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My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

whatever.scalzi.com

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Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#51

Post by lnanek2 »

jandrese wrote: post #20
ryanmercer wrote: post #7

I: - Wish I drove for Lyft - Lived in Chicago - Had gotten him as a passenger After 10-15 miles I would have said "So Mr. Scalzi, I'm going to need you to tell me what the Perry family is up to. Go ahead, I'll give you a few minutes to contemplate, but then you'd better get to telling me" then I'd have also inquired about the next in the Collapsing Empire series. Joking aside, I'm curious to see more from the driver.…

Does Lyft compensate you for the drive back to your home? I'm guessing not? Or do they seriously jack up the price if you go beyond a certain distance to compensate the drive for his almost certainly empty drive back?

You can tell the app where you want to end up after doing a bunch of trips, so the driver could just set his overall endpoint back to O'Hare and Lyft would try to give him rides going that way.

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#52

Post by cobbzilla »

acomjean wrote: post #13
sharadov wrote: post #2

What a great story? I always ask Lyft/Uber drivers about interesting stories. One told me how he picked up 3 girls outside of a fancy condo in LA and drove them to Vegas which is about 300 miles and a 5 hr ride. Turns out the girls were drunk and the condo guy had called for a ride to take them home, And they decided they rather go to Vegas to continue the party ;-)

Huh. Its a long haul. Penn and Teller's "Desert Bus" game simulates a bus drive between LA and Las Vegas.. Debatably the worst video game ever, but now used for charity drives.. https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/desert-b...

pedantic nit: Desert Bus simulates the drive from Tucson to Vegas, not LA

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#53

Post by [deleted] »

sokoloff wrote: post #28
bryanlarsen wrote: post #19

Since the driver would have had to dead head back to Chicago, if his expenses were a not unreasonable 0.50 cents per mile, the only profit the driver made was the tip.

Variable expenses on a car you already own are nowhere near $0.50/mile. (The GSA/IRS figure includes apportioned fixed costs, which do not fully apply here, IMO.)

[deleted]

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#54

Post by payne92 »

The other hack is to “pony express” in stages: use Lyft/Uber to get part way or to a mid point, where you are confident you CAN get a rental, a train/bus, or another Lyft/Uber to keep going.

This is especially useful if you can’t find a driver that will take you all the way.

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#55

Post by tyrust »

envy2 wrote: post #42

This is a fun story—but he should've just booked a round-trip rental car, and dropped it off in Dayton anyway. I've done this a bunch of times, and all they'll do is charge you the one-way rate and grumble a bit... Better to ask forgiveness than permission.

I'd rather not risk being charged for whatever loss of use number they come up with as well.

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#56

Post by envy2 »

tyrust wrote: post #55
envy2 wrote: post #42

This is a fun story—but he should've just booked a round-trip rental car, and dropped it off in Dayton anyway. I've done this a bunch of times, and all they'll do is charge you the one-way rate and grumble a bit... Better to ask forgiveness than permission.

I'd rather not risk being charged for whatever loss of use number they come up with as well.

At least for Hertz, they can charge you a grand total of $10 here (if you call them to change it) or otherwise $12/day per their T&C: https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/reservation/reviewmodifycance...

"This fee of $10 will be applied if you return your car to a different location from that which was scheduled, or if you return more than 12 hours after the date and time previously scheduled, and you notify us of an extension of your rental by the return date and time previously scheduled by calling 1-800-654-4174.

If you do not notify us of such a change, the Late Return Fee of $12 per day, (maximum of 5 days) will apply."

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#57

Post by sokoloff »

t34543 wrote: post #47
sokoloff wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't make any sense. When I reserve a rental car at Signature or any other FBO, I may or may not give my tail number, but I'm pretty sure that no one has ever checked. I could have arrived in the front door and rented the car. (No one does this, because the cars are more expensive rented this way than from a typical rental desk as the FBO takes a cut and sometimes the airport adds a cut as well.) This sounds…

Is this current knowledge? I used to pick up one way rental cars from the airport but the last few times I tried ~5 years ago the clerk wanted a flight number. I didn’t bother to lie.

I don’t rent one way rentals from an FBO (because I have to come back and fly the plane home anyway), but when I do reserve local rentals for a trip, I give times but not tail number generally. That’s all current.

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#58

Post by bsder »

I have had far too many of these stories with Hertz. I simply will not use them anymore.

Avis still seems to do right by me, and Avis seems to give their minions enough autonomy to actually fix the customer's problem.

My biggest problem with car rental lately is simply that the cars absolutely suck. No backup cameras, no radars, no adaptive cruise, etc. unless you buy the ultra, turbo premium ones. They are rotating their fleets so slowly now that the cars are becoming way behind the curve.

I have a secondary problem in that they are always trying to fob off the SUV onto me despite the fact that I didn't want anything bigger than mid-size.

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#59

Post by sokoloff »

ska wrote: post #44
sokoloff wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Variable expenses on a car you already own are nowhere near $0.50/mile. (The GSA/IRS figure includes apportioned fixed costs, which do not fully apply here, IMO.)

$.50 is already lower than the IRS rate ($.58 this year). It may be a little conservative, but it's not crazy. You absolutely should be computing TCO of the vehicle and amortizing that if you are driving for a service like Lyft. What fixed costs do you think don't fully apply?

Time based depreciation and registration, insurance, and property/excise tax are all fixed costs that apply whether or not the Lyft driver takes that 300 mile round trip or parks the car that day.

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#60

Post by lancesells »

ilamont wrote: post #16

I followed this as it unfolded on his Twitter account ( https://twitter.com/scalzi ). He has a way of taking some small experience or observation and turning it into a great little story or one-liner. He's written some good sci-fi, too. Worth following.

Only after reading this article and then looking at his bio did I put together that this is the author of the Old Man's War series. I think I made it to the 4th or 5th book in the series and it's an enjoyable read
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