The Rise and Fall of Lyft

Lyft, what are you doing? It used to be my company. I used to be your guy. But in the past several years, you’ve made some really bad decisions. I got to say, you’re not my company anymore.

In this video, I’m going to break down all the reasons why Lyft is no longer my company and not this driver’s friend. Stick around because at the end of the video, I’m going to share with you the final straw that broke the camel’s back, something that happened recently, which I just cannot forgive Lyft for.

Hey, everybody, it’s Jay Cradeur with the Rideshare Guy. When I first started almost four years ago, there was Uber and Lyft. Over those next couple of years, Uber kind of self-destructed. Uber had a CEO who did some things that made people not like him at all and they had some corporate issues. All of this elevated Lyft.

Why I liked Lyft over Uber

What I’m going to do is break down some of the things that I really liked Lyft over Uber, and then I’m going to show you how those things have changed.

Number one, no corporate shenanigans. As I said, Uber had Travis Kalanick, who berated a driver. Some corporate stuff was going on. Lyft just kept their head down. No issues whatsoever.

Number two, they kept Prime Time. Uber has Surge. Lyft used to have Prime Time. Uber pretty quickly eliminated Surge and they went into what’s called Penny Surge where you could just get paid a little bit of like a dollar, a couple of dollars if you’re in a particular area where it used to be this multiplier. For the longest time, Lyft had that going when Uber still had the Surge.

Three, Lyft was busier in San Francisco. It happened a couple of years ago where I noticed I was getting pings faster with Lyft. Of course, Lyft was better to drive for a because I could also go for the bonuses.

Number four, this was a big one, six destination filters. Uber went to six but then they quickly dropped down to two, but not Lyft. Lyft stayed strong and they offered six destination filters.

Number five, both Uber and Lyft had a $500 bonus for drivers. Uber’s went away after about a year. Lyft, again, this is why I loved Lyft, Lyft kept that $500 dollar bonus. It was called the Power Driver Bonus. That was a big win for me.

What has Lyft done to lose me?

Okay, so now let’s look at what Lyft has done for me lately and you’re going to understand why I’m so crestfallen about Lyft.

First of all, corporate shenanigans. Now, Lyft was a big supporter of the anti-AB5 campaign. If you’re for the driver, AB5 is a good thing, but Lyft is against it.

Second, Prime Time is gone. They got rid of Prime Time like six months ago and they replaced it with what they call the Personal Power Zones. It’s the same as Uber’s. They basically just defaulted back into what exactly what Uber is offering.

Third, demand is now the same. I don’t know why that happened, if they’ve just brought on too many drivers, but demand at least in San Francisco between Uber and Lyft is about the same. Lyft no longer seems to have the advantage.

Four, Lyft decided to go from six destination filters down to two. I really felt the effect of that and I don’t know why Lyft decided to do this. They say hardly anyone uses six. If that’s the case, then why change it? Right? Why change it? Well, they did change it and I say bad move.

The last point, the bonus, the $500 bonus, which was going strong for such a long time, is now down to $300. Lyft did the same thing as Uber and they’ve just reduced the bonus down, down, down.

What our readers say about Lyft

Let’s look at what are the Rideshare Guy readers say about this. We looked to see what what percentage of drivers who drive for Lyft say they somewhat agree or strongly agree that they liked driving for Lyft. As you can see here, we see that the amount in 2019 was 52.4%. But then what we do is we look at what that number was two years ago, when Lyft was doing everything right. When we look at this graph here is that the number was 75%. That means in two years, the satisfaction of drivers driving for Lyft went from 75 all the way down to 52. That’s a pretty precipitous drop.

A big change in the Lyft driver pay structure for some markets

Number four, the last straw. My good friend Joe with the Rideshare Guy recently did a video where his market was impacted by this new change in pay structure. Decided to pay drivers from the time they get the ping to the pick-up, and then pick-up to the drop-off. At first you think, well that’s great. But what they also did is they cut the per mile down significantly.

What’s happening now is Joe did an analysis and he’s getting 10% less. It’s presented like it’s this great thing for the drivers, but it’s actually paying the drivers less. Then Joe talked to somebody at Lyft and they blamed it on the drivers because they talked to some drivers and some drivers said they want consistency of pay, whatever that means.

I guarantee you, Lyft, that if you asked any driver if they want consistency of pay and 10% less, they would say no. They’d rather have 10% more in inconsistency and pay. I guarantee you, that’s what every single driver would say.

The other thing I’m going to suggest to you, Lyft, is if you really want to know what drivers think, we have this great thing called the Lyft app. It’s on the phone. Just ask us questions. We’ll tap what we like and don’t like. Then you’ll have this amazing data from drivers that will tell you that that kind of a pay structure that you went to is tone deaf, wrong, bad. What can I say?

Key takeaways

Lyft, you were my company. You’ve done all these things that have taken all the benefits that I had driving for you down to Uber’s level, to where Uber is. Then you on your own, come up with this new pay structure, which is horrible. 10% less. That would be in a $2,000 week, $200. $200 times 50 weeks. That’s $10,000 you’re taking out of drivers’ pockets, if they can make $2,000 a week. I’m just disappointed. What can I say? I’m very disappointed, angry, frustrated.

This is Jay Cradeur with the Rideshare Guy. You go out and have a great day. Be safe out.