RIDEGURU
Leonard Girsh (LG-PA)
Ride Apprentice from Southampton, PA
810 DriverActivity
Posts by LG-PA
-
How low is too low (Passenger rating)
Had a Lyft request last night for a long ride. As I was pulling up to the train station in … -
Rideshare Insurance for Drivers
In time for the Thanksgiving I want to share with all of you my Rideshare Accident Checklist.I put this … -
Lyft’s scheduled ride passenger no show cancellation fee or lacke thereof
Second time in 2 weeks I scooped up a scheduled ride, was sent the ride. I arrived 5 minutes prior … -
Do lower ratings for drivers come predominantly from Pool/Shared rides vs. regular or spread is about the same
Any drivers able to pinpoint a trend of which type of rides hit drivers with lower ratings? i suspect pool/shared … -
Is anyone experiencing and issue wuth Uber not reimbursing drivers for all tolls?
Hi, Three times in the past three weeks I had to call Uber to complain that I was not reimbursed … -
Never ending Phone Mounts
Hi, Not sure if other drivers are blowing through phone mounts as frequently as I did, so I decided to … -
Driver survival Kit
What essential items do drivers have in the cars to help make rideshare driving easier?
Featured Answers by LG-PA
-
On Uber platform Drivers have to rate passenger right away when ending the trip, so no way for the driver to know if passenger tipped or will tip, thus no ral way to penalize passneger for not tipping. On Lyft passenger can be rated up to 24 hours after the trip. If passnger did not tip on a long ride I usually go in and rate them 4 stars or less if they did something crazy like brough a child and did not bother buckling them in or bit their nails and left clippings on my floor
-
Also, many students from Rider University go home on Fridays, so if you hang out by campus right off 295 you will most likley be shuttling them to Hamilton Train Station and that is not a bad ride on the highway,
even if you have to run right back to the university to grab more.
After Rider runs dry up, after your last drop off at Hamilton, head over to Love's Travel Stop in Bordentown, Friday is when long distance truck drivers go there (because of new regulations where they can only drive so many hours), park their rigs and often need rides home which could be miles away, and Bordentown in General has some riders. Hope this helps for Friday planning
-
on Lyft there is a Scheduled Ride section (sort of like a job board) it displays avaialble scheduled rides probably with pickup somewhere within 10 mile radius of where you are at the moment of looking at that screen. On this screen you will see pickup and drop off locations and approximate fare, so that is an instance where drivers can see destination :) and of course in Destination filter mode, while you can't see destination exactly you do have an idea of general direction since ou are the one who entered the destination filter :)
-
I decided to read up on this a bit.
So it looks like The FCC is aware of such problems and even set up a "Jammer Tip Line" for people to let the bureau know about people who may be selling or using a jammers.
Found here:
https://www.fcc.gov/general/jammer-enforcement
There is an app to help identify if a jammer is being used, here
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microcadsystems.serge.jammerdetector&hl=en_US
It appears to only work on Android
A quick search on line also revealed that there are Jammer detectors out there, such as on this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmXsKCEeP4o
Nipping in the ass a few of the assholes using them and reporting to FCC will hopefully help.
-
When requesting pool one has to specify number of riders, driver confirms that at pick up on the screen. This enables the system to plan as to whether driver can pick up another couple or only a single passenger.
I had the happen to me. Rider requested pool for 1, but there were two of them at pick up.
I tried changing to two (system told me to make the rider add the second passenger (their friend)
it is $0.11 more for their friend, so I see why rider stated 1 initially vs. 2. (a lot of money - understandable), eventually she changed to 2, and almost immediately got an add-on passenger for a couple, since system figured I should have 2 more seats available. But for example if the same cheap passenger #1 requested pool for 2 but showed up with 3, and I did not force her to change, my next stop for the couple would not enable me to pick them up. SO it is driver's responsibility to ensure number of riders getting in matches the number Uber was told will get in the car. the screen to change number of riders is right in front during pick up.
Occasionally I may have 2 separate passengers already in the car, pool up to my next pool pick up, to find party of 4 who requested a pool, I roll down window and tell them basically I can't fit 10 pounds of passengers into my 5 pound car. I also ask them if they selected pool? knowing already they did and tried to cheat system. I ask them how many passengers they put in during request? (knowing they put in for 2 as system wuld not even let you pool as an option if you have 4 passengers in the single party. (because it would no longe be a pool if you r party of 4 took up all seats) of course the passenger claims they put in 2. Anyway I ask them to cancel, they do not want to cancel because they do not want to get hit with $3.75.
The point for me talking to them is not only to educate them, but to also milk time, so if they do not want to cancel themselves, by time I am done talking to them 2 minutes are up and I just hit NO SHOW and cancell myself, so I can collect my fee. Last thing I need is to drive to them for 5-10 minutes and not even get the NO SHOW fee, because the cheap asses were to cheap to book regular pool.
I do not do many pool rides anymore because of this hassle and dealing too much with cheap asses who request pool, do not tip (for most part), drag my ratings down (I bet the other two passengers in my car already would leave a lower rating because it too longer) and then cheapskates try to beat the system even further by trying to save $0.11 by not declaring all people in their party, find another driver :)
Oh yes all that on top of Uber paying drivers less per mile and minute for doing a pool ride vs. regular. So more work (more hassle) = less pay - makes total sense :)
Stupid drivers probably do what you described (judging on race, etc). Smart, efficiaent driver by default will tend to give a passenger 5 stars and move on. Legitimate things like leaving trash, nail clippings in the car and stuff passenger would not do in their neighbor's car if neighbor was giving passenger a ride do deserve a lower rating.
Hi,
What bad things can happen if a driver declines too many requests?
I do not even think acceptance rate is counted against a driver for any of the quests, etc. Perhaps there are some perks for drivers that complete 100's of rides per week and they have to keep acceptance rate high, but I really can't put my finger on any.
If you deline too many Uber requests, system will just ask you if you want to be on line or not and you just click Yes, Go On Line
Lyft will perster you a bit through text messages and emails, but that is easily fixed:
To stop their texted nastygrams: you need to text a word STOP to 46080
Then as soon as you get a reply back from Lyft (fraction of a second) send "2" back to them and that will taka care of text message pestering.
Lyft's emails - such as the one I received today look like this:
"Account Update
Passengers rely on drivers to provide a dependable service, and it's important that you're there for them.
We've reached out to you several times about your substantial number of missed ride requests.
If this problem continues, you'll affect our ability to keep the platform running smoothly.
It's best for the community when you accept the ride requests you receive, or simply log out of driver mode if you need a break."
And now the same version of that e-mail with how I read it:
"Account Update
Passengers rely on drivers to provide a dependable service, and it's important that you're there for them = [OK fine I agree with this]
We've reached out to you several times about your substantial number of missed ride requests = [we can't legally make you do what we want you to do so we will keep sending you these emails every so often]
If this problem continues, you'll affect our ability to keep the platform running smoothly = [you'll affect Lyft's bottom line, and we do not care about whether or not you make any money as the driver].
It's best for the community when you accept the ride requests you receive = [we want you to chase every ping for every Shared ride; rides that will take you 20 minutes to get to the passenger and then do a 2 minute drive to get passenger to their estination; we want you to accept all passengers even if their rating is 3.5], or simply log out of driver mode if you need a break.
I am hoping other drivers interpert these emaiils the same way I do and just delete them:
-I am a contractor, and I will decide which rides I accept and which I decline, so Lyft can go pound sand
My acceptance rate on Lyft is 2% this week, which is 1 percentage point lower than last :) - because I cherry pick my rides.
It is easier to just turn the other app off once you accept a ride requst (you are happy with on the one)
Why would you want to be bothered with pings for requests from Uber as you are already in route with a passenger and vice versa?
I sometimes leave the other one on even after accepting a request from the other, but I do that only when for example I acceped a ride and it is a long time to get to passenger, in this case the oter app stays on in case a request from that platform comes in and is half the time to get to the passenger, that is when I accept the shorter duration and cancel original. I do not do this too often, but it is a tool in the tool box I go to sometimes.
Perhaps that was a 45 min plus ride that you took. I close my eyes on low ratings if passenger is going far ;) but these low ratings will come and bite you in the butt in terms of long waits when you are trying to get a short ride ;)
If it is a busy time of the night and a ride request comes in every second, one with 4.8 driver may decline as a second later one will come in with 4.97 rating :) so depends on time of day:)
leaving mess in car not messages :)
4.8 is not a bad score it is on border line so no reason to decline those.
My acceptance is 3% :)
They would not drop, like points on your license. But you can bring the points up by tipping driver's in cash for several rides until your score goes up. This is just a quick tip to get the ratings up, as by tipping in cash automatically gets you 5 stars, since driver will have no doubt whether you will or will not tip (through the app) = remove all doubt. You do not have to tip much, perhaps $1.00 per every 5 minutes in the car, and of course round up if you feel generous:)
Without too much pain to the drivers the way to do it, st work only for Uber odd days and Lyft on even days (until they start listening) then as drivers we still would make close to what we expected, but the particualr Rideshare company would make nothing on thse days:)
I have switched many jobs in the past.
every time you walk in halls of a company and find a few individuals complaining to each other about how the company sucks, yet do nothing about it.
i simply (if I hate the job) look for another one and move on. Nobody holds a gun to my head making me work for Uber and Lyft.
i never did eats and do not intend to.
Strike would be good once to stop the bleeding of low wages and high commissions, I just would not make it a habit.
i think the issue is drivers who like the gig of shuttling people around would love to turn it into a full time job but can’t with current rates of pay. So everyone wants a little more. If drivers just plain hated the gig they would just leave like many do (close to 70%) within 6 months of start.
i realize without striking rideshare companies will not get attention but also would hate it to become like teachers strikes where kids are hostage every time they decide to get a raise.
Uner and Lyft do not own cars (besides the few driverless prototypes) so as far as striking it would cripple them completely if drivers did strike with reasonable demands and possibly even got what they wanted.
I would actually participate as I am a part time driver but I just do not see how this could be accomplished as so many drivers rely on this income and strike would not be effective with only few drivers logging off here and there. Soon after striking drivers will see the city map light up with massive surge and will be tempted to go back online
Hi,
on Lyft in PA I see name, rating, distance to pick up, ride type (shared, regular, etc) and whether it is a long ride. So at this time we can make decision as to whether accept their request or not
After I hit accept I can no longer check the rating of passenger
this is really enough info to make an informed decision as to accept or not in my opinion.
at times I may get a request while on highway passing by exit, request looks close but once I hit Navigate (to get the passenger) I already blew by the exit ramp and arrival now becomes 8 miles and 16 minutes. This is where I would go in and cancell in the passenger with reason being “too far”
i rarely cancel after accepting a request but there are occasions that warrant it, such as the one i described above.
on Uber in PA I see rating, distance to pick up, ride type (pool, regular, etc) and whether it is a long ride. So at this time I do not see the passenger name probably to reduce discrimination by name. At this time I can make decision as to whether accept their request or not. Once I accept I will be told the passenger name.
Again if I have to cancell I will but also rately do since enough info is available in initial request screen to make a decision if I want the ride.
REDAnt, how are drivers penalized for not picking up passengers. Are you speaking of acceptance rate or cancellation rate?
I meant to say Uber takes $1.25 from the $5.00 cancellation fee charged to the passenger for not showing up and only gives the driver $3.75. Where Lyft gives the driver entire $5.00 for no show on regular Lyft ride and $10.00 on pre-scheduled Lyft ride.
What I am curious to know is if a passenger pre-scheduled an Uber ride then does not show up when driver waited for 5 minutes what the passenger is charged by Uber as cancellation fee? Is it still $5.00?
I decided to read up on this a bit.
So it looks like The FCC is aware of such problems and even set up a "Jammer Tip Line" for people to let the bureau know about people who may be selling or using a jammers.
Found here:
https://www.fcc.gov/general/jammer-enforcement
There is an app to help identify if a jammer is being used, here
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microcadsystems.serge.jammerdetector&hl=en_US
It appears to only work on Android
A quick search on line also revealed that there are Jammer detectors out there, such as on this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmXsKCEeP4o
Nipping in the ass a few of the assholes using them and reporting to FCC will hopefully help.
True, many part time drivers will only look for long trips, but full time drivers will only want short rides as they try to get the bonus at the end of the week and completing pool rides where each add on passenger is counted as a ride will benefit them to get to their goal. So it depende on what type of driver is out there.
I once drove a religious Jewish family and they told me that mmany of the religious jews are not allowed to have a smart phone, so they use flip phones to call a service that is specifically set up by smart interpreneurs to receive their call from flip phone and schedule a rideshare for them then that person calls them on their flip phone and tells them what car will pick them up, just like a regular ride where a family member from across country requests a ride and calls the driver to let them know who we are picking up
You can, however only in a very special circumstance.
For example you got a passenger who got into your car, because they ordered you to come get them, then once they get into your car, they covertly Cancel your ride in hopes you wil lnot notice, but you do notice. You ask them if they cancelled their ride, and they say, no, must be by mistake. I fyou suspect they are full of crap and were trying to game the system you politely ask them to re-request (passenegr thinks they will get you again as the driver) sinc eyou are the closest driver. at this moment you secretly swith your phone to airport mode, because you do not want to be driving the sneakly bustard anywhere, and they get matched up with a different driver, so you kick them out:)
Absolutely
Having 40% of drivers to handle demand would not work unfortunately.
Demand of ridership is growing at the subsidised rates and more and more people would rather ride in a car than a bus/train
In other fields it may apply to have 1 worker who can multitask and bevery productive (that is when employees work for a boss), but an effective driver can effectively only do 1 ride at a time. These effective drivers like all rideshare drivers are self employed and are in the gig to make more moeny for their boss (who is the drivers themselves). The more effective the driver becomes the smarter (after gaining experience). A smart driver will find ways to be effective for driver's bottom line, which means they will want to do less work than before but to put more money in their pockets, thus declining certain type of rides, etc.
Several states (MA, ME, MD, etc) ran their own background checks some time back on drivers that passed Uber/Lyft backgrounds and found a bunch of these (greenlighted drivers) to have felonies.
The only KPI Lyft and Uber use is, you guessed it ETA for a driver to pick up passenger, so they will continue to dump countless drivers onto the platform, without regard as to if driver can make any money outsude of the few high demand hours :)
Ultimately, if drivers got paid more they would stick around longer on the platform, but the trend in past 3 years is that drivers take home less, and less, so they drive longer and maybe skip out on a few needed car maintenance items, so the quality overall is going down from passenger perspective.
Hi,
I use Waze exclusively.
i went out on Sunday for 12 hours (12:30pm - 12:15am) made 6 rides. Yes that is all I made.
$274.00 trip earnings and that is only with a single passenger tipping me $5.00. Other 5 turned out to be cheap asses.
My acceptance rate is 3%, as I decline all pool, shared and non 45 min rides ;)
normally by Sunday I can hit 20 rides and get my $32 Lyft bonus
i only work Friday after work and Sunday if my kids do not have any activities.
my target is $500 in those two days, it is doable.
i prefer long rides as they typically involve highways which means I do not use nearly as much gas. Airport rides typically result in tips, yesterday i was not so lucky.
The reason Philly drivers do not want to try NJ is because nobody wants to drive empty into unknown and NJ rates are lower per mile. I had one 45 min ride in philly yesterday, a young girl on 30 mike ride from North whales to Lincoln financial for game, took me 1 hour and 20 because of traffic. In NJ in turnpike I can fly 75 mph and make more money.
people are afraid of change;)
You can email me [email protected]
will be glad to share some ideas as they pertain to lower bucks since we both work in this market
Are you actually able to identify the particular drivers that you think are using the jammers or you just suspect they are being used?
Keep pestering them by calling and emailing
ask for manger’s name and manager’’s manager’s name and start escalating, do not settle for boiler plate responses.
tell them that by holding your money you are being deprived ability to earn interest therefore when they sort out their internal problems they must repay you with interest
but please do report back when issue is resolved so other drivers can get an idea of what actually caused the delay