Ridesharing is hot nowadays, but not every driver for this service will agree. A former Lyft driver has communicated with Ridesharing Forum that they will never join rideshare apps again. Interesting? Read on.
“You may want to join rideshare apps, like Uber and Lyft, as a driver, especially with how much you can make. I used to make over $200 a night and kept really high ratings. However, there is a lot that keeps me from ever going back to ridesharing that you should keep in mind,” the ex-driver told the Ridesharing Forum team.
For them, there are various reasons as to why they’d leave. Here they are:
Reason # 1: Getting to the top isn’t easy
Who says that driving for apps like Lyft is not like the dreaded ladder to the top of networking? While it is not networking per se, the feels are there, especially that getting the coveted five-star rating is “complicated and demanding.” But for you to get more passengers, you’ve got to have been rated five stars, or around this figure.
“It is a never-ending effort to be perfect, and it affects everything from how many ride requests a driver gets to how much money they can make. The pressure never lets up because if a driver’s ratings stay too low, they can lose their account, which means you can no longer earn money this way,” the former driver stated, reminding, too, that “drivers have to create an environment that feels comfortable and professional, starting even before the passenger gets in the car.”
Reason # 2: Verification methods aren’t as good as they could be
Who says that driving for platforms such as Lyft is a hairflip? It’s not, especially in terms of safety.
“The current way rideshare platforms like Uber and Lyft verify identities and backgrounds isn’t always done in-house, so there are a lot of issues when it comes to getting things checked. Both companies check drivers’ backgrounds when they first sign up and continue checking them over time, looking at driving records and criminal history. For example, Uber permanently bans anyone convicted of serious crimes like sexual assault, murder, or kidnapping,” the ex-driver added. Yikes!
Reason # 3: Gas is the silent killer
Of course, of course, just as cab drivers almost are not keeping a lot of money from their trips within a given day due to gas costs, so is with ridesharing drivers.
“For rideshare drivers, the cost of gasoline is not just a regular business [expense, it often quietly] destroys your profits and makes it hard to keep driving long-term. Even drivers like me with high ratings would be devastated by seeing my earnings shrink every time I filled up my tank. This turned what looked like good pay into very little take-home money,” they further noted.
Sure, passengers find those ridesharing apps simple to use because the driver is just like a robot. Tell them where you’d want to go and they’ll drive you to it. But, they also feel the personal stress.
“However, drivers deal with traffic, difficult customers, and growing operating costs that have dwarfed the potential to make money recently. It’s not as easy as stepping into your car and going; it’s about trying to make a profit against so many expectations,” the former Lyft driver noted.
Do you agree with their claims or not? Share your thoughts by signing up for your account on this forum today.