Board 8 > I'm now an official Lyft driver

(+) Yeah! (+)

I will be sure to regale Board 8 of the amazing adventures I get into while navigating Santa Monica with google maps late at night.
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is anagram mom on board with this
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Can you live stream all your drives?
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I've been doing it for about three years, enjoy.

The later you work, the more interesting the people become.

Interesting can mean a lot of things.
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I'm happy you chose Lyft
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greengravy294 posted...

is anagram mom on board with this

She was the one who made me go Lyft instead of Uber.

Obellisk posted...

Can you live stream all your drives?

Don't have a camera.

bryans7 posted...

I've been doing it for about three years, enjoy.

The later you work, the more interesting the people become.

Interesting can mean a lot of things.

I noticed you get more money at 10 PM-1 AM on Friday and Saturday, and I live in a high traffic area, so I should be able to score a little extra cash. I hope the cost of gas won't offset it too much.
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Be this guy and make all of the tips


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63 dollars earned for three hours of driving. Sounds okay I guess.
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I need detailed topics on how your sister reacted to this
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Don't forget to write off your millage.
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Shaduln posted...

Don't forget to write off your millage.

Oh yeah, this I'll do. Though I've never written off mileage before, I hope it's not complicated.
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Number of miles * 0.54

Done
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Where'd you get 0.54?
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Oh lol that's 2016, 2017 is 0.535

https://www.irs.gov/uac/2017-standard-mileage-rates-for-business-and-medical-and-moving-announced
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Menji posted...

Oh lol that's 2016, 2017 is 0.535

https://www.irs.gov/uac/2017-standard-mileage-rates-for-business-and-medical-and-moving-announced

I didn't realize the IRS put this out, thank you.
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It just doesn't sound like it's worth it..
Unless fuel is really really so cheap in the US
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Nanis23 posted...

It just doesn't sound like it's worth it..
Unless fuel is really really so cheap in the US

It's about 3.09 where I live.
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Shaduln posted...

Don't forget to write off your millage.

Thought I read you canno do that cuz you are an independent contractor. You also will owe the payroll tax at the end of the year due to that status.
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I guess you can deduct mileage. I was wrong on that.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/tax-tips/Self-Employment-Taxes/Tax-Tips-for-Uber--Lyft--Sidecar-and-other-Car-Sharing-Drivers/INF28820.html
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Anagram posted...

63 dollars earned for three hours of driving. Sounds okay I guess.

Anagram posted...

Nanis23 posted...

It just doesn't sound like it's worth it..
Unless fuel is really really so cheap in the US

It's about 3.09 where I live.

Nanis23 posted...

It just doesn't sound like it's worth it..
Unless fuel is really really so cheap in the US

Fuel Cost = Mph * Time (hr) * $/gal / Mpg
Fuel Cost = 30 * 3 * 3 / Mpg = $270/mpg (unitless)

Low Mpg -> $270/20 = $13.50 Fuel Cost -> $49.50 Profit -> $16.50/hr
Low Mpg -> $270/50 = $5.40 Fuel Cost -> $57.60 Profit -> $19.20/hr

Seems decent, at least from my POV.
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It's not really the fuel that gets you so much as the depreciation on your vehicle (which is an economic cost that most people don't bother to account for). That said, if you have a cheap/crappy car and are still getting 5-stars from your passengers, you can do fine.
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SmartMuffin posted...

It's not really the fuel that gets you so much as the depreciation on your vehicle (which is an economic cost that most people don't bother to account for). That said, if you have a cheap/crappy car and are still getting 5-stars from your passengers, you can do fine.

yeah I don't even consider depreciation when deciding if my delivery job is worth it since the car is such a piece of crap anyway but my brother will still have to use it as long as the airbags work.
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I get 25~ mpg, my mileage is fine. As for depreciation, eh, my car already has 125000 miles on it.
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tag for driving stories
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Last night's driving stories:
- Asian girl who needed to go to a concert at the beach
- Sad Russian guy picked up from the beach who'd clearly just gotten his heart ripped out of his chest by a girl and sat in the back quietly, not even using his phone, just looking out of the window
- Fat bearded musician who chatted with me the entire time about how you can live in LA without a car
- Completely drunk off their asses guy and three girls with Valley Girl accents who called for Lyft twenty minutes before they needed to reach a place eighteen minutes away, insisted on putting the radio super loud and lowering all of the windows, and kept changing channels until they found DESSSSSSPAAAAACITO each time
- John, who couldn't find my car so I just clicked the "did not show" button and left
I ended up about half an hour away from my apartment and couldn't find anyone going that direction afterwards, so I just drove home by myself.
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I kept trying but dude your car is hard to find
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This topic has potential
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those aren't really "stories."
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Well then I'll tell stories when I have them! Nothing too exciting happened yesterday.


On another note, I can't figure out how to change my driver profile pic. I go into Edit Profile and click the pic, but nothing happens.
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hey, short descriptions of your rides can be amusing too. just don't call them stories!
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NFUN posted...

Anagram posted...

63 dollars earned for three hours of driving. Sounds okay I guess.

Anagram posted...

Nanis23 posted...

It just doesn't sound like it's worth it..
Unless fuel is really really so cheap in the US

It's about 3.09 where I live.

Nanis23 posted...

It just doesn't sound like it's worth it..
Unless fuel is really really so cheap in the US

Fuel Cost = Mph * Time (hr) * $/gal / Mpg
Fuel Cost = 30 * 3 * 3 / Mpg = $270/mpg (unitless)

Low Mpg -> $270/20 = $13.50 Fuel Cost -> $49.50 Profit -> $16.50/hr
Low Mpg -> $270/50 = $5.40 Fuel Cost -> $57.60 Profit -> $19.20/hr

Seems decent, at least from my POV.

Except thats not true because you didnt take taxes out.
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Here, I'll give you guys some stories since I've been doing it awhile.

-Go to pick up a girl at a bar, but it's really for her guy friend who is completely shitfaced and pissed that they won't let him drive his truck home. It's just me and him, so I start driving him to the dropoff. Once he calmed down he wasn't so bad, drunks can be funny. But then the back window came down and he said, "Sorry bro, shit my pants." Thankfully nothing was in the car itself. Best part, I was taking him to a block party. Hopefully he lived somewhere there.

-Guys and girls will hit on you if you work late enough and you're not completely disgusting. They're usually headed home alone, you're the last person they're going to see, they're drunk, it's not rocket science. I'm straight, so if a dude hits on me, I just let him know and it's all good. Except the one time. I give him credit for not beating around the bush and saying, "You look like you could really use your dick sucked." As best I could, I told him that wasn't necessary. It was the middle of the ride, so I had a good five minutes of the most awkward silence of my life. There's no conversation to be had once the blowjob has been denied. I still gave him five stars though, he was a nice guy, he just took a swing and struck out. He was pretty big though, if he really wanted to suck my dick he probably could have.

-No, I've never slept with/gotten road head from any female passengers either. They're always far too drunk and I'm far too sober not to feel like shit if I did.

-The only time I had to kick someone out was when two people were trying to fuck in the back seat. I don't care if you make out, but once bodily fluids come into play, shit's done. The guy yelled out "Fine, I'm too drunk to get it up anyways" as he was leaving, making everything extra special.

-Addendum to that: a few weeks later I had a younger couple, and the guy said my back seat was very comfortable. I told him thanks, and as a joke, mentioned not to get too frisky back there with his girl because I've kicked people out before. He goes on to explain that no, he and his fiance are virgins and waiting for marriage. That's cool, not my thing, but you do you. Only after that comes the weird questions from him. Have you had sex? Did you like it? Do you think we should have sex? And then the best question, being "What does it feel like?" I really didn't know what to tell him. I realized long after what the best response was. "Have you ever masturbated? It's like that, but better."

-The worst ride I ever had started at a sketchy ass motel out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. The guy opens the door and wastes no time with his first words: "Do you have any cocaine?" Awesome. I tell him no, he's disappointed, but still hops in and we head out. It's a long drive, about 25 minutes. Five minutes in comes the bombshell. "Are you jewish?" No, I'm not. "Oh good, because I hate Jewish people." And then comes a solid twenty minutes of hearing just how much this guy hated Jewish people (re: a lot), how they were the problem with the world, how they don't teach you the truth about the holocaust and Hitler in american schools and that he had some websites that I should check out if I want to discover the truth. I forget what country he said he was from, somewhere near the Red Sea I think, I was too preoccupied thinking this is how my life is going to end, being stabbed in the back by a crazy racist for not hating Jewish people. The whole time I'm giving the "Sure, uh-huh, oh wow, that's interesting" type answers, just praying that's good enough for him. Finally we pull up to his stop, and he tells me what an awesome guy I am, giving me an extra $20 as a tip. Thank you crazy racist, I will definitely take your money, but I'm still telling Lyft about your crazy ass.
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Anagram posted...

On another note, I can't figure out how to change my driver profile pic. I go into Edit Profile and click the pic, but nothing happens.

You have to send the pic you want used to Lyft, so they can stick the green background behind it. Plus they want to control the pics, don't want people throwing up weird stuff that passengers will see. If it's not good enough they'll tell you to take another.
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Now THOSE are stories.

Anagram, good luck with this gig and I hope you get stories like those one day.
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bryans7 posted...

He was pretty big though, if he really wanted to suck my dick he probably could have.

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bryans7 posted...

Anagram posted...

On another note, I can't figure out how to change my driver profile pic. I go into Edit Profile and click the pic, but nothing happens.

You have to send the pic you want used to Lyft, so they can stick the green background behind it. Plus they want to control the pics, don't want people throwing up weird stuff that passengers will see. If it's not good enough they'll tell you to take another.

Ah thanks.
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bryans7 posted...

I still gave him five stars though, he was a nice guy, he just took a swing and struck out. He was pretty big though, if he really wanted to suck my dick he probably could have.

A++
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Doing Lyft right now.

Everyone so far has been boring, sadly. Good stories are few and far between... as are rides. I'm waiting like ten minutes between each one.
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I had a great Uber ride last week in SoCal, from downtown LA to Pasadena, in near-rush-hour traffic. The driver told me just an absolute ton about herself - how old she was, how long she had been driving, her career ideas and life plan, how many times she had been married, how many kids she had, where she was living now, the way her father impacted her adolescence, bad decisions she made both back then and now, what movies she had never seen because she looked down on them as a student, but now had interest in, her inability to nail down plans to go to Six Flags with friends. Much of it was relatively unsolicited or was unexpected to me, but it was an amazing conversation.
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Is there a way to turn off getting more ride requests when you already have a ride in progress? Because the ap accepts them automatically but doesn't reroute Google Maps, and it's too much of a hassle.
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Do you mean Lyft Line rides?
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bryans7 posted...

Do you mean Lyft Line rides?

I think so? I'll sometimes just be driving a person around and the phone says to pick up another person.
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Yeah that's Lyft Line.

https://www.lyft.com/line

It's their carpool-like service, makes it cheaper for people but is worse for drivers (I believe the passengers are paying a set fee, so when you have to divert to pick up someone else, you're not getting paid for that). There use to be a way to opt out of Lyft Line, but they don't allow that anymore.

Also when taking Lyft Line rides be careful of people trying to take more than one person. It's designed for no more than 2 passengers per pickup but some people don't realize that and try to use it like a regular Lyft ride. You can decline and cancel the ride if something like that happens, it's your decision.

Here's more on Lyft Line: https://thehub.lyft.com/blog/lyftlineanswers
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Thanks. It was only a problem because Google Maps kept not rerouting, and I was scared of manually rerouting because I didn't know if I could get back to the correct route for my current people.
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bryans7 posted...

I've been doing it for about three years, enjoy.

The later you work, the more interesting the people become.

Interesting can mean a lot of things.

As a former late-night Uber driver I endorse this post.
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