Hi rideshare peoples! Today I want to tackle the question of which is better Lyft or Uber? I’ve been driving for both for the past month and I want to share my experience with you. I did come to the conclusion that one is better than the other–and my answer will UTTERLY SHOCK YOU! Actually, it probably won’t, but I’m feeling dramatic right now…I digress. Here are the 3 most important questions when comparing Uber and Lyft.
1. Will Uber or Lyft make you more money?
This is the number one reason to consider. I mean, why are we driving for Uber or Lyft? TO MAKE MONEY! Is anyone doing it because, hey, it’s fun? Sure, it CAN be fun, but the bottom line is the bottom line: We want to make money.
So which one will make you more money? Here’s my experience. One morning, I found a 30% boost zone for Lyft. Hooray! I thought. I’ll go to the zone, get some passengers and make bank. Problem was, after I entered the zone and went live, I waited 20 minutes…and I got zero passengers. Yup, I gave 0 rides in 20 minutes. I decided to switch on Uber and within 2 minutes I got a passenger. After switching off Lyft and running with Uber alone, I ended up giving about 4 rides in an hour.
So that’s the bottom line, folks. Will you make more money with Lyft or Uber? In this case, I made $21.15 with Uber and $0 with Lyft.
2. Who pays better, Lyft or Uber?
This question seems to fluctuate over time. Sometimes Uber has better incentives while sometimes Lyft will give you the most bang for your driving buck. the bottom line with this question is this: They both offer incentives–and they both pay drivers WAY TOO LITTLE!!! Programs such as Lyft Line and Uber Pool do even more damage to our income. So this question is actually a DRAW…in other words, they both lose. And so do we.
3. Which company do the riders like better?
Lately, in the news, Uber has gotten some bad press for their political views. Someone else complained about Lyft’s policies. Another claimed Uber charged them a $250 cleaning fee for one of the drivers. And so on and so on. The truth is, people are using both services–and at a ridiculously busy pace. So, they both might have their problems, but the issues are not big enough to deter them from using Uber and Lyft services (which is keeping the money coming in for us drivers!). As time goes on, we will see if Lyft can start to pull more of the market (ride)share. If that happens, it will only benefit us, the drivers. In the meantime, this question also ends in a draw.
So…Who Wins?
It comes back to the most important question, which is, which one will make you more money…and, at this writing, it’s Uber, hands down. At least in my experience. Currently, there are not enough people using Lyft to make them competitive with Uber. When running both apps at the same time, 9 out of 10 riders come from Uber. If you want to make money and don’t want to run both apps at the same time, stick with Uber for now.
I would STRONGLY suggest you use both apps at the same time, though. There have been rare occasions when Lyft surpasses Uber, and if I was only running Uber, I would have missed out. In my next article, I will teach you step by step the best way to run both apps so you can maximize your income.