[Old Guy]

I am going to ramble a bit first so brace yourself. First thing I notice with LYFT is that they have hourly guarantees that FAR exceed UBERS. UBER has surges where LYFT I have zero clue how it works. I can be sitting in the very middle of a 250% and get nothing for 20 minutes. Then I am in the middle of nothing and get a 100% one. You can not tell what the hell is happening. I have also noted that if you are on the guarantee clock that your runs take you a LONG way. I mean 20 to 30 mile runs. Here are a few examples.

1: Begin of the hour quick run in the pink zone. Pink zone you need one run to qualify for the guarantee grey zone you need two. Next run is from Riverview to Tarpon Springs. I kid you not...the hours I was already "in the money" they would throw 30 dollar runs at me. On the opposite side if I had one run in the "grey" zone I would get NOTHING for 45 minutes.

2: I also notice that pickups can be way the hell out there. I got one from the airport to south St. Petersburg. I got one from Gulfport to Clearwater Beach. I got one from south Tampa to Dunedin. I mean 55 minute to 90 minute pickups. The problem is with the guarantee hours that you have to have a 90% acceptance rate for THE WEEK! If you miss even a few you are out. Most crazy pings cancel but I did get one where I was on The Gandy bridge and got pinged to go NORTH of Carrolwood at 5:25 p.m. I called the pax and they said they would wait. It took me and hour and 33 minutes to get there. They waited. I got there and took them to the Wal Mart that was half a mile away. The only reason I went was the guarantees. From my calculations they were on the hook with me for about 135 dollars. But they got out of it.

3: How did they get out of it? At 1 in the morning my app froze. Seconds after it froze I got ping after ping after ping back to back. I think I got 5 or 6 so now I am out of the bonus for the week. I could not turn off the app or accept the rides.

So...Here are the questions.
1: If you drive LYFT do you notice a correlation to the guarantees?
2: If you are "in the money" do you notice that your next run is for 20 or 30 dollars?
3: If you are in the money have you noticed your app doing weird stuff that threw you out of the running?
4: Do you try to get the guarantee money or just run UBER and LYFT together and say screw them and the acceptance rate?

I am not a tinfoil hat wearing guy but it sure seems odd that this happens. I have noticed it enough that I started logging it and their does seem to be a correlation to how it is working above.

Thank you for your consideration.

 

[Kennedy C]

sir, if you are driving more than 10-12 minutes for a pick up, you're losing money. And don't be afraid of wearing that tinfoil hat. I would put nothing past these crooks. Anything to screw over drivers.... anything.

 

[macchiato]

I stopped reading after you said you picked up a pax 1 hour away.

 

[MiddleClassedOut]

1+2) Well, wouldn't doubt it, never noticed myself really. When I run guarantees I only run downtown and book it back to short run areas.
3) No, not really, I think the real problem is hitting PDB and ride requests mysteriously not coming in. Guarantees oversaturate markets, especially high ones.
4) I said screw Uber a long time ago. I try to maintain the acceptance rate.

You need a 2nd device to run Lyft profitably. You need to be aware of where the other cars are at all times - for hitting guarantees when the market is totally oversaturated and to protect yourself from long distance requests. Just go where you are needed, areas without cars or few cars. Never be the last car on the map closest to some outlying area that produces requests. This is Lyft's #1 ways of trying to screw drivers, long distance requests that kill your acceptance rate.

The second device also serves to check prices. You have to be quick -you only have 10 seconds to accept or let it pass. But with the new app update for IOS this should be less important, but still there is such a thing as hidden Prime Time on Lyft. If you're in an outlying area with few cars around, a few requests can produce Prime Time. Search for my post with theories on Prime Time. At this point I'm pretty sure Prime Time switches on when there are 2 requests for 1 car and no other car within 5 minutes. Now in cities this is impossible to experiment with but in the burbs you can produce Prime Time yourself. Find a lonely car, ping him from an area that might have requests normally (ie a commercial strip during the day), cancel and ping again. 25% should happen immediately. Another request that accepts the Prime Time causes 50% and so on.

 

[OPTIONCB]

All- I never signed up for the guarantees. but did happen to review them tonite as an FYI (I chose the "do 150 rides and get paid $600)... and I know if I worked the minimum 50 hours a week (or whatever it is in your market) you will probably still make that just staying within a close pickup tolerance. I drive in Dallas. And the primetime pink heat map is quirky, as just today I picked up a PAX in no zone, yet the ride came thru as 50% Prime Time. GO figure. I think to not kill yourself, simply hustle locally and perhaps ignore the guarantee and see how much you make. I have found I make about $18 per hour gross on the app, and that included my first few weeks of being a total novice. Hope that helps!

 

[JimKE]

I'm a contrarian on guarantees, whether they be from Lyft or Uber. I don't work for the guarantee because I know that they are structured to be very hard to attain.

But I DO pay attention to the guarantees in one sense -- they tell me areas and times when the company expects a lot of ride requests. For example, in December we had Art Basel in Miami. Uber had guarantees up to $55 per hour -- higher than we had for New Years Eve. I worked 16 guarantee hours, but I only earned some guarantee money 3 of those hours. 13/16 hours, I earned MORE than the guarantee.

To me, that's the value of real guarantees -- it shows me where and when they expect good demand.

Lyft has started throwing some guarantees out there too, but theirs are pretty paltry. We've had them as low as $12 per hour ($8 payout -- you gotta be kidding!). This week they range from $12 to $30 ($22.50 payout...LMAO!)

AND, you'd better understand what Lyft means by Guarantee. They include your tips in your revenue -- with the effect that tips actually hurt your chances of making guarantee money.

Your BIG problem, though, is the distance you are driving to pickups. The advice given above not to drive more than 10 minutes to a pickup is really key. You don't get paid one penny for driving to a pickup, and you are driving some crazy distances! STOP!

I'm assuming Lyft just started in your area and they just don't have any drivers yet. That is LYFT's problem -- don't make it your problem.

 

[hovig]

If you are using an iPhone, Doubtle-Tap the home button and slide up to kill the APP. This prevents you from having to deal with a far away pickup. It does not go against your acceptance rate so your Guarantees and Bonuses will be safe. I have used this tactic for over 2 years with Lyft.

 

[Matty760]

I just use the destination filter now so I don get request from far away, although the time doesnt count towards bonuses, I don't drive much to worry about bonuses... when they guarantee fares I end up making a killing and don't care about the dame acceptance rate. Everytime I get a ping though it says my acceptance is low. however is part of the game. Ive told Lyft for years they need to stop pings that are further than 12 min away and if they are further away than that they need to increase the fare and notify passenger the only car available is 20 mins away and will come but at a higher fare, if they accept then send my the ping. If not then send no request and keep the acceptance rate from going down

 

[MiddleClassedOut]

Yeah, they will never fix it...It causes Prime Time in Philly in the areas closest to Jersey. The key thing to understand about Lyft PT is that it is much more sensitive to supply than Uber's surge - so when cars get pulled off by long distance pings, areas will go on Prime Time because their supply is gone, even though demand might not be that high.

It's actually one of the key things I love about Lyft...If you know what you're doing, you can use this to your advantage tremendously provided you have a 2nd device to observe the cars.

I can start moving toward a new PT area BEFORE it happens...

 

[Adieu]

Guarantees can be gamed for microfares, but ONLY in dense urban areas with self-contained neighborhoods or by college campuses

If you are using an iPhone.

Please delete comment and share such things by PM only.

this used to work with android like a month ago but ...

Please delete comment share by PM only. Geez.

 

[Coolrider101nk]

Keep it simple. ..
Opt in, but ignore any guarantee. Work those hours if you like. Collect the free money if it happens. The guarantee is simply Lyft attempting to encourage you and teach you. They show you that you are likely to make that in those hours simply by logging in.

I did 17 rides last night in 6 hours, never once looking at where the prime time was because I don't have time to look. I got a 3 ride Lyft line that paid $25 cause it was 200%. I had several 50-100%.


Don't drive illogical distances for a ride. Aria to excalibur? No. Aria to Mario to at a busy time? No. 15 minute drive on outlying areas anywhere but east side...they expect a short wait and will pay. Scheduled ride, go a little further than normal because the system sends it out timed for you to arrive at the proper time and they are rides to good places and good tips. Riders almost always standing curbside. The cancel fee is $10 and they don't want to pay it and still need a ride.

You'll find a way to make it work. Just remember. ...if you think you can or you think you can't. ...your absolutely correct! !!

 

[MiddleClassedOut]

No, guarantees usually oversaturate the market with drivers, in my market anyway. Last few weeks have been different but that might be because they are constantly switching who gets guarantees and who doesn't....So you may see some Prime Time even during guarantees, but in Philadelphia until the #deleteUber thing guarantees were actually hard to make. You couldn't get 2 rides an hour because the city was so oversaturated with drivers.

Guarantees aren't to teach people. They are there to hold the Prime Time rates down during busy periods so Lyft doesn't lose market share. They also lure drivers off Uber if the boost or whatever incentive they have isn't as good, and lock you into Lyft for 50 minutes at a time. The guarantees are generally also a much better deal for drivers than boost, which will be somewhat random in results. You may get lucky, but probably not. With guarantees, you know what you're going to make if you drive those hours.

If you're not seeing a lot of red on the map, don't try to work normally. Do the 2 rides an hour and find a place to park where you won't get requests. That's the most profitable thing to do and keeps miles off your car.

 

[UberGeo]

I just use the destination filter now so I don get request from far away,

How do you make this filter work to your advantage? Do you take a ride to a destination point. Then when the ride is complete Change it back to where you came from. Or can you set it to stay within a zip code?

 

[MiddleClassedOut]

Like say you're in South Philly set the destination filter for like Mt. Airy, you will only get rides going north but you will get in-town rides going north (typical). If you're lucky you'll catch one actually going there...They will match you with any ride going in that general direction. This will prevent a lot of the long distance requests because it stops you from getting anyone not going in that direction. I mean I suppose it's possible you'd get one from NJ going to Mt. Airy but really unlikely.

Once you get to the actual location you selected it will take you out of destination mode....So go offline to stop the long distance requests then set a new destination.

 

[Matty760]

For my Im in palm springs area in southern cali so I live in the middle of the valley, palm springs is on the west end and Indio/Coachella is on the east end. When I log into Lyft especially since Im a Plus driver, I do get a few requests that are about 20+ minutes away in Indio so about 16 miles away, and I want to drive normally or heads towards Palm Springs to drive for the weekend where its busy. So when I log in, I set filter to go to Palm Springs so that way I don't go in the opposite direction for a short drive in Indio. It also requires riders to have their requests to have the destination set already in the app so it knows where you are going and knows to route you to that call or not. In other words I don't get a request unless a destination is already input in the app and its within a 5 min radius of where Im at currently and also is going where I want to go I no longer get those 20+ minutes pings unless its in PS where im wanting to head already