More Ride Share Liner notes

A friend read my post on my first ride share driving experience and ask me a simple question. Do drivers take into account the $.575 wear and tear when calculating the COGS? My answer was, I don't know but I will poll some folks on my next few rides as a passenger.

But you know as well as I do that there has to be SOME accumulated cost other than gas and tolls. Question is, how much? For the sake of argument, let's assume $0. Silly, I know, but let's see what happens. My total payout was $112.65. Gas and tolls were $38.33 so my total 'take' was $74.22. Divided by the 6.5 hours drive time yields an hourly wage of $11.42.

Now I take all this with a grain of salt as the sample size was so small and I made two substantial empty trips. So, for now, I will consider this the low water mark assuming no operational cost of the vehicle (which is ludicrous).

Other things I learned, quite by happenstance - I got an email from Uber - is (a) you DO need a TLC license to pick up in NYC but not drop off. In addition, Uber charges riders a $20 surcharge for crossing the Hudson. Doesn't appear Lyft does so which explains why the Tatiana couple choose as they did.

Uber also has a feature that allows the driver to set the direction they would like to travel by compass point so you can try to pick up fares say, when you are heading home without worrying about being waylaid. Lyft does not seem to have this feature either.

Finally, I need to touch on the elephant in the room. That is, why can't I see the destination so I can make an intelligent decision about whether I want the fare? Of course, I know the many reasons (a) cherry picking (b) avoiding dodgy areas thus limiting service (c) all sorts of other stuff.

Apparently, drivers have concocted a system whereby they immediately contact the rider and ask the destination. If it's not to their liking, they ask that they cancel. I have had this happen as a rider and I find it annoying.

But methinks there could be SOME algorithmic approach that could make better use of the data. For instance, limit destinations to a 360-degree radius of 20 miles from my home (I live 22 miles from Manhattan). Or create some sort of bid-ask. I don't have a solution just yet but certainly driving to NYC where I MUST return empty is less than ideal albeit it may be a pitfall unique to this environ.

I guess a driver could simply cancel an undesirable fare once they reach the pickup but I think that has negative ramifications besides just being bad business and disappointing to the rider. Sadly, I think there needs to be SOME inducement to take such trips or drivers will divine when these requests are likely and go offline. Not sure, needs more thought...

In the mean, I will do do just that and check back...

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