Lyft & Uber Drivers: How Far Should You Go To Pick Up A Ride?

Lyft & Uber Drivers: How Far Should You Go To Pick Up A Ride? Join RSG contributor Chris as he goes over a scenario that we as rideshare drivers asks ourselves a lot. Since how far you're driving for a ride has a massive affect on you Uber driver pay and Lyft driver pay, it's something that should be thought about. This video on Uber and Lyft has been produced by The Rideshare Guy.

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About The RideShare Guy:

I'm Harry, the founder of The Rideshare Guy. I started driving for Uber and Lyft in 2015 and eventually quit my day job as an aerospace engineer to run The Rideshare Guy full time.

These days, I'm a trusted media expert on all things rideshare and have a number of contributors across the country who are all driving for Uber and Lyft and other gig companies like Instacart, Doordash, and Postmates.

The RideShare Guy has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, CNBC, NPR, 60 Minutes on CBS TV, The Washington Post, Wired, Forbes, SFGate, and hundreds more.

The RideShare Guy has interviewed top gig economy leaders and reporters such as

• Executive Director Automotive Research Stanford, Dr. Stephen Zoepf, PhD MIT
• Senior Tech Policy Reporter at Ars Technica Tim Lee

Tags

#Uberdriver
#Uberdriverpay
#Lyftdriver

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[philp]

I don’t appreciate Lyft rerouting me and not telling me where passengers are heading until after I pick them up

[ridesharetrixter]

I only accept trips that are 10 miles away or less in my market. I also will not take trips that are over 25 miles. The longer the trip, The less you make.

[Gabriel-pttq]

I just drove 19 minutes (13 miles) for an Uber pickup. I get to the apt complex and sit there 3 minutes and then 1 drunk guy comes out and says he's just waiting on his 3 friends, then he opens front door and asks if he can sit there. I (nicely) so no and then I said I can only take 3 people and I'm just going to go ahead and cancel anyway. He gets mad and yells at me. I got mad too and yelled back then he reported me to Uber apparently claiming I was discriminatory towards him. Not a fun Fri night. I get so annoyed by passengers not being ready when I arrive, I feel that if I've driven more than 5 minutes to come pick you up you need to be ready when I pull up.

[MJSmithGroup]

A big part of the problem is that Uber & Lyft hide the ride info (that matters) from the driver.
The upfront ride request info should include:
- The pickup & dropoff locations.
- Total estimated miles.
- Total estimated time.
- Total estimated earnings.

Uber is able to give all this information upfront for UberEats deliveries (although it looks like they're now conditioning Eats drivers to having upfront info phased out).

[Kaoz-Ferg]

5 miles is my limit, but really i prefer rides within 3 miles. Anyone going father than 5 miles or 10 min for pickup is part of the problem along with the app even offering the ride to you.

[thomaspark]

It never fails, on a three or four strike they send you on a long ass pickup. I just learned let the passenger cancel by not picking them up. On average the passenger sees that your not moving, they cancel in about 5 minutes. During the time I’m waiting for passenger to cancel I catch up on email and texts.

[J.QNobody]

We need a law firm with big balls to take on all these rideshare/delivery companies. I made $4000 on 1000 UBER rides. I quit!

[marmeebean]

I live in the desert, with many areas of unpaved, unmaintained dirt roads. Very hard on my car. And it could be miles and miles to go! But there are not a lot of drivers up here - a lot go to the city areas. I try not to refuse, because I realize I may be one of a few drivers who would accept these rides, and people need rides.

[Priestonwheel]

From SF to Corte Madera?? It's very so far away... no driver will take that ride. It's insane!! Maximum distance I drive to pick a ride is 3/4 miles.

[creigfitzpatrick]

I refuse to accept rides over 15 minutes away. I don't get good gas mileage and usually after not accepting a ride 15-20 minutes away I receive a request 3-6 minutes away. I live in the city where there's lots of ride requests minutes from me. Uber and Lyft have to change their algorithms and route the rides to the nearest driver NOT drivers 15-20 minutes away. I've actually received 2 ride requests where the pickup location was 45 MINUTES away!! Of course I didn't accept them!

[MicDropBBQ]

The situation has to be analyzed as it happens. I wouldn't do a ride that's more than 8-10mins away - UNLESS the ride is attached to a quest bonus. You have to ANALYZE the situation like this:

1) $18 for 3, and you're on the 3rd ride - and it's 12mins away. You're gonna get $6 for the ride from the quest, for completing it. Then the ride may have a tip with it, so that's additional money on top of the $6 guaranteed PLUS fare guaranteed. Now 12min doesn't seem too bad.

2) You're at the tail end of a 60 rides quest for $280 or something, so 12mins could be worth $280 to just complete it and get it overwith. Be done for the day, if you're already at the end of the day. Now you've got $250 for the fares for the day, the $280 for the quest, and the fare for this ride (and any tip). Now 12mins doesn't seem too far. 12mins to basically clear $500 on the day and you're done. Do the 12mins and be done with the day.

3) No quest attached. No bonus attached. No busy-section of town (or event area, like an NFL game or NHL game) this ride is taking you. If you face this situation, the 12mins is a lost cause. Don't even apply any thought to it. Decline. Wait for the next ride.

[StillIRise]

I find it irrepressible that they charge 300 for a ride to Houston and only pay me 146. I'm the one doing the driving, my car is getting the wear and tear, all they did was take the request and I accepted. I should have gotten damn near all of it!!!!

[Fishinfunouttrout]

As a brand new Lyft driver, this was very helpful - especially your 8 minute rule with Lyft. Now that I'm gold status, I can actually see how many minutes it is to get the customer and how many miles the trip will be after getting them.

[erik]

I turn on with 9/10 rides in the morning and start receiving request 12 miles 20 minutes over and over and over until I have 0/10 rides and I am driving blind! Once I start trip I start getting more shitty ride requests over and over and have 2 turn off new requests so I can focus on the pax and where I am going! I literally don't want the pax 2 see and hear me get pissed off at the UBER algorythm! I don't do Lyft no bonuses no trip info EVER! 5 miles is my max distance! I did 2 trips for Lyft recently! First ride $3 fair they put a pax in my que and did not tell me 45 min long trip to LAX Sunday after Thanksgiving! That will be the last time I drive for Lyft!

[droptine]

I just started 2 weeks ago, I have a 60% accept rate and 10% cancellation rate, because they send the majority of trips to me that are 10min-15min or 10-15miles away(just about equates to the same in my area). I want a better acceptance rate but I will not accept some of these requests.

[jm]

You forgot the last combination, you may get rerouted and then the next passenger cancels the ride ... so on lyft you have to be careful

[johnyoung]

I generally don’t except rides that are farther away than the ride itself.

[cruzsevilla]

You pick up a person 15 or 16 miles away for 4 dollars? Ridiculous...but uber and lift send that...they are irresponsibles people...they follow the drivers, they know where are they...so why they send that notification to pick up to far...Uber and lift shows that they don't care the drivers 🤔

[erik]

I was on a streak bonus yesterday I had completed 2 of 3 rides. My 3rd ride gave me the Be Right Their text! If you don't make it 2 my car in 5 minutes I cancel based solely on lack of respect! So I cancel and drive away! They instantly resend me the pax that I canceled and I denied trip and lost my streak bonus!

[Beachdude]

In my book, the toll makes this a deal breaker, especially with the bridge. I flat out wouldn't accept it. This ride is a losing proposition, unless the ride itself is particularly long or going towards where the driver would like to be.