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My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

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Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#61
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? A Lyft vehicle will depreciate a lot faster than a normal car, and Lyft won't let you drive a junker.

A Lyft vehicle will depreciate, per mile, at nearly exactly the same rate any other car would.

Exactly, so fixed costs need to be included

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#62
post #56
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 exten…

Elsewhere, the contract notes: "Any changes to the reservation may impact the rental charges."

Which is what will happen here. They'll charge you this fee, but also adjust the base rental charges to much higher rates that reflect the fleet management burden caused by one-way rentals.

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#63
post #43
post #24

This is why we need a train system with funding parity to the highway and airport systems. There should be trains leaving constantly, at most every 10 minutes, from Chicago to the east, and frequent, semihourly, trains between neighboring cities along the way. Even if the author could rent a car, having to drive 300 miles is astounding waste of time and mental energy.

In a few years self driving car will save us.

I bet we'll get flying cars first.

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couple of years ago there was a professional football player that took an Uber from O'Hare to Buffalo, NY for just under $1000 to make it practice on time. Anyway, this guy could have taken a Megabus to from Chicago to Cincinnati for $25 and then done a rideshare the rest of the way. It would have been far less expensive.

If making it on time to practice is really important, do you want to depend on a bus? Bus Being late to pick up or leave isn’t uncommon. I assume if something goes wrong along the way you should be able to get off with your stuff without too much trouble and order a ride. But if there’s a big traffic jam. And you might be able to save some time taking inside roads or what have you. A bus isn’t going to do that. You a…

I think he was talking about the author, not the football player. The football player was going to Buffalo so I assume the bus to Ohio wouldn't be helpful.

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#65

The utter inability to get a one-way rental is quite obnoxious. Also the bit about how he was able to reserve a car, but he wasn't a charter flight. Hertz's utter incompetence on the phone was striking as well from some sort of bizarro catch-22 world.

That seems like normal this-world Hertz incompetence to me. The best and brightest people do not sign up to stand behind a booth at a car rental agency.

Enterprise has a pretty interesting corporate genesis story. And they do well by their people (for the business they're in).

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/business/jack-taylor-foun...

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#66
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 exten…

Elsewhere, the contract notes: "Any changes to the reservation may impact the rental charges." Which is what will happen here. They'll charge you this fee, but also adjust the base rental charges to much higher rates that reflect the fleet management burden caused by one-way rentals.

Yes—they'll adjust the rate to the (much higher) one-way price. But there's no crazy "loss of use" fee like the parent comment suggested.

In practice, the cost usually turns into around $0.37/mile, plus the daily rate, unless you have a corporate discount.

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the driver drove 600 miles and his car got 25 miles to the gallon, at $3 a gallon his gas expenses would have only been $72. Of course there are other costs (maintenance, depreciation), but those also exists if you are just driving your car around town, and I think Uber / Lift's whole business model is based on the driver not really taking them into account. If the tip was $100, the driver would have walked away w…

$0.58 per mile is the standard IRS deduction for business use of a car, meant to fully encompass gas, maintenance, etc., which would suggest a total expected cost of about $348 if you include more than just gas.

Even worse, that deduction is very conservative. Like, 1990 Ford Escort conservative. AFAIK, the business use deduction is almost always more if you list all your expenses on a percent-business basis compared to taking the $.58/mile.

Re: My 300 Mile Lyft Ride From Chicago to Bradford

#70

The utter inability to get a one-way rental is quite obnoxious. Also the bit about how he was able to reserve a car, but he wasn't a charter flight. Hertz's utter incompetence on the phone was striking as well from some sort of bizarro catch-22 world.

The entire rental car experience is ridiculously complicated and inefficient. Look at the difference in renting a Zipcar (owned by Avis) and a regular rental car company. With Zipcar I can reserve a car in minutes, pick up the car I actually reserved without waiting in line or even going into an office, get charged the amount I was quoted and not find out it's twice the cost from some hidden fees and taxes.
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