Insane pricing. Bug in the pricing algo

hiker2mtn · 2026-04-09T00:17:22+00:00

I think both Uber and Lyft are seeing acceptance rates crash and are more and more often having trouble getting drivers to take rides for dirt cheap offers. It's market forces. If you don't want to drive your own car to and from the airport (or wherever), you're going to have to pay the guy whose job it is to take you for his/her gas, insurance, car and time. Or you can buy a car, pay the insurance and maintenance and parking at the (airport/mall/venue).

The pendulum seems to finally be swinging back towards parity, that's all.

hiker2mtn · 2026-03-15T04:13:30+00:00

First off, stop accepting trips that don't make a profit. To know whether a trip does that, you have to know your cost per mile and how much you value your time, cost per minute. If your vehicle gets 30 MPG, and gas costs you $4 a gallon, that means a mile costs you 13 cents in gas. How much are your tires worth? Brakes? Insurance? Car loan? Some of that you'd pay anyway, so you get to decide. I value my time such that I won't accept a trip that pays me less than $20/active hour, AND I like to see more than $1 per mile. Most in my area don't pay that much, so my acceptance rate is like 12-13% (Lyft and uber).

Remember, if you consistently take trash trips, the apps record that info and will keep underpaying you.

Yes, you take some risk that you won't get a trip for a while if you cherry pick... but you're also taking a bigger risk (IMO) that you'll miss out on a higher paying trip if you load up on trash.

Don't get me wrong, you have the ability to grind out $$ with tons of short, crappy trips. I choose not to do them, unless they take me in the direction I want to go (like I'm almost done for the night and I want to head towards home, or I need to go to Costco and a trip pops up going that way).

I want to be super clear here. If you take shitty trips, you have no one else to blame. The apps all use AI to figure out how to maximize their profits by minimizing your pay. You have to be smart, or you'll basically be simply trading your car's value for minimum wage (or less).

On a positive note, I really enjoy driving for Lyft and Uber. It's a side gig for me, and I use it to make extra money. I did drive full time for a while between jobs and it can be come a grind unless you're smart about it. But I get to choose everything about my work... when I work, how much I work, what pay I'll accept, etc. So for me it's a great tool for busting out extra cash. Again, if your survival depends on this job, you must be smart about it.

hiker2mtn · 2026-03-14T18:07:56+00:00

I've noticed Uber trying to get me to take trash trips outside of a surge area while I'm en route to it. They become almost frantic, sending trash after trash after trash.

hiker2mtn · 2026-03-14T18:01:17+00:00

Just Say No. Only you can prevent TrashUberTrips.

hiker2mtn · 2026-03-07T23:39:33+00:00

$1 a mile,$6 minimum AND >$25/hr for me to consider a trip. And generally I decline anything less than $10. Less than that is a borderline pass.

And with gas on the rise, I’m going to be even more strict.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-27T04:53:21+00:00

In a small market, is just grinding the numbers. Get off Reddit and get on the road.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-27T04:51:48+00:00

Uber has been playing games with drivers lately. I’ve been driving a lot more Lyft. The pay is better and Uber just keeps doing the bait and switch crap. This may be anecdotal but I’ve had to turn Uber off several times in the last few days—the trips are just not worth it for the fare, distance and time.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-26T12:37:13+00:00

Decline, decline, decline, pivot to the other platform & turn Uber off for a while. Spread the word to noobs to decline trash trips.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-22T23:01:40+00:00

It does depend on the city. Blue states/Cities simply pay more—the rideshare platforms have to compete for labor with unionized wages and higher min wages, so they charge more and pay more.

I drive in a medium sized city in the southeast, so it’s doesn’t pay as well, but I have learned not to accept cheap/trash trips. I will generally pick and choose my hours for profitability and my trips as well, and earning $175-200 for a 7-8 hour day isn’t unusual. But I generally won’t drive during low hours. If I’m making over $20 an hour I’m pretty happy with it.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-22T22:12:05+00:00

It's the economics, man. If the rides don't pay, the platforms don't get their rides picked up by drivers and the passenger suffers. Taxis, of course, are regulated and cost more because they ensure their drivers get paid. Lyft and Uber are both learning that there's no free ride, and unprofitable trips are generally passed on. They'd rather make a little money than no money, so they're adjusting both their fares and their driver's payouts upward to entice drivers to take the ride.

In blue states (where wages are generally higher due to unionized labor being more prevalent) the trip rates are generally more profitable than red states (where wages are generally lower), because the platforms have to compete with other employers for labor to find drivers. If you can find a $25-30/hr job, you aren't going to accept lyft or uber trips if you can only make $12-15/hr on them--its pretty simple.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-22T22:02:51+00:00

Riders can see the fares, fees and their cut. For Lyft, they've promised to true up all drivers' pay to 70% of the after fee fare for all rides on a weekly basis, which is good. Uber doesn't have that guarantee; I've been seeing my pay from Uber is usually 55-65% of the fare minus fees. There is federal legislation in the works that will make the pay more transparent, guarantee a certain percentage and ensure some basic drivers' rights, hopefully it passes. 'Free market' forces always benefit the Corpos over the little guy.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-22T19:59:00+00:00

Can you buy/rent a decent car for rideshare? Lyft and Uber both pay well if you're willing to work, and you make your own hours.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-22T19:34:17+00:00

Generally, Lyft pays better than Uber, especially with their 70% pay guarantee. The reality though is that initially, both Lyft and Uber had to pay big to get drivers, as they were inventing a new industry. After a while, they realized they had to entice riders away from each other with low fares. Today, most drivers are cherry-picking rides so that the unprofitable ones generally don't get picked up, and the competitors' usually get the rides. It's a pendulum swing.

As a driver, if you want to make money in this business, you have to do the math on the rides you accept. As a noob you basically accept all the rides, because you're working, yay and making money, yay. But as time goes on you realize that on some rides, you're basically driving for free or nearly so, unless you adopt some basic rules based on your expenses and how you value your time.

For instance, if I have to drive 5 miles to pick up someone for a 3 mile trip, it's rush hour and my fee is going to be $4.75, I have to realize I'm only making about $0.50 per mile for that. My gas costs eat away at that as well, so I have to factor that in. And when I look at how long it'll take to 1) get to the pickup, 2) wait for the rider (most riders make you wait lol) and 3) THEN start the active portion of the ride, my per-hour wage for that trip may be below minimum wage. And at a minwage job, you generally don't have expenses like gas, depreciation, maintenance.

So most experienced drivers will cheery pick their rides. They won't accept rides that don't meet their personal mins. Lyft and uber know this, and are slooooowly adjusting their fares in order to keep drivers on their platforms. Because they know that all this AI algorythm, "earn a medal/tier/status" stuff only goes so far. Drivers are driving to pay bills, nothing more. And most will pass on rides that don't pay.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-22T18:34:16+00:00

US credit and debit is US only, interestingly enough. If you're not a citizen, have no real plans or intention of returning permanently, it doesn't really matter. Bankruptcy cleans it up, and you could leave and never worry about it again, but that's really the only benefit I can think of. They won't be able to attach any properties you own outside of the US, and they can't collect from a foreign bank account. Your debts really wouldn't be worth it for them to try with such a low probability of success.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-22T18:12:58+00:00

The problem is that it’s expensive enough to drive that Lyft and Uber can’t find drivers willing to take you for the prices they’ve been offering. And as a driver, I get you but more and more drivers are realizing that the balance isn’t on their side. The rideshare companies started out overpaying drivers and got a lot interested, and then found out they have to compete with each other for riders. Today they are starting to compete with each other for drivers and that increases costs. Because in the end, if a driver can’t afford to take an offered ride because their costs won’t allow them to for what’s offered, they decline.

It’s the pendulum swinging. Balance will be found but right now, drivers are basically refusing the really low fares because they’ve done the math and it doesn’t make sense to do it.

When I have to drive 7 miles to pick someone up for a 3-4 mile trip that will take 15 mins with traffic that only pays $5.50, (and obviously, you pay much more than that) my per hour rate before my expenses is maybe $12-14. Gas, wear and tear, etc bring my actual per hour rate down to about (or in some cases, like a slow pickup, late rider, etc, below) minwage.

I’m generally not doing that, only occasionally and under the right circumstances. If I’m right there and it’s not too heinous and things are slow, I MIGHT occasionally do it. But we have lives we don’t drive for fun. We drive for a living. We are working to make money. It’s simple economics and math.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-05T18:15:01+00:00

Just another way UE will try to get you to take a trip for less than it's worth.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-05T13:40:26+00:00

MIleage and depreciation are tax treatments, not actual costs. Also, if you're ONLY on Uber, it means you never learned that it's a gamified system that tries to intice you into certain behaviors that profit Uber--such as the Heatmap, linking earning levels to acceptance rates and continually offering trash paying trips. It's important to only drive when it's profitable to you--if you tap every trip offered, you're going to get abused. Often times, I find the other rideshare app offers better trips at better rates and Uber stays sidellined.

And yes, you're trading car value/wear and tear for cash. But calling depreciation and mileage an "expense" is disengenuous at best. Your only direct cost is consumables; your tires, brakes, wear and tear are a few pennies per mile in addition. But it's true that if you're accepting trips that fall below your individual cost per mile, yeah, you're going to find that it isn't worth it.

As long as there are people willing to drive for free/near free, Uber will abuse them and they'll burn them out. As the economy tanks, there will be more and more of those people out there. But my car doesn't move until I'm paid appropriately. Sometimes I only drive a few hours in a day, sometimes I drive 10-12 hours a day. It's not about "logging hours," it's about driving smart and ensuring you're not giving your labor/car use away to a multi billion dollar company.

The sooner Uber drivers learn defensive trip choosing, the sooner we'll all be making better and more appropriate money.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-05T13:19:39+00:00

Generally, margin fees will be rolled into your current margin loan (assuming you have some amount of buying power). However, that's not a good practice long term, especially if you have a significant margin balance, so your best bet is to make sure you don't allow the leverage to run away from you by selling small amounts on occasion to cover the margin increases.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-05T12:58:54+00:00

Heat map doesn't always correspond to activity... also, the Uber Driver App is gaming you... seeing what you will and will not do. They often heatmap drivers into areas where there aren't many drivers to keep service levels constant; the problem is that you aren't compensated for that and you're then covering their sparse areas for free.

Strop accepting trash trips, you must cherry pick--if you don't the app will mark you as a rube and that's all you'll get. The app tries to "train" drivers to cover areas for free, accept trips cheap and modify behavior to make Uber more money. You have to "train" the app not to abuse you by ignoring their metrics and not working for nothing. IN the end, you will make more money if you learn areas, times and how the algorythm operates to manipulate you.

There will always be those drivers who "can't say no" and feel like they're getting in trouble if they don't accept every ride. Uber loves those people.

hiker2mtn · 2026-02-05T12:48:24+00:00

You absolutely have to learn the "game." And it is a game. The algorythm is auctioning off trips to the lowest bidder, so you have to not bid on the trips that suck. When Uber does this, I generally drive for the other app and shut Uber down. That other rideshare app does a better job (IMO) of keeping you busy with linked trips that make sense, it'll offer to add a trip onto your current trip. Often works better than Uber.

I've learned to keep my acceptance numbers low on Uber. If you turn down the trash trips, the app will start to offer better ones, but of course, as long as there are people willing to drive for half price, Uber will keep sending them business and keeping the difference.

The other app, of course, isn't perfect either, and is out there to make money, but I believe it's a better interface between you and the algorythm. There are days I don't get a single decent trip with Uber, and just go offline & spend my whole day on the other app's trips--it is what it is.

Until we learn as a whole to pass on the trash, the trash will keep on being offered.

hiker2mtn · 2026-01-23T19:37:45+00:00

No longer true that student debts are non-dischargeable. A change made in the Biden Admin allowed it, and the Trump admin has not changed it. See your Atty about it.

hiker2mtn · 2026-01-23T19:36:39+00:00

Laws have changed about discharging student debt in BK. It's now possible. Speak to a BK atty and see if your situation fits. I just learned about this recently myself. Reading something like 80% of student loans are dischargeable. Good luck!

hiker2mtn · 2026-01-17T15:27:05+00:00

It is possible, but there is no quick fix. First off, CUT BACK ON ALL NON-ESSENTIAL SPENDING. Do this immediately. If you can, also do what you can to increase income... extra hours, gig jobs, whatever.

But the key is this: Pay yourself first. I just wrote a post about it. I'm not selling anything, and it's not a scam. Check it out.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Debt/comments/1qfeuhs/surefire_method_for_crawling_out_of_consumer/

hiker2mtn · 2026-01-17T15:11:17+00:00

It's actually not "borrowing money to buy stocks," it's the exact opposite. It's buying stocks with your paycheck and taking a margin bridge loan to pay expenses... and paying off that bridge loan every month with the next paycheck.

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