Falling Out Of Lyft

Um, Not Quite

So for the first nearly 10K rides of my career as a driver, I was Lyft only. I bought into the brand identity of Not Uber, and made enough in NJ to ease the transition to a job in CA. Once I was in CA, I started again, enjoyed the bonus structure, cashed in at roughly twice my current rate while in the Bay Area, and met a lot of Lyft personnel while driving out there, and they were all nice and fun to talk to while in the car. My metrics were very strong, and I thought there was even a chance of getting some stock options, as media reports talked about options to riders with 10K rides.

Then, I moved back to NJ after the CA job ran into funding issues. Lyft never mentioned options to me, and also when I passed 10K rides, didn't notice that at all. (Big drop of the ball, and not the first.) And... what a difference a change of address makes to your earning rate. Along with a few months or less than strong service. It's now at the point where I turn on Lyft about a quarter of the time that I do Uber, and only begrudgingly. Here's why.

When I moved back to the East Coast, I let Lyft know about my change of address. Despite the past history and status, Lyft decided that I needed to pass a fresh background check. Yes, despite passing one back in CA. With a need for ASAP revenue and no guarantee from Lyft that the check was going to happen very quickly, I signed up for Uber as a back up. Within a couple of days, Lyft had realized their mistake and reinstated me. But a few days after that, Uber added me to their rolls as well. So I turned on their app and gave it a try.

Immediately, business picked up. I no longer had to aim for Philadelphia to get busy between rides. So I started turning on both apps when I was unoccupied, and stopped driving as far to start a shift. But doubling up does have its challenges, mostly because it puts you in greater position of declining rides while you are turning off one app, and canceling rides due to network issues.

The other issue that occurs is that, well, you start to understand just how much less competitive Lyft is than Uber, at least in NJ. Lyft doesn't tell you where you are going before your passenger gets in the car; Uber does, at least at my driver level. Lyft doesn't give you how far away your next passenger would be in a queued ride; Uber does. Lyft doesn't tell you if a queued rider is going a very long distance, or their rating, which they do outside of queue. Uber tells you all of that and more for every ride.

There's more. Uber pays a day earlier. Because there's more riders requesting rides, you don't get nearly as many requests from a long way away... and if you do, Uber has the possibility of adding a little to the fare for the driving you did to get there. Lyft will frequently send you a request from someone who is a long way away, and if you decline that ride, you might get it again a minute later as the passenger continues to ask. One more reason to turn off the app, that.

This isn't to say that Uber is perfect. There's no great pattern to good or bad riders per platform, and both platforms give the driver little control over destination mode work. They will also send you right back to a passenger who you just registered as a no-show, and if I no-show a passenger, I'd very much like to avoid seeing them again and enduring the likely negativity. (No show passengers are a whole 'nother blog post that I'm going to get to at some point.) Both also give you ride bonus options rather than, well, just paying a trusted driver a better damn ground rate, because drivers have no control over the number of rides we give. Also, I have a Lyft light that comes in handy, but nothing so far from Uber.

But the greater point is this: I make more per hour and have a lot fewer unpleasant surprises working for Uber than I do working for Lyft. I'm not at the point where I only run one app, but if you were showing my work on a trend line, it's going that way. And yes, I'm sure Lyft will get its act together soon and improve the driver experience, because half of all drivers work for both platforms. Which means my experience can't be too much of an outlier.

Final tally? People vote with their wallet. And I'm making about 10% more per hour, with far less annoyance, working for Uber. (And will, of course, keep tracking the numbers as I go...)