Lyft Pax Pickup Travel Surcharge

Submitted 6 years ago

After hearing that Uber is considering paying drivers for travel to the pax pickup location, I thought it to be a great idea as it benefits all parties! Currently, I will not drive more than 10 minutes to pickup a pax because it is not in my financial interest to do so after analyzing my pickup requests when I traveled more than that time. They usually don't pay for me due to lost time and/or the inability to get pax requests back toward my starting destination. I have never received a "Destination Pickup" after using this feature from a distant location dozens of times so that isn't working for me.

After hearing that Uber is considering paying drivers for travel to the pax pickup location, I thought it to be a great idea as it benefits all parties! Currently, I will not drive more than 10 minutes to pickup a pax because it is not in my financial interest to do so after analyzing my pickup requests when I traveled more than that time. They usually don't pay for me due to lost time and/or the inability to get pax requests back toward my starting destination. I have never received a "Destination Pickup" after using this feature from a distant location dozens of times so that isn't working for me.

Here's my recommendation: what if Lyft charged pax 50 cents/mile (including drive time) getting to the pax pickup location? The rationale is that pax would select the driver closest to their pickup destination because it would cost them less. Drivers would not only be incentivized to pickup more pax at distant locations and earn more per ride, but would more willing and likely to travel further to pickup a pax. So the customer, the driver and Lyft all benefit and are well served by expanding the pool of drivers willing to drive further for ridesharing service!

For example, if I drive 10 miles to pickup a pax, I would earn $3.75 more (10 miles x $0.50 x 75%) for the ride and Lyft would earn 25% more per ride. I suggest 50 cents/mile because that's my break even income that incentivizes me to remain driving. If I can't earn a minimum of either 50 cents/mile or $15/hour, then I go home and stop driving. Another way to look at it is that drivers are on the clock whenever they are online waiting for pickups. I'm certain that you would see far fewer "missed rides" if you incentivized drivers to pickup more pasengers by increasing their compensation. The worst part of driving is waiting for pings and seeing that the pax is 22 minutes away (this happened to me yesterday). It does not make financial sense to accept these rides unless I know I will be properly compensated. Please let me know what you think of this idea. I would love to see it become reality!