya gotta be agile to survive and thrive.

If you were an experienced film projectionist or cinema installation & maintenance engineer in 2010, the handwriting was already on the wall. Learn D-Cinema, or retire, or do something else entirely.
 
#66
OldDog52 said:
Ya gotta be agile to survive and thrive.

If you were an experienced film projectionist or cinema installation & maintenance engineer in 2010, the handwriting was already on the wall. Learn D-Cinema, or retire, or do something else entirely.
Click to expand...

Big difference between an employee and a person who invested in that business.
 
#67
So I did a real driver gig today. The rider was 15 minutes away. The app guided me to the wrong pickup point, although the error was obvious when I got there.

Trip was easy, no wrong turns. Rider gave me 5 stars but no tip.

Money details:

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#70
charlie monroe said:
Why two separate line items for fees?

There is only one company involved, right?
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Seems to be the usual service charge bs. It could be in part to comply with city regulations, like how much insurance coverage the city requires.

“The Service Fee is an additional fee added on a per-ride basis. The fee helps support the Lyft Platform and related services, including a broad spectrum of operating costs and safety measures like insurance and background checks.”
 
#72
buldog5151bass said:
So you made $4.05. It took you 15 minutes to get the call. How much time did it take from when you got there until he/she got out of your car, and how much time did it take to look up your fee?
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The Lyft app computed that I spent 20.5 minutes on this from accepting the ride to drop off.
 
#74
A friend of mine drove uber, she mostly drove the drunk-shift, and sometimes kept going for the morning to/from work crowd.

Keeping bottled water and fruit roll-ups/pop-tarts in the car, being a girl (tons of female riders appreciated that they wouldn't have to worry about getting rape-vibes on the ride), she averaged $15/hr on slow nights and $40/hr on good ones.

She said day-shift was a waste of time.
 
#75
OldDog52 said:
The Lyft app computed that I spent 20.5 minutes on this from accepting the ride to drop off.
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According to the Lyft app. It probably took a few more minutes including time you looked at the phone and such. So not including wear and tear to your car and tires, and the liability risk (have you confirmed that your insurance would cover you if there was an accident), you have barely over a minimum wage job. Including the wear and tear, it's less than minimum wage.
 
#76
buldog5151bass said:
According to the Lyft app. It probably took a few more minutes including time you looked at the phone and such. So not including wear and tear to your car and tires, and the liability risk (have you confirmed that your insurance would cover you if there was an accident), you have barely over a minimum wage job. Including the wear and tear, it's less than minimum wage.
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Here’s the thing on the insurance.

If you as a driver login and set your status to “Available”, you’re at relatively high risk from that time until you accept a ride hail. Once you accept a hail, you’re 100% covered by the TNC company’s policy, with very high liability limits.

During the period from “I’m available”, and accepting a ride hail, the TNC coverage is fairly limited. And your personal insurer may not cover you if you’re in an accident during that time. In fact they’ll probably refuse any claim. The workaround is to not be driving during that period. Park at Starbucks or something, engine off. “I was not driving while I waited for a ride hail”.
 
#77
OldDog52 said:
Here’s the thing on the insurance.

If you as a driver login and set your status to “Available”, you’re at relatively high risk from that time until you accept a ride hail. Once you accept a hail, you’re 100% covered by the TNC company’s policy, with very high liability limits.

During the period from “I’m available”, and accepting a ride hail, the TNC coverage is fairly limited. And your personal insurer may not cover you if you’re in an accident during that time. In fact they’ll probably refuse any claim. The workaround is to not be driving during that period. Park at Starbucks or something, engine off. “I was not driving while I waited for a ride hail”.
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So that means you are parking in Starbucks, not doing anything, and not getting paid. If it works for you, good for you. Just seems you could get a part time job, and get paid at least ask much, and get a guaranteed paycheck.
 
#78
I’m not advocating that anyone do this for a living. I’m just sharing my limited experience doing it for “fun”.

Today was probably worst-case for a driver: long distance to pickup, relatively short trip for the passenger, no tip. If that were typical of most pickups, it’d probably be a losing proposition for the driver.
 
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#79
A couple more observations

The driver is required to accept riders with service animals. The only exception would be for an animal that is obviously not under control. How do you feel about a random German Shepherd in your back seat?

What if you’re a non-smoker, and when you pull up to pick up your rider they’re getting in a last deep drag seconds before getting in your smoke-free car?

Drivers cannot easily cherry-pick their passengers. One of the metrics for drivers is their “Acceptance Rate” for hails. When you the driver receive a hail, you have 20 seconds to accept it, or refuse it. Doing nothing is logged as a refusal. If your acceptance rate is consistently low, your ranking as a driver is affected and you could be “banned”.
 
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