Are they really giving out $8 bars of chocolate with the ride?
http://www.dandelionchocolate.com/store/products/mantuano-ve...
Lyft Plus
71–80 of 110 posts
Re: Lyft Plus
#72I'm curious about the economics. I presume they're buying the SUVs?
By getting into the game of managing a fleet of vehicles, I imagine their margins will look more like a cab company's and less like a software company's.
It's as curious as if Airbnb started buying up hotels and their associated inventory risk.
Re: Lyft Plus
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I wonder about Lyft is the extent to which friendliness scales. That it has scaled so far is obviously due to the fact that they can simply project that sense of friendliness and then rely on individual drivers to actually do the work of giving that impression to customers, but what if they want to expand their business into domains where friendliness is unimportant or even a downside (an example might be someth…
1. Friendliness is always important in customer interaction. 2. Chick-fil-A is an example of "friendliness" scaling up to x0,000 employees. 3. No, being nice is not a straightjacket in the making.
Of course, but I'm not talking about mere interpersonal politeness so much as having friendliness be a central component of your branding. Chick-Fil-A, for all its vaunted good cheer, still has all the trappings of a commercial transaction, whereas Lyft tries to downplay that in favor of appearing as merely a facilitator of intra-community interactions. That part, specifically, is the part that I wonder about.
Re: Lyft Plus
#74I'm curious about the economics. I presume they're buying the SUVs? By getting into the game of managing a fleet of vehicles, I imagine their margins will look more like a cab company's and less like a software company's. It's as curious as if Airbnb started buying up hotels and their associated inventory risk.
Lyft won't actually own the new luxury rides, which were
designed specifically for the company by West Coast
Customs. Instead, individual Lyft drivers are buying the
vehicles with some financial assistance from the company,
according to a spokesperson.
The move means Lyft won't have to deal with issues like
car maintenance or storage, and also maintains the peer-
to-peer element that has propelled the company. The costs
of the cars, and the total assistance offered by Lyft,
isn't being disclosed.
Re: Lyft Plus
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uber went into Lyft's space with Uber X. Lyft is going into Uber's space with Lyft premium. For Lyft users who prefer not using Uber is who its for.
As someone who has used both services (and others like Sidecar) they are all about the same to me. Generally, Lyft seems a little friendlier than Uber. However honestly all are light years ahead of a yellow cab- in which the drivers rarely accept cards (machine broken), refuse to use GPS, and talk on the phone nonstop (despite the laws on that).
I was a longtime Uber user who started using Flywheel a few months ago and haven't switched back. You get the convenience of an app as you would with Lyft/Uber along with the professionalism and expertise of a cab driver. I don't want to have to sit idle in the front seat of a Lyft for two minutes while the driver punches in the address on Google Maps, I want to say "Bush and Sansome" and have the driver take me there the quickest way possible. Also I don't have to feign interest in the driver's backstory and keep up a weak conversation during the entire ride--I just want to sit back, check my FB/Twitter feed, and zone out for a few minutes until I have to be "on" again when I arrive at my destination. If the cab driver sucks, you can just give them a low rating and you'll never get that driver again. I should note that I do not work for Flywheel, just a huge fan who switched from Uber due to some scummy tactics I read about (employees overwhelming competitive apps, etc).
Re: Lyft Plus
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uber started at the top and then did Uber X to go down in pricing. Lyft started at the bottom and now goes up. My biggest problem with all of these services is that there aren't enough drivers (at least in Boston), and I can rarely actually find one on any service when I need it. And it seems a large % of the drivers are actually chilling at home, waiting for a ride (which is fine), but sometimes don't "move" on the…
I've noticed that too, it's infuriating. And with Uber and cabs, they all mark themselves as having 'arrived' some 2-5 minutes before they pull up - it's like, dude, I can see you on the map as six blocks away, how the hell do you get away with this?
Is there no way to report this sort of behavior? Possibly by refusing to ride with the driver?
Re: Lyft Plus
#77Are they really giving out $8 bars of chocolate with the ride? http://www.dandelionchocolate.com/store/products/mantuano-ve...
They probably cost $3 for trade...
Re: Lyft Plus
#78I'm curious about the economics. I presume they're buying the SUVs? By getting into the game of managing a fleet of vehicles, I imagine their margins will look more like a cab company's and less like a software company's. It's as curious as if Airbnb started buying up hotels and their associated inventory risk.
Lyft doesn't own these vehicles, the drivers own them (and therefore they can use them as their primary cars all the time). Lyft is just helping drivers upgrade (they've negotiated special pricing).
Re: Lyft Plus
#79How can companies get away with saying things like 'the most affordable premium option' without providing any pricing information whatsoever? Why do they even think that it is acceptable to do so?
Honestly, I don't care. I'm pretty much auto-ignoring any "request an invite" bullshit these days. Launch your product, or don't. But I'm not clamoring for an "invite". When it's actually for-real, then it's easy to compare the price/service ratio.
This is the ultimate form of Lean Theory bullshit. It's parasitic and ridiculous.
Re: Lyft Plus
#80I'm curious about the economics. I presume they're buying the SUVs? By getting into the game of managing a fleet of vehicles, I imagine their margins will look more like a cab company's and less like a software company's. It's as curious as if Airbnb started buying up hotels and their associated inventory risk.
Uber has been maintaining fleets for a long time. Don't have a source off the top of my head but I know from talking to lots of drivers here in Chicago that they regularly take their top-rated drivers and offer them a (company-owned or leased) SUV or town car to drive as a part of Uber Black.