My First Day Driving for Lyft

Day before yesterday was my last day working as an underpaid contract archaeologist. The good news is that I’m still an archaeologist – but not employed as one. Maybe there are archaeology jobs out there that wouldn’t make me scramble to pay my bills or question my self worth with fry-cook pay on job sites where the guys who spray the ground with hoses to keep the dust down earn two to three times what I was getting paid… I thought about it, realized that if they wouldn’t pay me what I felt I was worth then I would go out and earn what I’m worth elsewhere. As a tour guide, I earn the same monthly pay I was getting as an archaeologist – but in just four days. So, I’ve given myself almost an entire month of free time if I choose to take it and during that time I’m setting up a new tour business, buying and selling online, at the swap meet, and on amazon and ebay – and I set myself up to drive for Lyft.

I don’t have any friends I’ve talked with who drive for Lyft or Uber, so I went into this blind. My application took a bit over two months. When I signed up, I thought I would do archaeology during the day and Lyft at night – but I’ve read that Lyft stretches applications to prevent drivers from completeing $350 sign on bonuses – so by a strange quirk of luck, on my last day as an archaeologist – Lyft approved me to drive.

I’d read a little bit online and decided that I was not going to be a driver offering free water or snacks etc to my riders. The margins are not super to begin with, so I’m not going to throw 50 cents hoping to get a $1-$2 tip that probably will come anyway if I drive safely and am friendly. People either tip or they don’t – there isn’t really an in between – at least in my experience as a waiter, bartender, driver, and guide. If they tip, they will tip even if the tip is included. If they don’t tip – they simply don’t tip. So there is no need to invest in it. Just smile, keep the car clean, and drive safely.

I went out in the middle of the day because I wanted to start slow. My expectation was that, this being Hawaii, I would be driving a lot of tourists around. I was completely wrong. I thought I would be doing a fair number of airport runs and drives to Kailua. I was completely wrong. I gave seven rides and every one of them was less than five miles and to people that live and work here. The rides were short and the interactions were fun. My first ride was a large man – a gay hairdresser on his way to work. 2.4 miles and he tipped me a buck. Nice guy. That was at 10:30. I drove around for an hour and twenty minutes and missed a ride because I didn’t reply in the 15 seconds. Then I missed another. My second ride was a bartender on his way to work 2.3 miles. Funny guy. The next ride called, I accepted and started driving to him then he cancelled. After about an hour and ten minutes, my third ride hailed me. I thought he was a crazy person because he was dancing with his phone in front of safeway – I called to make sure it was him, it was, he was. Nice guy doing some grocery shopping. A little off, but pleasant. 15 minutes later I picked up a mom and her son from school – they were nice. Just three minutes later I picked up a girl heading to Safeway. She was a tipper! 10 minutes after that was a girl heading to work in Waikiki…friendly and nice. Finally a woman who had relocated from Palau hailed me twelve minutes later from Walmart and I drove her home with her groceries. My longest ride was 2.4 miles and 16 minutes. In all, I had passengers in my car for 61 minutes and earned just shy of $40. The other three hours were time I spent wandering into different neighborhoods to see if rides would pop up. Mostly they didn’t. Lyft shows where peak ride areas are and it seems to me that there is a good argument to be made to find a place to park in those neighborhoods and wait for the rides while working on my laptop.

So, depending on how you look at it – I either made $39/hour or about $10/hour on my first day during non-peak time. The people were nice and the interactions were between 4 and 16 minutes which is just about the right amount of time for short character sketches. I think I can do much better than that as I learn more. In any event, I like it. I recommend it. If you want to give it a shot, I encourage you to give it a try. Here is my signup email…if you signup with my code, we both get paid extra – providing Lyft doesn’t take 60 days to approve you like they did with me…

Hey!

I think you’d make a great Lyft driver. Lyft matches drivers with passengers who request rides (and pay for the trip) through a smart phone app. As a driver, you’ll earn money by driving your own car, on your own schedule.

If you apply using my referral link, you’ll also pocket an extra bonus. (For example, Honolulu referrals get $750 after giving 150 rides in their first 50 days.) See the terms at https://lft.to/terms.

Here’s where to apply: https://www.lyft.com/drivers/CHRISTOPHER85479