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booking ride for someone else
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Marlene Elliott Elliott (melltell2007)
Ride Apprentice from Las Vegas
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The Guru Take
Yes, you can. Uber & Lyft both acknowledge and encourage
Yes, you can! You can simply enter or pin-drop a location where your friend needs a ride.
Many used to frown on this practice as it creates confusion, introduces anonymity among the passengers, and some abused it. With that said, it seems to be a lot more accepted now, and both Uber and Lyft now encourage this.
Uber's Response:
https://help.uber.com/h/454187f4-9b4e-4f9e-8dac-60b04910e8bc
Lyft's Response:
https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/214583147-Policies-for-Passenger-Uses-of-Lyft#requesting_for_friends
Tips:
- When you call a ride for someone else, send a screenshot of the car details.
- Make sure the ride has ended when intended. The driver *could* not close out the ride after drop-off, and ride around to make more money. I am not saying they would, but you do not want an open transaction out there.
- Make sure to contact your driver. Uber now communicates the "caller's" location per GPS to the drivers. Sometimes drivers will directly go to that location rather than the specified.
- Remember that from your one account, you can only call one car at a time, and you must wait until the ride ends to call another. Some people have faced issue. Think of a scenario where you step out of a bar with a friend, you kindly call him a ride, and you try to call yoruself one...but wait! No! you can't until your friend gets all the way home.
UPDATE June, 2017:
Comments
People do this all the time. You just have to drop the pin where your friend is.
I don't know the official stance on this, but I have called one for my wife from a different city. It worked.
One thing to remember is that your drive may know there's something amiss. I a not sure if he or she cares though.
Do you know which platform you would like to book a ride for someone else on? Uber, Lyft, tradtional taxi, etc?
I just updated this thread to reflect a feature that came out over the summer.