The low-cost carpool rides offered by Uber and Lyft (where riders share their ride with other riders going in the same direction) have always been a horrible deal for drivers.
As a driver doing Line/Pool rides, I always felt I was doing the work of two rides, but earning the pay of one ride.
But Lyft has now announced a game-changer:
For this to work, Lyft will either need to eat the cost themselves, or raise the price of Line rides for riders (which would make choosing Line pointless for riders).
I recently posted a few things Uber could do to make drivers stop quitting, and this change was one of those things.
In my mind, this change is striking back at Uber’s recent driver-friendly change, the addition of in-app tipping.
Will Uber have to make the same change?
Thoughts?
easyjourneys 
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What’s the point of taking line if it costs the same as normal lyft? The whole trade off is time/convenience for a lower price. I assume they’re going to subsidize the difference in price vs compensation with VC money for now. I don’t see how this is sustainable though.
I think a smarter system would be to guarantee Lyft drivers the full fare ride for a ride called by the first person (“ride” definition subject to some time/qty guideline) and then to pay an incremental bonus adjustment for each additional line rider that shares in the carpool. I don’t think you’re necessarily doing twice as much work as a driver when there’s a line fare as you would otherwise, since the entire point is to group people on common trips in time, but you’re certainly doing more work than you would otherwise and should be paid more than the minimum 1x fare.
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