Driving for Lyft can be a great way to earn some money and connect with riders in your community. To accept a rider's ride request and complete your trip, you'll need to know your way around the Lyft Driver app.
Steps
Part 1
Part 1 of 5:
Picking Up a Passenger
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1Open up the Lyft Driver app. It has a white border with a pink steering wheel as its icon.
- If you open up the app with the classic Lyft logo, you'll be in the app for riders, not drivers.
- After you put yourself online, you may want to see where other nearby Lyft divers are. You can open up the rider map as well as the Driver app while you're online to do this. If you are in the Lyft app, you can switch to the Driver app by tapping your hamburger menu in the top left corner and then tapping the "Switch to driver" button at the bottom of this menu.
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2Go online to put yourself on the map. Tap the Online-Offline switch from the top of any Lyft Driver app screen to show yourself as a driver who is ready to accept rides.
- Lyft might have already put you online by default the first time you enter into the Driver app, but you can turn yourself off by tapping the purple slider at the top of the screen.
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Part 2
Part 2 of 5:
Accepting a Trip
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1Accept a trip. As the requests come in, accept one if you'd like to. Tap the circle with the passenger's avatar on the notification at the bottom of the Lyft Driver screen. You can tap anywhere in the white trip request dialog box to accept the trip, however, there is a pink-and-white Accept button to accept it using a button format. Before you accept the trip, you can see the passenger's name and rating, along with their avatar and a map of the passenger's pickup location. The line that's there denotes the approximate line of transport to get to this pickup location, along with a circled area of either the address or location's name.
- Don't delay, as you'll only have fifteen seconds to accept the request. [1] X Research source
- You can commonly find riders waiting for Lyft at transportation hubs like train stations, bus stations, and airports. If you don't see potential riders around your immediate area, try driving to one of these hubs.
- Although most requests will be near your current location, Lyft may match you with requests up to thirty-one minutes away.
- The maps are geared so you can see both yourself and your rider's current locations on the screen with the request.
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2Look out for Long Trips. Longer trips will warn you that they are a "Long Ride (45+ min)". These trips can be very worthwhile when it comes to your final earnings.
- However, Lyft does have a maximum number of miles outside of your Lyft City's borders that can be no more than 100 miles. [2] X Research source .
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3Accept a scheduled trip. Scheduled rides may come to you if you: claimed one from the Scheduled Trips list or are offered one (because the one who did wasn't close enough to get that rider). Scheduled trips may come up sometimes in some Lyft CIties, and although it'll sometimes say "Your scheduled pickup" on the map, these requests may end up going into your back-to-back queue and your only cue is Lyft's verbal mention of the expected time of pickup which will either be inside or just outside of your expected time. When you arrive in the area within the time frame before the pickup, the request will show with a navy blue bar that says "Your scheduled pickup". [3] X Research source
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4Don't miss out on taking rides from a Prime-Time area. Prime-Time is denoted above the normal acceptance box mentioning the Prime-Time percent value and then mentioning "Prime Time" (e.g. 150% Prime Time). In a Prime-Time area, driver demand is needed for the higher amount of riders who are opening their apps and (hopefully) requesting a ride. As you travel through areas of Prime Time, just above your box onscreen, you'll see the potential Prime-Time amount for this area (if one is available), but keep in mind that the Prime-Time percent is figured based on where your passenger is - not where you are! Not all areas of a given Lyft city will have Prime-Time at all times, and this percentage figure may change based on demand.
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5Start your search at a staging airport. Once you are close to an airport, you can tap the airport's purple box and have Lyft navigate to their waiting area until Lyft says it's okay to proceed to the Arrivals area or level because you are the next one for the next pickup. Some Drivers get pinged for their request in their staging area, while others are told to go up to the Arrivals level and when they receive a request, they'll send it to you. Inside your request, your screen will denote that this is a special airport staging request by the text starting from this airport.
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6Avoid tapping the decline button - denoted by an X and the word "Decline" at the top left corner of the screen. Touching this button will send the request to other nearby drivers and will drop your acceptance rate several points, and may sometimes even send it back to you if nobody takes the request the first time through.
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7Make a mental note of the type of Lyft service you'll be giving. Trip requests will show the type of service based on the color of the request. Standard Lyft trips are colored pink, XL will be colored bright blue, Lux is blue-grey, and Black/Black XL is pure black. Lyft Shared rides are purple.Advertisement
Part 3
Part 3 of 5:
Arriving at the Pickup Location
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1Start your navigation. Lyft has in-app navigation that uses the Google Maps API, but Lyft also allows you to use one of two other navigation app choices - such as either the standalone "Google Maps" or "Waze." Your app should auto-switch to navigation upon acceptance, but in case it doesn't and you need it, you can tap the "location" button with the up-pointing arrow to the right of the pickup address on the map screen containing the request's overall route.
- If you don't need navigation and the pickup spot is less than three minutes away, Lyft Driver won't give you navigation details and you'll have to use your knowledge of the area to safely get you to the location or you can use the map to find the passenger or tap the location button above. use the map to find the passenger.
- Some Drivers turn on a feature called "Auto-switch" which activates navigation without even telling the driver the destination they'll be heading towards. However, it's a pain to not know where you're going when you need to find your rider's address or find their destination(s), so few drivers leave this set on all the time. It is available in your Navigation settings directly under "Navigation".
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2Focus on these driving methods. Common driving styles that you should have down-pat include driving forward, backing up, and turning left or right. You may also need to know about making U-turns and three-point turns, as well as dealing with multi-lane highway driving in some areas.
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3Determine the best place to sit while waiting for the rider.
- With residential addresses such as houses, you'll want to watch to match the mailbox and pull into the driveway and wait.
- For apartment complexes, condos, or similar, you will want to follow the directions that Lyft gives you. But watch for apartment numbers given after the street number/street, and look for information on the doors as to where the apartment is located. If there are no signifying details, you'll want to follow Lyft's directions to where they want you to wait - unless your rider contacts you with further directions.
- For businesses signified by names, you'll want to park curbside or where Lyft Driver tells you to wait - because most often this stopping will be someplace near the door where most riders will exit from.
- Be careful of most supermarkets that have two or more separate doors. If you don't see your rider right away, you'll want to give them a call (unless they call you), because while most will watch for common places where they got dropped off (and will exit at that same spot), some will have additional ideas and try tricking you by coming out either of the other doors and you'll want signifying details as to an article of clothing or some identifying mark saying that they are someplace else with some landmarks that signify these different places.
- For businesses signified by just an address, you will want to contact your rider if you don't see them in the spot that Lyft says they'll most often be in. However, follow directions to this spot.
- Watch out for riders who say they'll be someplace in the parking lot. These riders will often be the result of broken-down cars.
- Watch out for nighttime rides. Nighttime rides get trickier. The rider will most likely be inside their house or business, and you'll want to give them some patience as they get ready to come to you.
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4Mark yourself as arrived. Arrive at your pickup location and tap the purple Arrive button at the very bottom of the screen (underneath the rider's name and button to contact them) to confirm that you've arrived.
- If you try to tap the "Tap to Arrive" box too early, you may get another screen confirming that you are where you are supposed to be and you'll have to explain why you tapped the Arrive button too early - such as whether you're at the pin or the wrong location was given, the passenger walked to you or there was a GPS issue (there are several).
- If you use Waze, tap either the Lyft Driver trigger button on the right side of the navigation map screen or tap the blue bar to switch back to Lyft Driver. If you use Google Maps, no extra button will be present and you will have to go back to Lyft Driver using the location finding bar at the top of the screen.
- Once you confirmed your arrival and Lyft has accepted it, you will then be able to find your rider's destination(s). Just tap the box on the left-hand side of the map and look at the informational page. You'll see both the pickup and drop-off address for your rider, and tap the close button when you are ready to return to the trip's process.
- If the Google Navigation didn't close inside the Lyft Driver window, you can tap the "Exit" button near the bottom right corner of the screen.
- Lyft will let you textually know when your passenger is taking their first-ever Lyft trip after you hit the "Tap to arrive" button, so you can give them a warm welcome from Lyft for starting with Lyft. Lyft won't mention what they'd like you to use, but you may want to introduce yourself as "Welcome to Lyft!" when these boxes are shown.
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5Wait for your rider if necessary. Lyft wants you to wait no fewer than five minutes before any wait time can be charged to the rider. [4] X Research source You will find the countdown timer above the map over on the right side of the Driver screen. If the countdown timer stops counting down, you may either be in the wrong place for the pickup location or the GPS has failed and you may want to watch alternate forms of timing.
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6Confirm that the rider's name matches the one on the bottom of the screen. You'll find their name above the "Slide to pick up" slider, to the right of their profile picture. You can greet them by name, and/or check that your name/photo appears in the Driver field in their app. [7] X Research source
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7Report that you've picked up your passenger. Slide the Slide to pick up button inside the dialog box. The slider will fill with a purple color as you slide until it reaches and terminates at the end. Tap the Pick up (passenger's name) dialog box in the Lyft Driver screen.
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8Read off this passenger's final destination, to ensure the passenger still wants to head to that location. Riders must put a drop-off destination into their trip request box inside Lyft. However, if your passenger says they'd like to change it, you can tap that text box above the Navigate button and adjust their location. [8] X Research source
- If you don't get a box that has this information, your settings may not have been tweaked to show this to you during any part of the ride
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Part 4
Part 4 of 5:
Driving and Dropping Off
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1Activate navigation during a trip - even if you know the best route - with the passenger in your car, as per policy. Once you begin a Lyft ride, the app will give you a button to activate navigation that you must tap labeled "Navigate". Tap the Navigate button or let the app switch to your navigation app of choice. If it doesn't send the information to your navigation app, you can press the destination's "location" pin navigate button to the left of the drop-off name and address near the top of the screen.
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2Follow the navigation app's route to get your rider to their drop-off location. If riders give you their preferred route, you should follow that route instead. [9] X Research source
- Lyft will only pay for certain toll plazas. [10] X Research source However, if you encounter a toll that isn't paid by Lyft, you can always make a mental note of where it was and get a receipt that shows how much you paid and the name of the location it was paid at because you can call Lyft if you aren't paid correctly for this transaction. Lyft asks that you use electronic toll collection devices during a trip to make payments more easily trackable.
- Never attempt a different route because it is longer or can earn you more money.
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3Focus on these driving methods. Common driving styles that you should have down-pat include driving forward, backing up, and turning left or right. You should also know about U-turns and three-point turns, including where these turns are possible. It may sometimes be necessary to know the merge policy, driving on and exiting policy for a multi-lane freeway/highway/roadway such as an interstate or similar.
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4Watch out for times when back-to-back rides are auto-accepted on Lyft. Back-to-back rides on Lyft will be auto-shown as an "Added to Queue" box inside Lyft Driver and you'll hear verbal cues saying that another ride has been added to your queue.
- If you'd rather not tackle a back-to-back ride, either trigger "Last Ride" mode by turning yourself off with the switch inside a ride, or if you tap the Trip Planner button showing the next rider's profile pic, you can decline the rider and fix yourself.
- There's also a Decline button within the banner (if displayed) that displays the length away you are currently from the rider's pickup location.
- These back-to-back trips will only happen when you have the other rider in the vehicle with you.
- Back-to-back notifications may even happen during the first part of a multi-stop trip - before the first stop, which may even trigger some back-to-back riders to cancel their ride and send out their request at a later time. However, Lyft doesn't like to tell you if and when the rider cancels, the ride will just "vanish" without a trace.
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5Drop off your passenger. Slide the " Slide to drop off bar at the bottom of the screen once you drop the rider off. The bar will fill with purple, and doing so will stop the distance and time ticker.Advertisement
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Tips
- Have an iPad equipped with cellular service and want to use that instead of an iPhone? Use Install iPhone Apps on an iPad to help you get the app on your iPad, instead. Lyft Driver is only offered to those on iPhones at this time.Thanks
- Check out the tutorials on the Lyft Driver mobile website (accessed from the Dashboard), before accepting your first trip on Lyft.Thanks
- Lyft's in-app navigation now has a dark mode, but must be enabled in your Lyft Driver settings. It relies on your phone's display theme (Dark mode/Light Mode) but helps you see better at night. Open your settings when out of all trips, tap "Dark mode" then pick either "Use device settings" or "Always on".Thanks
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References
- ↑ https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/115013080028-How-to-give-a-Lyft-ride
- ↑ https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/115012927607-Coverage-Areas
- ↑ https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/115012924387-Scheduled-pickups-for-drivers
- ↑ https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/115013080028-How-to-give-a-Lyft-ride
- ↑ https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/115012922847
- ↑ https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/115013080028-How-to-give-a-Lyft-ride
- ↑ https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/115012928267-Picking-up-the-wrong-passenger
- ↑ https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/115013080028-How-to-give-a-Lyft-ride
- ↑ https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/115013080028-How-to-give-a-Lyft-ride
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