Lyft

Lyft Review:

Lyft is the second-largest ride share operator after Uber. And it offers roughly the same value-proposition to drivers. Depending on where you live and drive, you’ll get either a guaranteed payment for each ride — or you’ll be paid by time, distance and tip.

The site also offers driver bonuses, when you drive in busy areas during peak times. And it sometimes offers additional incentives when you take a set number of rides in a row.

You are not paid for wait time. So smart drivers turn on their apps only during peak times, when you’re most likely to keep busy and earn bonuses. And many drivers use multiple apps simultaneously to stay busy and cherry pick the best-paying rides.

Gig companies are not allowed to prevent you from working for their competitors. So, you can work for Lyft and as many of its competitors as you’d like. (More on this in “recommendations” below.)

Pay

Drivers generally know where they’re picking up a passenger; where the passenger is going and what that ride will pay before they’re asked to accept it. The app tracks your progress via GPS and is likely to add additional gigs, if it has them, when you near the drop-off point.

Although driver pay varies widely, based on where you drive, when you drive and whether you qualify for bonuses, most experts estimate that both Uber and Lyft drivers earn about $15 to $25 per hour, on average.

Drivers are paid once weekly by direct deposit. However, if you want your pay quicker, you can sign up for an Instant Pay option (that is not guaranteed to pay more quickly) for a fee.

Expenses

You, however, have to pay your own expenses. This includes your car payment (or lease), insurance, gas, and maintenance. These expenses are deductible on your taxes, but they can reduce your real earnings substantially.

Recommendations

The best way to earn more than minimum wage when driving for a living is to be highly strategic about when and how you drive.

If you sign up to drive for Lyft, it’s smart to also sign up for Uber, DoorDash and GrubHub. This allows you to accept the jobs that pay the most and that are closest to where you are. (You can sign up for DoorDash here.)

Other apps we’d recommend for people who like to drive: Amazon Flex and Wingz. Amazon Flex pays for package deliveries and by the hourly block. Wingz arranges rides to the airport.

If you have a clean background and experience with kids, you may also be able to drive kids around after school with Kango, and HopSkipDrive. These jobs generally involve shorter drives and generally pay more per hour, but you’ll need car seats.

You may also be able to get animal-driving gigs with Citizen Shipper.

What Lyft drivers say (from Indeed):

There are peak times and slow times. I would buy a second car for Lyft (aside from your Daily Car) in order to ensure pure profit after gas, maintenance, insurances, snacks, and casual wear and tear of the vehicle being used/driven for Lyft.

If you need cash now, it gives you the ability to gain currency quickly. However, it’s like working for the mob who run the transportation Administration. They’ll throw you crumbs while they take half. And it’s worse with a rental. In their rental, with a 40 hour work week, after Lyft takes their lion share, you will be making $6 an hour. With all your costs you don’t make much in rideshare now, but they pay themselves well enough to live in San Francisco don’t they? Nuff said. Don’t believe what they say, believe what the say when backed up with action, period.

Poor pay

I have been a driver for six years and it has only gone down hill for drivers and how we are treated. They make their money off the backs of drivers…Instead of giving them a fair wage they take 50 to 75% of passages fares off the top. Raise rates for passengers and give us even less money and that is fair.

Passenger fares have gone up and driver compensation has gone WAY down. It is no longer feasible to make money even with surge pricing and incentives.

Flexible, but…

Lyft is a great job if you like being independent and setting your own schedule. However to make a decent amount of money you basically have to live in your car. You have to work 50 plus hours a week to be able to make at least 100 dollars a day.

You can make good money if you drive all day everyday. Only. The mileage to the car is very intense & you will have to get a new car after a couple years.