Question for all you uber and lyft drivers

Question for all you uber and lyft drivers… how does these companies pick drivers for their riders is it all ran by computers ? I’ve noticed the more I send in emails or call Uber the less and less I get riders. Depending on my location I can run both apps and lyft picks me instantly where with Uber I’ll be waiting hours in a location that says it’s busy you will get a trip soon. I see that message and say yeah right . Maybe it’s just me but I swear Uber changes their rules a lot or someone doesn’t know the rules. When I first started I notice I was getting paid for driving to a rider for the distance it took me to get there and now there not. So I went where lyft is more busier and the first two weeks it was awesome and the past few days they have been sending me 30 mins out for a 3 dollar fair and then sending me all the way back for a 5 dollar fair and this continue for two hours. At that point I’m wasting my time and gas and mileage for what? The nights I do good are so random I was doing good on weekdays just as much as weekends because I work graveyard hours and usually don’t roll into to my drive way till 5 am. The one thing I notice in my location Uber does not have any promotions get 20 rides and make whatever. And their surge last for two minutes it’s ridiculous where as lyft you get locked in to that surge price and promised it . Now I’m still new and learning as I drive but there’s got to be a better way to learning the ropes then just learning them along the way. If this was our business we wouldn’t be walking into something blind. I work both because uber is preferred and it’s in my city limits to drive here plus my city dies and falls fast asleep by 8 and then drive over bridge to the big city and drive for lyft where lyft is way more famous and awake 24/7 so you get a rider all through the night. Not many drive those hours either. So what’s the best way to learn everything and how to make the most from either ??

Yup the more you complain that seems to be the case or it’s all small runs and if you bitch on the groups you mystical bad ratings lol take it a grain of salat but who ever owns the tech can program it for any kind of algorithm and perimeters

Why aren’t you always across the bridge doing lyft then? If it is hopping 24/7, go there all shift. That is basic business, go to where the customers are.

I use Lyft passenger app to see where the other drivers are. If there are too many at one hotspot I move to the next. It’s easy for me because of my location. I live in downtown Niagara Falls with tons of tourists. Buffalo, a much bigger city in comparison, is only 20 minutes away

I think it has to do with how close you are to the passenger, within 5 mile radius or something

Best thing you can do is scout out areas where there’s alot of business and find a spot you can always park for a few minutes. Also find a route between hotspot areas that can draw rides. For me I drive on a boulevard that covers a handful of suburbs on my way to buffalo. Doing this istead of taking the straight shot on the highway, I’ve always drawn calls from the suburbs because there is a deficiency of drivers there. Everyone stalks the hotspots in downtown Buffalo and downtown Niagara falls. I make $800-$1000 a week driving just in case your wondering

Wait, you were getting paid for the time it took you to pick up the passenger?! I’ve never gotten that on a normal ride. Lyft has never offered a long up fee where uber has, usually not much…but once around 4am I recieved about $10 long pick up fee on a scheduled ride.

I don’t wait hours in one location I’m running riders where they need to go for lyft while Uber is running In the back round

The only pay for pickup is ‘long pick up fee’ with Uber and it isn’t for the entire trip to go get them.

Josie that’s what I was saying Uber started paying me the first two weeks for long distance rides and then they stopped, and I noticed lyft doesn’t offer that. They said if they had enough drivers request that they may add that. I also noticed that lyft doesn’t charge riders for canceling if I’ve started driving ten minutes and have another 10-15 mins left they will not charge them. The reason being that I don’t drive all the time on the city side is because in two weeks I out 1,000 miles on my car and I know this is part of the job but it sucks specially if the night is all about low fairs all night long. Im afraid to drive close to the airport till I’m a lil more experienced with fighting off whomever I may have to. I heard other driver businesses get crazy over at the airport lol not to mention Uber charges a lot more than lyft does and I’m closer to home for my four kids only reason I’ve stayed close to home but this mom needs this job to pay off specially if I’m going to put my baby “ car” into the grave. :joy: so did anyone know if it’s all computerized how they assign drivers to riders? Makes me want to call and ask lol @eddie that’s awesome I wouldn’t have any complaints if I was making that. Although being a chick I make better in tips than driving sometimes :joy::joy::joy: I just want to get good at this to provide for my children! Thanks everyone for your input

well first off if you see a trip that Lyft did not pay you your cancellation and you know that you’ve been driving long enough to get it request it from them. They will try to get over on you sometimes to see if you’re paying attention

If you want to get rides. Open the passenger app and go where there’s not other cars. I heard about this and tried in, within a few mi mutes I was getting rides.

You’ve got to look at the passenger app and see how your positioned with other drivers. If you have 5 guys on top of you, you have a 1 in 5 shot of getting the next ping. You want to make sure your in a busy area yet you have a decent amount of space where the ping will go to you.

Also be selective of which trips you take. Trips that take more than 10 mins to get to are usually not worth taking

yep just depends on the time. We have a place that from 12 to 2:30 will be a waste of time going out there for a long pickup. But from 3:15 to 7 a.m. the same area is a gold mine for airport rides and could be worth driving that far.

Try reporting you are having problems getting rides… you get instantely a request… lol

Just because it’s a “busy area” doesn’t mean it’s busy at that time. I ignore that.

I downloaded the app Mingo it shows all platforms and where they are also so I have been going my own direction . Another question when lyft has on there app go to this area and have you chose two dollar amount for a surge and they lock you in you have to stay in that area in order to get that price right? So what happens when the box disappears and your still waiting for a ride but now you have lost the boundaries you have to stay inside what do you do? Sit ?

You don’t have to drive to a 30 min fair u ignore those because most of the time it’s not worth it and Lyft is fairly still new so sometimes they dont have riders around them and you’re the closest one