This Week: Lyft Driver Picks Up A Suspect, Lyft & Uber Copy Each Other

This week in rideshare news: Lyft driver gets pulled over by police after she unknowingly picks up a hit and run suspect and Lyft and Uber keep copying one another.

Hey guys, what’s up? It’s this week in rideshare news.

Situations Where You Should Tip Your Driver

Now a driver has compiled a list of nine situations when you should tip your driver. Now, I thought this was going to be useful for our newer drivers. You’re welcome. Just to establish the line drawn between what you are supposed to do as a rideshare driver and what’s kind of expected of you, which means you’re going above and beyond that level of service, and believe me there is a broad line there. So let’s figure that out.

He says you should tip if your driver helps you with your luggage or lots of groceries, if you bring a pet along for the ride with you, if your passenger rating is low, you should. If your driver is genuinely a nice person, the car is exceptionally clean, because I’ve been in some really smelly vehicles, if you’re on a long ride or your drop off is in a rural area, if you’re making a stop that lasts more than a couple of minutes, if your group is rowdy, obnoxious, drunk, and if you tell your driver I will tip in the app. Now, I know a lot of riders watch this channel, so if any of these tips are new to you, please make the appropriate adjustments. Start tipping and share this new revelation with your friends. We’d really appreciate that.

Uber and Lyft can’t keep from copying each other

So have you noticed that as time goes on that Uber and Lyft are becoming more similar? So then Business Insider had an article today entitled Uber and Lyft Can’t Keep From Copying Each Other. I’ve noticed this, too, especially since it’s my job to know what’s going on with these app updates and then have to report it to you guys. So it gets a little weird. For instance, last week Lyft announced this driver rewards program that looked very similar to Uber’s, and a few weeks back, both Uber and Lyft released a suite of security features for their riders in response to the sexual assault allegations and everything. And let us not forget that in September, Lyft announced this bike scooter and public transportation thing, and then Uber turns around and releases their operating system for life, so in fact with all these things that are going on with this game of like tag and release, it’s not too far fetched to think that maybe one day Uber and Lyft will release a combo app. It’ll save us all time and energy, only one press conference. One press release is, just knock it out.

An Uber Driver Unknowingly Picks Up Hit & Run Passenger

What’s going on in Stockton? So an Uber driver unknowingly picks up a hit and run suspect. Uber driver, Mariza Ruelas says that she was driving past the Stockton police as they were investigating a hit-and-run accident. Now she says that she had no clue that her soon to be passenger would end up being a suspect in that incident. She said that the guy was visibly anxious when he got into her car, and once she was pulled over by the police, she knew what was going on.

Once I got pulled over and how he was acting, I kind of already knew obviously they’re looking for him.

Now, the best part of this interview, for me, is that the reporters ask her if she is done with Uber or picking up more rides, and what she says is priceless.

Now, I’ve got a story to tell and my rides won’t be so quiet.

I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want no more stories. I don’t want any more tales. I don’t want anymore nightmares. I just want everything to be the way it’s supposed to be, smooth. Just give me smooth.

Bad Parenting or Rideshare Drivers Behaving Badly?

Bad parenting or ride share drivers behaving badly? A father complained about a Lyft driver dropping his daughter off in the wrong location this week. Robert Carter says he called Lyft to complain after he received a frantic call from his daughter, crying, after a Lyft driver left her in what was considered the wrong location.

About 15 minutes later, my daughter called me, hysterical, crying.

The driver said that he was following instructions from the app, the GPS, which appeared to be her intended location, and left before she could get her father on the phone. When her father reached out to Lyft, he claims that the company sided with the driver. Which is rare, right? And spoke to the fact that his daughter was a minor and that children are expected to ride along with adults. So that’s against policy. So Lyft also added that their driver was right in following the GPS, because apparently this address goes to two different locations, so there’s some sort of error. But the best thing you could do in that case is to follow instructions. But my question to you is this, where do you think the responsibility lies, with the parents? With the driver? If you were her driver, would you have left her in this unknown area? Had the father got on the phone with you, could he have said anything to change your mind about leaving his daughter in this area?

But let’s not forget about rideshare. Let’s not let them off the hook. Both Lyft and Uber say that they don’t allow minors to ride, yet they haven’t done more to educate drivers until after the fact. They don’t do anything to identify riders, because to know someone’s ID is to know their date of birth, and why aren’t they being more diligent and penalizing drivers that pick up minors? Not just the girls and guys that get caught doing something bad after the fact. Why is this not something that’s being looked into on an ongoing basis?

To add, I read another story about a family filing a wrongful death suit against Lyft and other parties for contributing to the death of their daughter. A 13-year old girl snuck out of her house, and used a Lyft to go to her boyfriend’s house. Shortly after midnight, that early morning, the boy tried to drive her home, lost control of the car, and the accident took her life. The family’s attorney had this to say,

I believe it’s unreasonable for a driver of a company to pick up a 13-year old girl after midnight, no questions asked, without checking ID, without getting parental consent, driving her for several miles, and leaving her in an unknown destination.

Lyft’s policy said they won’t transport a rider under 18 without an adult, and Karenine’s family’s also suing the driver that violated that policy.

Obviously, I can agree to an extent. If this child wasn’t be able to get a lift, she probably would be alive today. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me why anybody would carry a 13-year old girl after midnight to any location without any adult in sight. It just sounds crazy to me. When you’re dismissive, and just thinking about the ride, and you don’t care about policies, this is how one small indiscretion can turn into a huge problem. I don’t think it’s really clear that you can say that it’s bad parents, rideshare’s not accountable. I really don’t know the answer to that, but I know that we’re going to keep having these conversations as more horrible things happen to our children if we’re putting them in rideshare, putting them with strangers, and not taking accountability of what happens to them after the fact.

Parents, nervous yet? I know I am. So many of us parents do it. Your teen needs a ride, you can’t get there, so you order them a rideshare.

The responsibility lies at home. Starts at home.

If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you’re not a subscriber of this channel, please do so. There’s a lot of great creators here creating content for you. My name is Cecily. I also have my own channel called Drive Girl Drive, where I talk about same stuff, rideshare gig economy, and starting your own business. Great to see you. Hope you have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you here next week, same time, same place. Holler at your girl. Bye.