<story><title>Uber vs. Lyft: From The Driver’s Seat</title><url>https://medium.com/life-learning/uber-vs-lyft-an-insiders-view-fb14ba0a3dbb</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>filmgirlcw</author><text>I understand why Uber&amp;#x27;s culture might be less popular with drivers and I certainly wish they seemed less smarmy - to echo another commenter - but this description totally underscores why I prefer Uber to Lyft as a customer.&lt;p&gt;Nothing against Lyft per se (though getting hit on by drivers twice, including a text after the fact, my last trip to SF didn&amp;#x27;t help), but the &amp;quot;we&amp;#x27;re all friends&amp;quot; culture sounds ok on paper but when I&amp;#x27;m paying for car service, maybe I&amp;#x27;m just a bitch, but I don&amp;#x27;t want to be your friend.&lt;p&gt;I get there is a difference between liveries and ride sharing in some cities, I do. But I live in New York. I don&amp;#x27;t want to sit in the front. I don&amp;#x27;t want to bump your fist. I don&amp;#x27;t always want to talk (though I&amp;#x27;ve maintained a diary of sorts of many of my favorite Uber driver conversations). I&amp;#x27;k primarily using the app because I need a car and couldn&amp;#x27;t get a taxi. Having a warm and fuzzy relationship is fine, but most of the time I&amp;#x27;m trying to do work on my laptop or iPad. As a result, I&amp;#x27;m more incline to use the service that treats it as a business than a lark.&lt;p&gt;But I do appreciate that Lyft drivers feel more appreciated there. That&amp;#x27;s important. I hope Lyft continues to treat it&amp;#x27;s drivers well.</text></comment>
<story><title>Uber vs. Lyft: From The Driver’s Seat</title><url>https://medium.com/life-learning/uber-vs-lyft-an-insiders-view-fb14ba0a3dbb</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>dnautics</author><text>As a (full-time) driver for both:  I am biased towards lyft - I make more money on their platform weekly, they take less commission, I have a good friend who works for lyft.&lt;p&gt;There is certainly a difference between the two, but the two corporate cultures are converging.  The cutthroat competition, and possibly growth demands put on them by VC has forced lyft to &amp;#x27;play catch up&amp;#x27; against uber in many ways.&lt;p&gt;It shows up in superficial ways: For example, especially hilarious was the week that uber&amp;#x27;s and lyft&amp;#x27;s driver-side UI for accepting and completing rides swapped (uber went from tap and confirm to swipe in&amp;#x2F;swipe out; lyft went the opposite way).&lt;p&gt;Lyft communication with drivers, while always upbeat, is often very very slow and occasionally they are borderline negligent in dealing with pay issues.&lt;p&gt;And as is always the case, it&amp;#x27;s very difficult to measure the supply and demand, and so in my market at least there is a gross oversupply of drivers; as the drivers tail off and stop driving because they aren&amp;#x27;t making money, lyft finds itself needing to go on a hiring drive before major events (halloween, etc)...  And then everyone shows up on the road for the few weeks after that and takehome goes sharply down.&lt;p&gt;I have doubts lyft will ever get caught in a major dustup like Uber did with its executive-level idiocy, but it&amp;#x27;s not a perfect company, and there are certainly more points of similarity (in bad ways) between the two companies than this review points out.&lt;p&gt;Still having said that, I do like contracting with lyft.  It&amp;#x27;s (and to a less extent uber) given me runway for setting up my nonprofit and I&amp;#x27;ll be launching a for-profit after I move up to the bay area next week....  While we&amp;#x27;re seeking capital for it, I&amp;#x27;ll be lyfting around, if you use lyft you might see me.</text></comment>