Lyft Secretly Changed Trip Rates Last Month
In November 2018, Uber had announced a drastic change to the way drivers were compensated for each trip. In select cities, Uber drastically lowered per-mile rates and increased per-minute rates to better account for traffic. For most trips, the payout seems to be very similar but now longer distance trips will earn much less while trips stuck in traffic will earn much more. The outrage among Uber drivers was swift but overall drivers are now getting used to the new rates. There are always detractors out there that will always hate whatever Uber does, but many drivers continue to drive for Uber because they are still earning money and can drive whenever they want.
You can see which cities were affected and get more information about the rate changes in the below post.
About a month later, Lyft changed driver earnings in select cities as well
Lyft Secretly Changed Trip Rates Last Month
While Uber sent out a mass email detailing the changes in rates, Lyft secretly changed their rates and made no mention of it in any email or blog post. Some drivers eventually noticed that the rates were much different sometime in the middle of December. I saw this change on December 12th, but didn’t have the time to blog about it until now.
Below is the list of cities and the amount of change of the rates:
| Base | Minute | Mile | |
| atlanta-ga | 0 | 0.02 | -0.04 |
| austin-tx | 0 | 0.06 | -0.13 |
| baltimore-md | 0 | 0.18 | -0.45 |
| boston-ma | 0 | 0.15 | -0.47 |
| bridgeport-ct | 0 | 0.11 | -0.23 |
| cincinnati-oh | 0 | 0.06 | -0.11 |
| clarksville-tn | 0 | 0.07 | -0.15 |
| el-centro-ca | 0 | 0.15 | -0.29 |
| fredericksburg-va | 0 | 0.12 | -0.33 |
| hartford-ct | 0 | 0.1 | -0.19 |
| miami-fl | 0 | 0.04 | -0.08 |
| monterey-ca | 0 | 0.15 | -0.42 |
| napa-and-sonoma-county-ca | 0 | 0.15 | -0.42 |
| nashville-tn | 0 | 0.07 | -0.15 |
| new-haven-ct | 0 | 0.11 | -0.23 |
| norwich-ct | 0 | 0.11 | -0.23 |
| pittsburgh-pa | 0 | 0.15 | -0.34 |
| portland-or | 0 | 0.12 | -0.27 |
| san-antonio-tx | 0 | 0.07 | -0.13 |
| san-diego-ca | 0 | 0.15 | -0.29 |
| san-francisco-ca | 0 | 0.15 | -0.42 |
| santa-cruz-ca | 0 | 0.15 | -0.42 |
| washington-dc | 0 | 0.12 | -0.33 |
| western-maryland-md | 0 | 0.11 | -0.21 |
Many drivers had predicted that Lyft would change the rates to match Uber. Both companies tend to mimic one another and this drastic change was no surprise. Lyft drivers had hoped that Lyft wouldn’t change the rates so that there was some difference between the two services, but Lyft ended up changing the rates after a few weeks.
In my previous post on Uber rates, I showed that most rides earned about the same amount. The rare long distance rides would be a few percent lower in ride earnings but earnings would most likely stay the same.
My advice to drivers is to simply drive slower. It would be in your best interest to follow the speed limit as much as possible and make sure to hit a few red lights along the way. Every 2-4 minutes extra per trip equates to about the earnings of a mile. If you added two red lights to a trip, it could increase your earnings as much as an additional mile. The other benefit of these rate changes is that now Shared Rides and Uber Pool will earn a little bit more. I find Uber Pool and Shared rides takes much longer than a regular ride.
Comparison of Uber and Lyft Rates
Below is the comparison of Uber Rates to Lyft Rates. It is not shocking that they are identical in each of the affected city:
| Lyft Minute | Lyft Mile | Uber Minute | Uber Mile | |
| atlanta-ga | 0.15 | 0.81 | 0.15 | 0.81 |
| austin-tx | 0.26 | 0.93 | 0.26 | 0.93 |
| baltimore-md | 0.3 | 0.93 | 0.3 | 0.93 |
| boston-ma | 0.36 | 0.88 | 0.36 | 0.88 |
| bridgeport-ct | 0.27 | 0.87 | 0.27 | 0.87 |
| cincinnati-oh | 0.22 | 0.8 | 0.22 | 0.8 |
| clarksville-tn | 0.19 | 0.84 | 0.19 | 0.84 |
| el-centro-ca | 0.3 | 0.87 | 0.3 | 0.87 |
| fredericksburg-va | 0.3 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.8 |
| hartford-ct | 0.2 | 0.81 | 0.2 | 0.81 |
| miami-fl | 0.17 | 0.83 | 0.2 | 0.96 |
| monterey-ca | 0.39 | 0.91 | 0.39 | 0.91 |
| napa-and-sonoma-county-ca | 0.39 | 0.91 | 0.39 | 0.91 |
| nashville-tn | 0.19 | 0.84 | 0.19 | 0.84 |
| new-haven-ct | 0.27 | 0.87 | 0.27 | 0.87 |
| norwich-ct | 0.27 | 0.87 | 0.27 | 0.87 |
| pittsburgh-pa | 0.32 | 0.87 | 0.32 | 0.87 |
| portland-or | 0.32 | 0.94 | 0.32 | 0.94 |
| san-antonio-tx | 0.17 | 0.83 | 0.17 | 0.83 |
| san-diego-ca | 0.3 | 0.87 | 0.3 | 0.87 |
| san-francisco-ca | 0.39 | 0.91 | 0.39 | 0.91 |
| santa-cruz-ca | 0.39 | 0.91 | 0.39 | 0.91 |
| washington-dc | 0.3 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.8 |
| frederick-md | 0.28 | 1.07 | 0.28 | 1.07 |
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