How Lyft Drivers Can Make More than Uber Drivers
In my last blog post, I talked about how Uber Drivers are making more money with lower fares. It’s no secret that surge pricing is the key to potentially doubling your income on Uber and it comes at the expense of customers. Uber knows this is hurting their brand as many Uber passengers note how they are frustrated with surge pricing. Uber tries to reduce surge pricing by getting more drivers out on the road with hourly guarantees for the past 6-8 months.
Lyft Doesn’t Have Hourly Guarantees
Lyft has almost never had hourly guarantees for their drivers. They have different promotions, like bonus money after giving a certain number of rides. By and large this method has been ineffective in getting more drivers out on the road. The only way to talk to drivers is usually money and that is in the form of Prime Time Tips (PTT).
As Lyft expands with more drivers and passengers, the entire system gets more complex. Human behavior and activity as a whole becomes much more unpredictable. I remember working a random Tuesday night in the winter and surprisingly staying very busy and making close to $30 an hour for about 4 hours with some PTT and Uber Surge Pricing sprinkled throughout the night.
Sudden changes in demand and supply can happen at any time during the week so drivers can make more money if they find abnormal times with Prime Time Tips. Lyft is always having a hard time keeping up with demand because they do not have enough drivers. If this is the case in your city in that demand far outstrips supply, then you can make more money on Lyft than Uber. If there is sustained demand during the weekend hours on Lyft now with the college students back in most cities, there can be Prime Time Tips for extended periods of time. Lyft historically has not offered incentives to get more drivers on the road so you can expect Prime Time Tips to be a common occurrence for at least a week or two until they can onboard more drivers.
In short, Lyft has very little control over Prime Time Tips and drivers can make more than on Uber who can actively control Surge Pricing with driver incentives.
Lyft Doesn’t Have Surge Drop
In Boston, it wasn’t until the start of the summer where supply was close to meeting demand, as can be seen with less Prime Time Tips during most of the summer. Now with all the college kids back in the city, demand has spiked again and without enough drivers. For the past three weeks, there has been high levels of Prime Time Tips during the entire weekend. Lyft also doesn’t have a Surge Drop feature like Uber, so passengers would have to manually keep checking their app to see when PTT has lowered. Surge Drop on Uber is a feature where they notify passengers when Surge Pricing has reduced and you have 60 seconds to confirm the new pricing and request a ride. Surge Drop has made a noticeable impact on driver earnings through less or lower Surge Pricing trips.
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