RIDEGURU
Leonard Girsh (LG-PA)
Ride Apprentice from Southampton, PA
810 DriverActivity
Posts by LG-PA
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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
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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
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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
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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 :)
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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.
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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 :)
$10.00 on a 3 minute ride is very generous of you.
Do you need any more Uber rides in the near future? Would gladly shuttle you around lol.
I always Tip though I only took one ride as a passenger, as I am driver. But it would never cross my mind not to. Unless driver was on their phone, drove dangerously and had a car that was a dump (inside) - even then maybe I would give a smaller tip, but would make it a point to write in ther feedback what they could improve. I think with time passengers will get smarter and treat drivers in same manner as waiters and hopefully tip more often. On the contrary I would not tip a gass station attendant if all they do is stick a nozzle in my tank and go chill out. If they attempt to squuege my window - tip is guaranteed.
Maybe passengers apply same skewed logic to drivers (well driver did what he is paid to do) and nothing extra. This is wherepassengers ned to understand that we are driving them and sometimes their families and getting them safely to their destinations, keep cars clean, etc. but I am guessing they do not dig deeper to understand that:)
Download fare pilot app which can help
usually airports, transportation hubs like train stations are good. Hotels, etc
what market do you drive in?
Hi
Yes I am starting to notice it more too now where $5.00-$10.00 in tips carry over from previous week, actually just noticed it on Lyft too, would be nice to see what trip(s) it was from ;)
Here is what you do:
1. text the word STOP to 46080 once you get a message back, reply with 2 - all your Lyft low acceptacnce messages just evaporated and will never come back.
2. You my friend are contractor not a Lyft emloyee, which means YOU get to decide which rides you accept and which one you do not. If you are going to chase every ping that comes your way (which is what Lyft and Uber) wants you to do so THEY can more money and their passengers have lower wait times you WILL NOT make any money.
You need to run YOUR business which is what you are actually doing the way that will make sense and money for you!
with close to 70% of all rideshare quitting in just 6 months and Lyft and Uber spending millions to try to recruit and keep drivers, I would like to see the day they will start kicking quality drivers off the platform for low acceptance rate.
So - STOP worrying aaboout your acceptance rate and concentrate on drivibg passengers safely to their destinations and coming up with good places where you can make more money for yourself.
please report how you made out - I am curious :)
Early afternoon to about 7pm.
do not just sit there on purpose for hours but perhaps if in area park for 15 min at a time if no hits move on. Another thing you can do is go to trenton train station park near by and decline every pool/shared ride wait until one comes with a banner 45 min plus then accept those. Many Philly people take NJ transit from NY instead of Amtrak due to cost and need to book Amtrak in advance. Then from Trenton they will get Uber to take them to Philly. Happened to me several times. Because the connections between NJ transit and Septa suck so this is a good money maker. I use to print out schedules of all arriving Amtrak trains from Newark and Phila but as it turn out NJ transit tartivals is what you need to concentrate on to try to get long rides into Philly.
you basically need to have a number of places all over so if a ride takes you far you can think of what places from your bread and butter stash are closest and whether going there now is the right time to hope to get a ride.
i will often ignore a barrage of ride requests coming my way for 40 min straight only to inally accept the one with 45 min plus banner
that is where I make the most on the long rides ;)
In Philly /NJ all rides from last night on Uber did not show what I made. They appear to be aware of the problem will drive for Lyft until they fix issue;)
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
There is similar one in Philadelphia and many riders never heard of it. SOme say it is hard to come by as they get snagged as soon as they come out, but financially it makes sense for those who use uber to commute to work
How is Princeton, Hamilton and Trenton train stations, thought they would be pretty good.
Newar airport is good (if you get pings driving by airport and not sitting in que) had that happen to me a few times. Newark city and Jersey city are usually busy but too much traffic and rides are short.
Try hotels by RT1 in evening when visitors go out to eat and during checkout time.
PA try Newtown, Levittown, Bristol, those areas usually light up
You can preschedule a pick up and it will give you a 15 minute window for Lyft, not sure on Uber, probably same.
When car is approaching you will be notified
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
typically if a driver sees a passenger like a 17 year old who may look 18 they would not ask age and assume they are 18 or over, a 13 year old drivers would most likely reject
SO if you do pick up the kid and transport him/her somewhere, then drop them off - how can you be sure you dropped them off somewhere safe? exactly - this is why you do not pick up kids, they may be safer where they are. and of course it is not allowed to transport minors without parents
I seem to remember therideshareguy had a post fairly recently comparing different rental options to drive for rideshare to see if it makes sense - see if you can find that post on their blog
I rarely get passengers with dogs, occasionally when I do it maybe a sick dog being transported to a vet, no problem.
Service dog, no problem.
Passenger with a pet dog that they claim is a service dog, no problem but then you get a 3 star rating from me for trying to full the system by saying the dog is a service dog, but is clearly untrained to do any sigle task, besides uncotrolld barking
I drove a passenger who was telling me how he also drives for Uber and we chatted about tips, he told me where good areas are in NJ for tippers, of course he himself did not bother to tip on a 40 minute ride, he must not be from one of those good areas :)
Large airports like these you will have virtually no wait, maybe 10 minutes max
These airports have ques where drivers sit and wait for passenegers just like you, and these two markets are oversaturated with drivers, you will be fine. as far as surge, open up both Lyft and Uber passeneger apps and check which one has surge (maybe no surge at all) but if one surges, request deriver on the other app, most driver drive for both platforms anyway so you will get a driver quick
For some reason I think the threshold on Uber cancellation time was reduced to within 2 min of request. Where we get $3.75 as Uber taxes fee on that. Lyft cancellations we get $5.00 and $10.00 if you cancel a prescheduled ride
Pretty strange
if pings come in based on distance then having both phones inches away would not make sense as the ping would come to that driver anyway unless he hangs phones from trees, shady....
i instead use both apps and on slow days when a ping comes in from far away and I accept I keep the other app open so I a minute later as I am driving to get the original passenger a ping comes in other app for closer pickup I choos it and cancell original request ( happens very infrequently ) when u am hunting for long rides. I would not cancel on original passenger to save a few min for shorter pickup as I understand they rely on me picking Ben up but I would trade a regular ride for a 45 min plus even if that comes with longer pickup any day.
I would do it in conjunction with a destination filter so you can drive weed and during that trip get a passenger on uber or Lyft and kill two birds at the same time. I did that for a while when delivering packages ;) if only Lyft filters did not suck as bad as they do and actually found a passenger once in a blue moon that is heading the needed direction and oh yes not expire after 10 minutes ;)