5 Lessons I’ve Learned After 14,500 Rides

Happy Thanksgiving! Today I’d like to share a nice retrospective video by The Rideshare Guy contributor Jay Cradeur. Jay is a veteran driver who has given more than 14,500 rides, so he knows this job as well as anyone out there.

Watch Jay’s video, and if you prefer to read, check out the video transcription below.

This is Jay Cradeur with The Rideshare Guy, and I’ve done 14,500 trips. At the end of this video, I’ll show you exactly how you can find out how many trips you’ve done, just right there on your phone app.

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Drive for both Uber and Lyft if you can

The first thing I learned is it’s really important, if you can, get with both Lyft and Uber. Have two options. Now, why is that important? Well, first of all, you can make more money. If you’re sitting around waiting for a ping, and you have two apps open, whatever comes first you’re going to get. A lot of times in San Francisco before I just did Uber, I’d wait a long time. Now I have Uber and Lyft and one of those pings, so my wait time is less, I get more rides in, I’m busier. The day goes a lot faster.

That’s one good reason. Another reason why you’ll make more money is you’ll have the opportunity to earn bonuses. Now, if your market doesn’t have bonuses, I understand. Some markets do have bonuses. At least, then you have a choice, and if you really want to go for it full-time, hardcore, you could get both bonuses. Some weeks I’ve made up to 600 extra dollars in bonuses because I really put the pedal to the metal and got both bonuses for both Uber and Lyft.

What happens if you get deactivated? This happened to me. My car needed to get inspected. I didn’t do it. Uber shut me off. Did I panic? I didn’t have to because I just worked Lyft the rest of the day then brought my car in. The other thing that happened last year, Uber went offline. They had some issue. For three-like hours, no Uber. Well, if you only had Uber, you’re out of business for three hours, but I had Lyft, so I just started using Lyft and.

Drive during the day to avoid stress and danger

The second thing I learned is drive in the daytime. Now, when I started, I saw videos and everyone was talking about how great driving at night was because you make so much more money. So, I tried it, and you know what? I didn’t like it. I didn’t like working until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. I didn’t like driving drunk people around. I didn’t like driving at night. It’s dark, you know? People are walking around in dark clothes, they’re easy to hit. Ugh, if it’s raining in the dark and you got intoxicated drivers? I mean, it’s dangerous. You want to stay in the game.

During the daytime, it’s safe and you can make really good money. The time from 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning, and then from 5:00 to 7:00 in the afternoon, there’s surge. There’s plenty of surge to work with. You can make really good money but, most importantly, you can be safe and stay on the road. You want to stay in the game and be able to keep driving.

Breaks and exercise will keep you sane

Third thing I learned, and it took me a year to do this, is take a break in the middle of the day and go workout. Get some exercise. I now go to my 24 Hour Fitness over on Ocean. I work out for an hour. Sometimes I do aerobics. Sometimes I do free weights. Sometimes I do machines. But, I always do a steam and it really helps your body a lot. I’m 6’4 and I get a little sore sitting in a car all day long, but when I take a break in the middle of the day and go hit that steam and get out, I’m refreshed. I took a shower, I feel good, and I’m much more alert and ready to go drive the second half of the day. So be sure and work exercise into your day.

Be selective with your rides

When I started, I took every single ride. I wanted to maintain 100% acceptance rate. What I learned is that was costing me money. Look, if I’m driving in rush hour, all right? I’m downtown San Francisco and I get a ping and then that person wants to go, say, to San Jose, that means I’m going to probably spend an hour on that trip, sitting in traffic for a half-hour, getting frustrated, and not making much money. It’s not worth it. During rush hour, if someone pings me and they want to go to Oakland, or they want to go to, say, Marin County, I will just tell them I cannot take them.

It’s your business. You can do that. You can tell them it just doesn’t work for you. You can make a reason up, like you’ve got to be back in town in an hour, whatever. Don’t do it. It’s your business. Make it profitable. Now, some people have said, “Well, that’s really going to affect your acceptance rate.” Not really, it doesn’t happen that often. I’m always at about 95%. You just do it in certain times of the day when it really doesn’t make financial sense.

Relax! Don’t worry about the things you can’t control

Have you been in your car and you see a Lyft driver, an Uber driver, or a taxi driver like swerve in front of you? Or you see someone behind you who’s in such a hurry? It’s stressful. You don’t want to be that driver. Your passenger does not want you to be that driver. What I recommend, if you haven’t done this, is go be a passenger. Go get in someone else’s Lyft, go get in someone else’s Uber, and you’ll see, good drivers seem to have it all under control. They’re not in a hurry. They’re just going to take you from point A to point B. I like to play jazz, so I create this real chill vibe in the car, and passengers respond to it. I can’t tell you how many times they say, “Thanks for the ride. I really enjoyed the music.” So, slow down, relax, take it easy. Those are the five things. I’m going to show you that video now, so you can see exactly how you can find out how many number of rides you’ve got.

How to find out how many rides you’ve given

Let me show you how easy it is to find out your total number of rides if you’re a Lyft and Uber driver. Start off with Lyft. Open the Lyft app. What you want to do is touch your picture, which is in the upper left-hand corner, and then click on Dashboard. Right under Stats, you’re going to see it shows you your weekly acceptance rate, your rating for, I believe, the last hundred rides, and then to the right of that you see it says 6,856. All right, so we’re going to open at 6856 plus.

Now, we’re going to open the Uber app. On Uber, down at the bottom it says Home, Earnings, Ratings, Account. Click on Ratings, and then to the left it says 4.91 Star Rating. Click where it says Star Rating, and at the bottom of the page to the right, you’ll see it says Lifetime Trips 7685. So, we go back here and we add 7685 plus, so there’s 14,541 rides. That’s how …

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