I love driving for Uber and Lyft. I have been doing it for over eight years and continue to enjoy the experience. I drive primarily on Saturday and Sunday mornings, from 3 AM to 9 AM.
I enjoy getting up, taking a hot and cold shower, pouring some cold brew in my Yeti mug, and driving into the early morning, turning on all five of my essential apps. The partiers, the airport travelers, the men and women heading off to work always succeed in teaching me something I did not know.
Watching the sunrise as night turns to day consistently initiates a feeling of gratitude for being alive and witnessing all that nature provides. And yet, a few things are tamping down my enthusiasm.
Both Uber and Lyft have made some changes. This article will break them down and suggest a strategy to improve a challenging situation.
Background
When I first started driving in 2015, Lyft introduced me to Waze. Subsequently, I have used Waze with my Uber and Lyft apps for my driving career. Waze is great. It is the most accurate of all GPS systems. The text is big, bold, and easy to read. I am a big fan.
Another situation that has been reliable during the past 8+ years is the five-minute waiting period for passengers to arrive at my car. We all know the feeling. When you arrive at a passenger’s pick-up spot, the timer starts, and ideally, the passenger arrives within the first minute.
The worst-case scenario is the passenger doesn’t show up until the entire five minutes have expired. This is how it has been. Things have changed.
Lyft Forces Their Proprietary GPS Down Our Throats
I first noticed this about a month ago. I started the day using Waze with my Lyft app. Then, by the end of the day, I could no longer use Waze. Lyft eliminated the option. Ironically, it was Lyft that introduced me to Waze all those years ago, and now it is gone.
If the Lyft GPS were as good as or nearly as good as Waze, there would be no problem. However, that is not the case. The Lyft GPS, while functional, does not compare well to Waze. I miss my Waze. I prefer driving for Uber now because I get to use Waze.
I am incredibly comfortable with Waze. I am not comfortable with Lyft’s proprietary system. Here are my three main gripes about Lyft’s GPS.
First, the text on the Lyft GPS is too small (see above), especially true with the distance text, which is the most essential text. It is approximately half the size of the Waze distance text.
I need to know how long before I need to be looking for the next street. With Waze, I could see clearly without my reading glasses. I must keep putting on my reading glasses with Lyft to get the correct data.
Second, with Waze, I can easily see my turn navigation (see above). I always look at the turn-by-turn navigation to get a clear picture of where I am going. With Lyft, there is no turn-by-turn screen.
Instead, all I can see is a map overview of the route. It helps a little bit, but it is different from the turn-by-turn. As a result, I must spend more time focused on the app and less on the passenger.
Third, Waze is excellent at resetting to the next turn in a timely fashion. For example, once I get on the freeway on the ramp, Waze shows me which turn-off I will be taking next. Lyft does not show the next turn until I am off the on-ramp and have entered the highway.
I have seen Lyft withhold the next turn-off for up to a third of a mile. If the next turn is a short distance, this can be a challenge, especially if I have initiated moving over to the fast lane and then must quickly cross back over to get off the freeway.
You will also notice that Lyft shows Exit 1 as the turn-off, and then, as I get closer, it shows the name of the turn-off. Here again, I must pay more attention to the Lyft GPS. Waze is so much better!
The bottom line is I am not a fan. Why is Lyft forcing drivers to use their GPS? I don’t know. However, it makes me a less safe driver as I need to go back and forth from driving to looking at the app much more than I would with Waze.
Uber lets me use Waze. For that, I am very grateful. As far as solutions, all I can do is accept the situation. I now prefer Uber rides. Lyft has given me a powerful reason to be a fan of Uber in Sacramento.
Uber Lengthens Wait Time And Shortens Response Time
Uber has lengthened the wait time for drivers from five minutes to seven minutes. This discovery made me furious when I realized what was happening. I arrived in front of a passenger’s house at 5:30 AM.
After two minutes, I texted her, and she reported that she was putting on her shoes. Of course, this did not sit well with me. I will never understand how someone can request a car and then not be ready when the vehicle arrives.
I have taken hundreds of rides and have always been on time. Most passengers arrive on time. However, as we all know, some passengers are rude and disrespectful and don’t care about the drivers or our time.
As the timer showed five minutes, I drove away. However, when I went to cancel, Uber told me I needed to sit in front of that house for seven minutes to get a cancellation fee. Unbelievable. Uber doesn’t respect our time, either. Fortunately, there aren’t too many passengers who make us wait.
There is no solution to this challenge. I can tell you what I am doing. I will wait four minutes unless I am desperate for a ride. If the passenger does not show up, I will drive away, forgo the cancelation fee, and feel ok about the transaction.
It also seems that Uber has shortened the time we drivers have to accept or decline a ride. It has always been fast. However, now it is quicker. This is the case because, in the past, I could hear the ping, select the app (away from Waze), look at the offering, calculate the per-hour rate, and then decide if I wanted the ride.
I tried this when I did not know the response time had been shortened and watched a beautiful airport run disappear on my screen. My solution for this is to keep the Uber app just behind my Waze app so if I hear a ping, I can get to the app a little bit faster.
I also have to glance to see how far away the pick-up is and make a selection based on that alone. If I decide I don’t want the ride or if Lyft offers me a better one, I will cancel the Uber ride. If I have the Uber app open when I hear the ping, I can do my routine calculations and have time to choose.
Key Takeaways
I don’t live in a world where I expect everything to go my way. However, there are a few things that I have come to depend upon.
When those things change, I will need some time to adjust. And I won’t like it. Lyft forcing their GPS down our throats and Uber forcing us to wait seven minutes to get a cancelation fee and rushing us to make a ride selection is just plain wrong.
And yet, we will have to deal with their decisions if we want to drive for them. I do love driving, so in the end, these are small prices to pay. Be safe out there.
