Did Lyft Latest Update Remove Prime Time Pricing?
Lyft announced that they were changing their Prime Time Pricing after Uber decided to change their Surge Pricing system. Last month, Uber decided to revamp their entire Surge Pricing payouts for Uber drivers. Instead of paying a multiplier for the entire trip, they are paying out fixed minimum Surge pricing bonuses for every ride and they adjust these fixed bonuses for longer trip. You can read more about it here in my post last week:
Is Uber Fixed Rate Surge Pricing Better or Worst?
Lyft has also changed to a fixed rate Prime Time Pricing called Personal Power Zones. Lyft says that only certain drivers may see this bonus added onto their next trip. Below is the announcement from Lyft about Personal Power Zones:
Meet Personal Power Zones
Coming soon to your app, Personal Power Zones guarantee you a bonus on your next ride when you drive through a high demand zone. They’re based on your location, and show you the bonus amount up front.
See passenger demand in your city
When there’s no Personal Power Zone nearby, you’ll still know where you’re most likely to get a ride.
When you know where to go, it’s easier to make the most of your time on the road.
Keep in mind: As a part of the new experience, you’ll no longer see or earn Prime Time in your app.
How Does Personal Power Zone Work?
You will only get a bonus when you see the pink and purple with some dollar amount on the map, not when you see various shades of color. It will look something like this on your map when there is a Personal Power Zone in your city. Note that you don’t need to be online to see it but you need to be inside those sections to get a bonus:
When you drive through that area, you can get either $1.50 or $2.25 depending on where you are inside the Personal Power Zone. This is to entice drivers to drive inside the highest Personal Power Zone so that they can be closer to where the rides are. Unless you are within the purple zone, I would not even attempt to drive towards the pink zone since you may not get a request with a bonus on it. Lyft claims that the Personal Power Zones will last longer than their old Prime Time Pricing system and this still has to be seen.
If you do not get a request and make it into the pink zone, you will get the higher bonus. I have not seen these zones regularly so I cannot comment on how long they last, but I would expect them to only last a few minutes before the bonus gets reduced or disappear altogether.
Did Lyft Latest Update Remove Prime Time Pricing?
The latest update did remove Prime Time Pricing and replaced them with Personal Power Zones. In addition, many drivers have not seen any Personal Power Zones in the past week. All they saw where hot zones all over the city but no bonus. I haven’t seen it at all during the weekdays and I typically see them during the morning rush hour. So far, Lyft seems to have eliminated any type of Prime Time Pricing or Personal Power Zone. Hopefully Lyft can adjust their algorithm so that Lyft drivers can get some sort of bonus for driving during peak hours, but I expect that these Personal Power Zones will pay less than Prime Time Pricing.
What have you seen on Lyft in the last week? Have you seen any Personal Power Zones in the last week in your city?
Have more questions about Uber or Lyft? Head on over to our Rideshare Driver Training Course! Driver Promotions- 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.
