With the recent staggering announcement that Uber lost more money in a quarter than all but three public companies lost in a whole year, focus has turned to Uber’s profitability and expenses. Senior RSG contributor John Ince covers the latest Uber news, including concerns about structural issues and more, in this week’s roundup.
It happens to all rideshare drivers sooner or later: everything is going well, you’re staying busy, and then BOOM! No requests. Whether it lasts half an hour or longer depends on where you live, but during times like this, there are still ways to make money while on the road. RSG contributor Paula Gibbins shares the best ways to boost your rideshare driver earnings below.
The whole point of driving for Uber or Lyft or any other service is to make money. And the best way to make money is to be sure to drive when demand is high and you’re able to stay busy. I’ve written before about how you can maximize your earnings while driving part time, but what if you’re a full time driver or a driver who wants to have a more flexible schedule (no 9 to 5)?
This is where knowing a few good tips and tricks come in, from both part time and full time drivers. And in addition to the tips I’ll outline below on how to maximize your time on the road, you may also want to consider signing up for another rideshare company, like HopSkipDrive. As you’ll see, they actually pay more than Uber and Lyft and their busy times line up well with when Uber and Lyft are slow. So you can work for both and make more!
City councils have a lot of power to say what can and cannot happen within city limits, and we are beginning to see what this type of local control could look like in Los Angeles, CA. RSG senior contributor Sergio Avedian outlines the latest proposal from the LA City Council to regulate rideshare drivers.
Safety of passengers as well as drivers comes up every time either a passenger or a driver gets killed. Unfortunately, Uber and Lyft have not been able to come up with a concrete solution to this problem. Granted, it is a very difficult task to achieve considering the sheer scale of rideshare industry these days. Close to 10 million rides take place on a daily basis on both platforms. Guaranteeing safety 10 million times is likely impossible – but local governments want to see if they can help.
Fair, Uber’s rental car program, recently opened up a very nice in-person service center in Glendale, CA. We know how important customer service is to drivers, so we were curious about what the new in-person service center would look like and how it would help drivers. We had RSG contributor Chonce Maddox Rhea take a look at and share her thoughts on the new Fair app locations.
We’ve been following the Fair Uber rental program closely over the past few months and it’s been cool to see how the process has evolved. When the program first launched, and we sent Jay to test it out, he had a great experience but ran into a few issues picking up his car and getting it approved. About a month later though, Fair launched a new waitlist feature so that you didn’t have to keep checking the app for new cars.
Now, renting a car with Fair just got easier thanks to the new locations they’re launching. Fair recently opened a new location known as their Americana location (Glendale, CA) and if the pictures do it justice, it looks like it’s going to be a major hub and a huge benefit to drivers who want to find the right vehicle quickly and get hands-on assistance.
We’re excited to see Fair introducing these in-person service centers, as it’s a good sign Fair is investing taking customer service seriously. We all know good customer service isn’t a given in the rideshare industry, so kudos to Fair for creating this in-person center for drivers in Glendale, CA.
Lyft is rolling out a new driver pay structure where you will get paid for pickup time, but what does it mean for full- and part-time drivers? Senior RSG contributor Jay Cradeur shares this new pay structure and how it will affect driver earnings.
Recently, I was invited to participate in a phone call with Lyft to learn about the components of a new driver pay structure. This new driver pay structure is currently in beta in Seattle, and it will be expanding to five more markets soon.
