This is brilliant. Lyft is doing everything right as of late.
Introducing Driver Destination
101–110 of 123 posts
Re: Introducing Driver Destination
#102Trying to charge people for carpooling, something we've traditionally done for free. The "sharing economy" isn't about sharing- it's about monetizing free things and taking a cut. This is not in any way improving humanity. It's a step backwards.
Pfft, no, the world doesn't get better through goodwill in any way that scales.
Seems to me like it usually gets better when it makes economic sense for it to get better. It's on people to set up those economic situations.
Re: Introducing Driver Destination
#103Man, I was thinking about this last night , how I could use my morning and evening commutes to take people home on my way home -- since I'd either stay in the city (killing time for traffic to die down), or be paid to sit in my normal evening traffic home across the bay. Only hiccup would be if I had a fare taking me to the south bay, but that seems a reasonable gamble.
Same with me this morning. Drove past someone at a bus stop and thought "They're going to sit there for another 10+ minutes, then pay $3+ to get to their destination with a stop every couple of blocks. Meanwhile, I'm going past right now using one seat out of five."
Re: Introducing Driver Destination
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hm, I'd assumed that was a reference to the newspaper/typesetting term "slugline". But maybe it's both.
I'm not sure the "slugline" term is common for that meaning; it's typically (don't know how widely it's still used) just slug. But it's a pretty obvious and clever derived term to combine slug and headline and come up with slugline. Slug line (two words) is apparently a screenwriting term--which I didn't know.
I don't think slugline was derived from headline. On old linotype machines, the slug was literally a line of metal.
Re: Introducing Driver Destination
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lyft has a $1M insurance policy to cover their drivers. Here's an incident: http://www.cnet.com/news/after-fatal-lyft-crash-insurance-qu...
That's a nice chunk but insufficient nowadays. (The 24-year old in that article might've been able to make several $million in his remaining career.) The Lyft driver could still end up on the hook.
It's certainly possible, but it's unlikely. The Lyft driver's own assets are likely small, and most lawyers suing the driver would rather settle for an amount within the $1 million insurance policy, rather than risk getting nothing by going to court to try to get more than the insurance policy.
Even many doctors don't have malpractice insurance above $1 million (depending on speciality and state) -- most policies are $100K-$300K/claim, $1MM-$3MM/all claims (http://jop.ascopubs.org/content/3/5/274.full). So Lyft is providing more liability insurance than many doctors carry.
If you're demanding absolute 0% risk for the Lyft driver financially, this would not cut it, but very little anywhere is absolutely no risk.
Re: Introducing Driver Destination
#106I remember when this was called carpooling. Weird to put the branding on it. But these days nothing counts unless it's in service of some corporate brand.
Re: Introducing Driver Destination
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
My liability portion is $250,000 each person / $500,000 each accident and State Farm only wants $30 a month for it.
That's a commercial rider on your personal policy?
"Commercial" is only expensive because higher mileage is higher risk. If you aren't doing a lot of miles per year, it won't be more expensive. Lyft's insurer probably has some mileage math worked into the premium. Or Lyft self insures and knows exactly how much mileage they are covering.
Re: Introducing Driver Destination
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a commercial rider on your personal policy?
"Commercial" is only expensive because higher mileage is higher risk. If you aren't doing a lot of miles per year, it won't be more expensive. Lyft's insurer probably has some mileage math worked into the premium. Or Lyft self insures and knows exactly how much mileage they are covering.
IIRC from what I've seen Lyft issues an on the spot insurance policy for each individual ride.
Re: Introducing Driver Destination
#10920 years ago, I lived in a house that had a city implemented carpool pickup spot in the East Bay - every morning carpoolers would line up and wait for a rid into SF to get through via the carpool lane, back when the toll was only $2. Since it was city property, I don't believe my parents got anything out of it, and we couldn't park in front of our house Mon - Fri mornings, my brother did have the enterprising idea of…
I'm surprised that shopping centres/malls don't support these sorts of things outside peak hours. When people are dropped back at the end of their day, they could do some last minute shopping, or grab coffee or whatever.
Re: Introducing Driver Destination
#110I am late to the Lyft party, but after recently leaving Uber because I did not agree with their questionable business ethics and attitude toward their customers, I must say I find the whole Lyft experience somewhat refreshing.
Funnily enough, my first Lyft driver I had a week or so ago was telling me he leaves home a couple of hours earlier, does a couple of trips close by to his work and then on the way home from work he turns the app on and most of the time he is fortunate to get a ride that is going the same direction, so it pays his way home.
Not an entirely new premise, car-pooling has always been a thing, but for my driver (his name was Brett) this is going to be an awesome feature and I imagined many other Lyft drivers. I like the feature of the app that allows you to tip drivers a little something extra when a driver has gone beyond what you are paying them for. In my first experience, Brett offered me and my pregnant wife a muesli bar, bottled water and even held an umbrella for us while we got in and out of the car.
Seriously good job Lyft, you have a superior app/service and great drivers, you just need to get the numbers up and get some more brand awareness.