The Rideshare Guy: Blog And Podcast For Rideshare Drivers

by Harry Campbell on January 15, 2015 53 Comments

UBER Is Now Offering A $500-$1,000 Sign-Up Bonus to Lyft & Sidecar Drivers

UPDATE FOR NEW LYFT DRIVERS: (Lyft is offering brand new drivers a $1,000 bonus if you sign up and give your first ride by 3/6/15! You can sign up using my referral link here!)

(As of yesterday, Uber is giving experienced rideshare drivers like yourself up to $500 or $1,000 (depending on your city) after you sign up to drive with Uber and complete your first trip. To qualify, you must prove your have driven on another ridesharing platform BEFORE 1/8/15.)

If you’ve been with this blog from the beginning, you may already know that originally I was solely a Lyft driver. It wasn’t until Uber offered me $500 for doing just one trip that I switched over. I guess you could say I sold out, but hey $500 is $500!

A lot of drivers have contacted me over the past couple months about signing up for Uber and raking in this $500 bonus. Unfortunately, many of you weren’t eligible because you started driving for Lyft after 11/1/2014. Well, the good news is that yesterday Uber extended that date and if you’ve driven for any other rideshare company before 1/8/2015 you are now eligible for Uber’s $500-$1,000 bonus.

In the past, this ‘steal a Lyft driver bonus’, as I like to call it, has only amounted to $500 but with the latest promotion, in certain markets, drivers can actually get a $1,000 bonus! I’ve confirmed that the following markets have a $1,000 bonus available: Phoenix, Nashville, San Diego and Denver. Drivers in all other markets will still receive a $500 bonus after they are approved and give their first Uber ride.

If you’d like to sign up using my referral code, you can do so here. [Read more…]

by Harry Campbell on January 14, 2015 4 Comments

Welcome WIRED Readers

As a WIRED reader, I’d like to welcome you to my site. As you may have read in Jessi Hempel’s article, I started this blog almost 9 months ago as a way to help my fellow drivers figure out the best ways to maximize their rideshare income.

I’d like to use this opportunity to introduce you to The Rideshare Guy Blog & Podcast and talk about some of the most popular portions of the site:

What’s It Like To Be A Driver?

You might think that being a rideshare driver is pretty easy but there are actually a lot of nuances that go into it. Since I drive for both Uber and Lyft, I’ve written extensively about the two and I love to compare them:

If you’re thinking about driving, Uber is currently offering a $100 bonus after you complete 20 rides and Lyft is offering a $50 bonus after you do 20 rides too. And, if you’re a current rideshare driver that hasn’t signed up for Uber yet you could get up to $1,000 after just one ride by signing up with Uber. The only requirement is that you’ve given at least one ride with another rideshare company (other than Uber) prior to 1/8/2015.

The Rideshare Guy Podcast

If you’re interested in audio content, then be sure to check out our podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. We are the first and only 5 star rated rideshare podcast on iTunes and you’ll find everything from tax and insurance information to in-depth interviews with some of the industry’s top experts.

Subscribe to Our E-mail List

If you’d like to be notified whenever we publish a new post, I encourage you to sign up for our e-mail list. It’s the best way to stay up to date on all of the latest rideshare news, information and updates.

Btw, we also have a YouTube channel now that is being filled with content by the day. Check it out and let me know what you think!

If you have any questions about the site or rideshare in general, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

-The Rideshare Guy

by Harry Campbell on January 14, 2015 10 Comments

How to Add More Magic to Your Uber Ride With Music

I’ve always been a big fan of live music. And one of the things I enjoy most about driving is putting on a good playlist and seeing how the passengers react to it. I don’t play a lot of main stream stuff but it’s awesome when the passengers says, “Hey great song!” and it usually leads to a nice rating and once in a while even a tip.

Today, I’m sharing a guest post from Joe Strandell, who I first met on Facebook when he shared his music strategy with me. I was very intrigued by what he does so I asked him to guest post and he kindly obliged. If you have an idea for a really valuable and/or unique post, feel free to e-mail me and pitch me on it. One of my goals this year is to feature more city-specific content so if there are some strategies that work well locally, I’d love to hear about them.

Hey RSG fans, my name is Joe and I drive for Uber part time in Santa Barbara. I’m originally from Nashville though and it was in Nashville where I developed my love for music. Today, that passion lives on through Uber.

Sometimes there’s time for music during your Uber ride. Sometimes there isn’t. But music has the ability to break all sorts social divides. It’s a powerful connector. [Read more…]

by Harry Campbell on January 12, 2015 8 Comments

What Can I Do To Improve My Driver Ratings?

Ratings is a fun topic for me because I feel like my experience as a passenger has played a huge part in why I’m such a good driver. I still maintain a 4.9 driver rating with Uber and a 5.0 on Lyft despite driving primarily during ‘the party hours’, holidays and special events.

Similarly, I think my experience as a driver is also what makes this site so valuable. Since I’m a driver, I’m able to empathize with a lot of the problems and situations you guys face on a daily basis. It would be very difficult for me to talk all about what it’s like to juggle two apps on a Saturday night and how to make the most money driving if I wasn’t out there doing it myself.

Clearly, there is a big disconnect between Uber/Lyft and their drivers since no one at HQ are drivers themselves. That’s why you hear people at Uber say things like lower prices means more rides and more money for drivers! Uh it doesn’t work that way dudes 🙂

I don’t really blame the employees though. Imagine working 40-60 hours a week at Uber and then going out and driving. That seems like the last thing I would want to do. In fact, I face a similar situation every day since I’m putting so much work into this site right now. At the end of 4-5 hours of writing and reading about rideshare, I’d rather stay home and watch TV than go out and drive. But I have to remind myself that putting myself in the driver’s shoes is what makes my articles and podcasts so valuable. That same principle applies to drivers and taking rides as a passenger. [Read more…]

by Harry Campbell on January 9, 2015 59 Comments

Friday Roundup: Uber Cuts Rates in 48 Cities

Before I dig in, I just wanted to give a quick shout-out and word of thanks to Jack Ross who’s been doing the round-ups for the past few months pro-bono and been doing a great job at that. Jack is moving on to bigger and better things at VICE as a sports contributor so today I’ll be handling the round-up.

Well the big news in rideshare happened yesterday afternoon when Uber announced a slew of fare cuts in 48 cities across the US. Most cuts were in the 10-25% range but there were a few cities that saw their mileage rate cut in half. Along with the cuts, Uber also rolled out a guarantee for peak hours that ranged from $14-$20/hr depending on the city and a guarantee for non-peak hours that ranged from $10-$14/hr. This number is before Uber’s 20-25% commission so you can see that these guarantees aren’t really guaranteeing a whole lot.

Uber’s Announcement: Beating The Winter Slump

I’ll be releasing an in-depth YouTube video this weekend (now live below) with my thoughts on the whole situation but for now I think a wait and see approach is best. Obviously there are a lot of drivers who are upset and for good reason, but the only thing I can possibly think of as to why Uber has made these cuts is to get more passengers out on the road. As many of you have probably realized, the beginning of the year is a slow time for rideshare (especially compared to the Holidays) drivers and Uber is all about growth. [Read more…]