Uber, Lyft, Sidecar Driver Promotions for Valentines Day 2015
So last night, many drivers chimed in and spoke about their incentives in various cities so I wanted to write this post to round up what the promotions are on the three services. This is a big holiday for rideshare, especially with the impending storm in Boston set to drop another 10 inches of snow in Boston. Last year, Uber offered a huge $40 an hour to drive on Uber and many drivers grossed near or over that last year. (Note, there were much fewer drivers in Boston last year so it was possible to get near $40 on any given Friday or Saturday night. This year will be tougher with the price cuts unless the surge is over 3x the entire night).
Here was my post on the Valentines Day promotion last year:
There wasn’t any promotions from Lyft or Sidecar last year that I am aware of.
Lyft
They are definitely making a big splash this year after the slew of promotions by Uber earlier this year. They are offering $1000 for 50 trips in Boston, $500 for 30 trips in Denver, Nashville, New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago, and $250 after 20 trips in Dallas, Texas.
You can read more about it here: Lyft Offers up to $1000 to Existing Drivers for Valentines Day
Uber
This year, Uber came back with the same $40/hr guarantee Boston. You can view the specifics of the offer (for Boston) in the below picture:
Its interesting that they now add in that you would only get 80% of the hourly guarantee. I guess so many drivers found out and complained about it so they made the disclaimer at the bottom of the offer.
In other cities, the guarantees for Valentines day is close to the hourly guarantees after the Uber price cut last month so they’ll vary between $20 and $25 an hour.
Sidecar
So they are also having a promotion of their own. I only heard of the hourly guarantee in Boston but I would guess that many of the other markets have a similar guarantee this weekend. The offer in Boston is $35 an hour Thursday-Sunday during peak times and they’re giving drivers 25% extra (or $35, whichever is higher). You have to log in to “When I Work” to register for hours and you can see which hourly blocks qualifies for the $35 an hour guarantee. Remember that Sidecar (at least in Boston) is not taking any commission, so that’s $35 an hour in your pocket, versus $34 net from Uber after their 20% cut.
Even though I know I can make more on Uber, I would definitely check out Sidecar as their fares are higher in my city so that means I drive less for a similar pay. I’m not chasing every last dollar anymore, just money with the least amount of miles on my car now. Its all about efficiency for me and I don’t mind sitting around for a fare, especially with the guarantee in place.
Which one should I drive for this weekend?
- So if you qualify for the Lyft promotion above, I would do that hands down. The only requirement is that you haven’t driven since last week so if you did that, I’d say do that for the bonus. Its only 30 Lyfts so if you want, you can do a bit of Uber at night but focus on Lyft during the day to get the trips down. You could probably clear $1000 this weekend by doing just that, but it means driving over 20 hours this weekend to get it done. I usually average 2.5 trips an hour, a bit lower depending on how long the trips are so it’ll take about 12-15 hours to do the 30 trips this weekend.
- If you didn’t qualify for the Lyft promotion, Uber would be my second choice if I want to make the most money possible. I believe I can get over $40 an hour so this is where I can make the most money without any kind of bonus like from Lyft.
- I personally would drive on Sidecar (assuming you live in one of their cities) because I think I can make similar amounts of money but driving significantly less.
- New Uber Drivers will get up to a $800 bonus after signing up: Sign up for Uber.
- New Lyft Drivers will get up to $800 if you sign up here using this link.
