Lyft charges passengers wait time fees, but drivers aren't reaping the rewards

Lyft finally started charging passengers a wait time fee in December, but drivers complain that the fee isn't making it into their wallets. At least not yet.

Lyft's wait time charges, or charges incurred by passengers if a driver has to wait for them during pickup, begin two minutes after arrival time for standard fares and five minutes after Black and Black XL. Charges are billed per minute.

Drivers in several US markets who posted on Reddit and spoke to TechCrunch say they have yet to see this charge show up in their accounts. Lyft told TechCrunch that the delay was unintentional and that drivers in some markets actually receive these charges. The rest should see them appear in the coming weeks, according to Lyft.

Lyft never officially announced the new wait times; the company just quietly implemented them and updated its website and never promised the money would go to the drivers. This hasn't appeased drivers who are angry at being "Gryfted", a term some are using on a Reddit forum to describe their views on losing the extra cash.

Drivers say rising freight costs have become the industry norm in response to macroeconomic trends. But that didn't always mean that the extra costs were passed on to the drivers.

In March 2022, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine caused gas prices to skyrocket, Lyft and Uber added temporary surcharges to rides to help cover the cost of fuel. In this case, all that money went to drivers, who were struggling with higher gas prices. However, when Lyft was struggling to meet rising driver insurance costs in October, the company increased the service fee passengers in the United States pay for each ride and pocketed the money. /p>

Drivers who spoke to TechCrunch said wait time charges should go to them, not Lyft, because they lose valuable lucrative minutes every time a passenger is late.

The drivers also said they expected the two rival ride-sharing companies to follow similar manuals. Uber gives drivers their wait time fees, according to a few drivers who spoke to TechCrunch. They said it was "dimes" and that Uber had actually just increased the grace period for late riders from five minutes to seven minutes, but that's something.

Lyft told TechCrunch that in markets with “advance trip information,” drivers now receive wait time compensation. (Advanced ride information means drivers can see where the ride is before accepting a ride. Regions where this is active include New York, Washington, Portland, Toronto, and Vancouver. ) All other markets are considered an "upfront payment" region, and drivers in those regions will see wait time paid into their wallets "in the coming weeks," Lyft spokeswoman Katie said. Kim at TechCrunch.

Kim did not confirm whether Lyft would retroactively pay passengers for wait time charges incurred over the past two months.

Lyft introduced upfront payment last October, a few months after Uber launched a similar feature in July. The feature allows drivers to see ride information and what they will earn before accepting a ride. While companies have marketed the upfront payment to drivers as a tool for transparency, some drivers say it's just a disguised pay cut. Drivers who say their income has been cut since the feature was introduced have guessed that the initial payment model is actually designed like an auction, where Lyft or Uber offer a ride at the lowest possible fare and see which driver will take the trip.

Some drivers experimented with the system to see if they could game it: "I declined a request for 28 miles (34 minutes) for $10.26 and about 40 seconds later the same ride was $21, $74," wrote a Redditer. Others have called for massive action by drivers to deny rides in unison until the initial payroll cost reflects what they believe is a reasonable fare.

Both Uber and Lyft have denied the charge that the upfront payment is designed to offer drivers the lowest fare. Both companies also said driver earnings were high, at around $35 per hour worked. ...