The Price Of Perfection

Years ago, when I started doing work for this side hustle, I did the following.

> Took every ride that was given to me

> Gave passengers extra time before canceling

> Stayed in the app during the ride

> Didn't "chase" surge areas

> Took every long ride

> Gave freebies to passengers (drinks, breath mints, cough drops, and sometimes even candy)

> Had a near-perfect record

and...

> Made about 30-40% less per hour than I do know.

Perfection, you see, comes at a price. If you take every ride, you are taking less lucrative rides than others. If you give extra time, you create a culture where passengers take extra time left and right -- and in my experience, the tardy passenger isn't usually a tipper, either.

Staying in the app during a ride means that you are available for any ride in queue -- which means you can't see if it's coming from a surge area. It also drops the price for the area, since the apps have more drivers to draw from.

Not chasing surge areas seems like the right thing to do for the environment, but the reality is that doing the work without a surge price is a sure way to drive your car to death. Exceptions happen, but if you just set and forget, and don't check between apps, you're leaving money on the table.

Taking every long ride means you are going to go to areas where you are at a much higher risk for flat tire, speed trap or traffic violation. It should never be done for the first time after dark especially... and Lyft, especially, is good for passengers who are going remote. If all you do is drive back to start on a long ride, that's equal times bad times and good -- and also puts you at all-or-nothing on the tip from that passenger.

Freebies don't generally increase tips. They do increase mess. You have to pick your spots on those.

Today, my ride acceptance rate is near the absolute minimum it can be to stay on the systems. So are my cancellation rates. I may eventually build it up to a little bit of a cushion, but probably not much of one.

So if you are a driver, and you are wondering why other drivers seem to be doing better than you?

Check to see you aren't chumping yourself.

You don't work for a platform. You work to stay on it.

And so long as they are more or less paying you less to be a perfect driver...

Well, why would you want to be a perfect driver?