Why I Drive More For Lyft

Jay Cradeur of The Rideshare Guy chooses to drive a lot more for Lyft than for Uber. Why might a driver strongly prefer one over the other? Take a look at Jay’s video, and scroll to the transcript to see all the points he covers.

If you can, drive for both Uber and Lyft

Well before I get into my reasons I first want to say that it really makes sense for you to have both apps. If you’re in a market that has both Uber and Lyft get both because sometimes one app will go down, the other one then you can work on. Sometimes it’s slow, and you want to have both going at the same time, so you stay busy. And sometimes your paperwork lapses, and you’ll get deactivated, or sometimes you might get deactivated for absolutely no reason. All these things can happen, and it’s good to have a back up.

Lyft offers straightforward bonuses

Now, with all that said let me tell you why I drive more for Lyft than for Uber. The first reason is the bonus. Now I recently took three separate Uber rides in a day. Each one of the Uber drivers told me the reason they drive exclusively for Uber is the flexibility of the bonuses. But for me, I don’t like the flexibility of the bonuses. I like to know exactly what I need to do each week and then I can go out and do it. And with the Lyft bonus I know that I need to get 130 trips, and I need to get 60 during peak hours, and I’m gonna get my $350.00. So, I like to plan my work and work my plan. For that reason I like the Lyft bonus much better than the Uber bonus.

I happen to get a better commission taken from Lyft

Number two won’t apply to really anybody else, but when I signed up back in December of 2015 Uber gave me a 75% commission. Lyft gave me an 80% commission. So every time I drive for Uber I think, “Man, I’m making a little bit less per ride than I could if I were driving for Lyft right now.” I’ve asked Uber on several occasions to match what Lyft has even as I’ve done 5,000, 6,000, 7,000, 8,000 rides with Uber there not having anything about it. It has nothing to do with merit. It only has to do with when you signed up.

I like the Lyft app more

There isn’t anything that I could do with Uber that I can’t do with Lyft, but there is something I can do with Lyft that I can’t do with Uber. With Lyft when I’m half a block before getting to my passenger I can hit that I’ve arrived, see where we’re going, and in the rare instance where it doesn’t work for me like I’m gonna be going across a bridge for example, in traffic, and it’s gonna eat up a lot of my time, I can just cancel. I can cancel. It’s much more difficult to do that with Uber.

I like Lyft passengers more than Uber passengers

Now a lot of people ask me, and I’m sure they all ask you this, “Hey, Jay. What do you like better Uber or Lyft?” Right. That’s the number one question that we drivers get. When they ask me that question I respond with, “I like Lyft best and it’s because whereas Lyft passengers are like dogs, and Uber passengers are like cats.” So I say, “It’s cats or dogs.” I’m a dog person. So, the Uber passengers tend to be a little more closed up. They sit in the back. They do their own thing, amuse themselves. Whereas dogs, dogs are much more happy go lucky, and they’re enthusiastic. They’re much more fun to engage with. So, I find the passengers are way more interesting, and friendly, and engaging.

Lyft passengers leave more tips

Now, I find it really difficult to get tips from Uber passengers. Maybe because they’re more like cats. The Lyft passengers, more like dogs, give a lot better tips. Each week I count on making about $100.00 in tips. It’s really difficult to get that kind of money, and in fact I think it’s impossible, I can’t do it, with the Uber passengers. They’re just not trained to give tips. Whereas, the Lyft passengers have been giving tips for years now, and they just automatically do it if you do a good job for them.

Lyft is the underdog, and I always root for the underdog

I’ve always been an underdog kind of a person. I always root for the underdog. Uber’s big, much bigger than Lyft. Actually, San Francisco is where they have their most head to head battle. That’s the market that I drive in. I just like driving for the underdog. I feel better about it. I like the way that Lyft conducts itself more than the way Uber conducts themself. The passengers who are Lyft passengers kind of feel like we’re part of a club.

We’re kind of in this together, and going up against big, bad Uber. Now, Uber’s not really big, and bad, and Uber’s made some mistakes, sure. So has Lyft, but there’s just that kind of energy around Lyft that I prefer. Okay. I just like the underdog versus the big dog.

Last reason is I had picked up three people who worked for Lyft. They had some swag. I said, “Wow, that’s pretty cool. I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you some improvements you can make to your app if you’ll give me a pair of those socks,” and they did. So here’s the picture of the socks. This is not really a super valid reason, but it’s pretty cool that once a week I wear the Lyft socks.

Drive for both apps and find out which one works best for you

In summary, those are the reasons why I like to drive for Lyft. But you’ll have your own reasons. You really need to feel into what’s most important to you. Is it the bonuses? Is it how you feel about how Uber and Lyft has conducted themselves? Is it tips? Is it your commission percentage? All of these factors go into play, and you just decide for yourself.

Let me finish off by saying go ahead and subscribe to this YouTube channel. This is Jay Cradeur with the Rideshare Guy. Have a great day.