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What would your dream rideshare company look like drivers?
Posted 5 years, 4 months ago
Posted In
Angry Drivers
Passengers from hell? Complaints or suggestions for Uber and Lyft? Glaring problem with the industry? Do you have stories of your horrible experiences with rideshare services? Leave your comments here and share your stories.
Posted By
Sergio Avedian (Uberserge)
1300
Rider
Driver
Ride Apprentice from Los Angeles, CA
Blogger, Podcaster, Active Rideshare Driver/Coach
Active Uber/Lyft driver in Los Angeles, contributing writer for Rideguru and RSG (The Rideshare Guy), podcaster, rideshare driver coach, independent consultant to rideshare and tech companies.
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Comments
My plan is pretty simple. Change EVERYTHING back to the plan we were on 3 years ago! Published rates for passengers instead of this mystery guaranteed price program which clearly takes advantage of everyone, and for the life of me I don't know how they get away with not having published mile/minute rates for the customers. Then change the drivers back to their original 80/20 split. Change the rates back to what they were 3 years ago which is about double where they are today. Change the surge back to a multiplier that everyone, including the passenger can see. But also change the surge multiplier to NO MORE than a 3X with 2X being the typical surge rate and 3X being reserved for only the major surges. Anything beyond a 3X is seriously gouging the customer!
Additionally we should have yearly auto inspections both for safety as well as appearance! Have mystery riders (Uber employee's or people they hire to make random inspections) t…
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My plan is pretty simple. Change EVERYTHING back to the plan we were on 3 years ago! Published rates for passengers instead of this mystery guaranteed price program which clearly takes advantage of everyone, and for the life of me I don't know how they get away with not having published mile/minute rates for the customers. Then change the drivers back to their original 80/20 split. Change the rates back to what they were 3 years ago which is about double where they are today. Change the surge back to a multiplier that everyone, including the passenger can see. But also change the surge multiplier to NO MORE than a 3X with 2X being the typical surge rate and 3X being reserved for only the major surges. Anything beyond a 3X is seriously gouging the customer!
Additionally we should have yearly auto inspections both for safety as well as appearance! Have mystery riders (Uber employee's or people they hire to make random inspections) that take rides and evaluate your driving as well as the overall condition of the vehicle.
Change the rating system to a simple "yes or no" and if responding with a "no" insist on commentary from the passenger as to the specifics and SHARE THOSE with the drivers. Allow the drivers to respond and quit siding with the passengers and giving away the house! Passengers have figured out how to get free rides and they DON'T CARE who it hurts!!!
Lastly, improve your communication with the driver community. Have more visibility. Get rid of the foreign based support lines and the canned computer generated responses. Give us a REAL English speaking person located in the US that we can speak with when we encounter an issue that requires a phone call. (In my few thousand trips, never once have i needed to call. I've emailed a couple of times and it was handled promptly)
Lastly, increase your vetting of drivers. Perhaps even charge an application fee to cover the costs so that the drivers have a vested interest in becoming a driver! Let's genuinely consider a persons background and personal situation before we hire them to transport human lives! Let the public know car seats are required, else develop Uber car seats (cars available with child seating) for an increased fee to cover the driver cost and inconvenience. Let the public know that anyone under 18 requires an accompanying adult, and/or change the rules.
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Great suggestions, thank you.
I'm assuming you're a veteran driver who's seen the good, the bad and now the ugly. Would you switch to drive for a company that offers you the things suggested? That may be stating the obvious.
Of course I would. But ONLY if that company is doing some serious marketing to increase public awareness of their presence.
That's when the barriers to entry shows up, in the tech side it's very easy to do, but due to everyone living in a subsidized fantasy land, the new company has to have very deep pockets to combat U/L. These two unethical, shady outfits are ready to be disrupted themselves.
Totally agree and it's surprising (and yet now) that Uber stock is doing rather poorly while Lyft is valued much higher. I can't figure that out - in fact I can't quite figure why anyone chose to invest in either given the steady bleed of red ink.
While drivers desperately need increased rates, it would be nearly impossible to offer higher rates (thus higher prices to the customer) without also offering a premium level of service, and honestly the majority of folks won't take that route. Cheap is king, especially among the weekend party crowds which is a huge percentage of rides.
The only viable solution long term will be when Uber is willing to increase rates and thus Lyft will follow immediately like they always do. I just can't imagine any other solution that will work.
Actually Lyft stock is not doing well, it came public at 72 now it's 64, they're both going to get halved within a year of AB5 passes and they still can't produce profits.
I'm not a stock expert by ANY stretch of the imagination, but according to my findings, Uber's high is 47 and low is 36 and currently at 43.78. Lyft on the other hand high is 88, low at 47 and currently at 63.34. Perhaps I'm not evaluating this fairly since I don't understand all the ramifications, but it appears to me that Lyft is doing much better than Uber???
I was on Wall Street for 17 years. If you bought Lyft at 50, yes you're doing well. But the true measure of a new IPO's success is what price they came public at at where are they trading now, highs amd lies are not good metrics. Lyft came public at 72, went all the way up to 88 the first day then crashed to 47 now it's around 64, so from 72, it's down about 11%, UBER came public at 45 went down to 37 now it's at 43, so down about 5%.