3 ms·

Uber Offering Lyft Drivers Free $50 In Gas, Signing Perks To Switch Teams

19 points by hackhackhack 13y ago

livestyle 13y ago
I just arrived in Indianapolis for a conference and the Uber experience was far superior. First Lyft wouldn't pick me up at the airport and now at 1am they are closed? p.s Uber brought me to Steak and Shake and actually meet me inside the airport personally and escorted me to their car. I love how their service is still paramount to the overall experience.
- xivzgrev 13y ago
  Uber black or UberX? UberX would be the fair comparable to Lyft.
elsewhen 13y ago
Is Uber developing a lyft-like p2p service in addition to their black-car & taxi offerings?
- joshfraser 13y ago
  Yes, they're calling it UberX and they've had it for a while.
  - cmwelsh 13y ago
    No, that's their taxi service, which is mentioned in the grandparent.
    - apendleton 13y ago
      At least in DC, they're distinct. The taxi service sends actual city-licensed taxis to pick you up, and the rate you pay is based on the meter (though you still pay for it via their app). UberX uses cars licensed as livery vehicles (like the black car service), and the rate is set per mile or minute or whatever by Uber, but they're mid-range cars like Priuses rather than towncars.
  - cjrp 13y ago
    In London, UberX is just a cheaper cab service using the Prius.
thefallsman 13y ago
Uber has been making huge strides. I think it is a much better company that lyft. With lyft you're supposed to talk to the driver, keep them entertained so that you get a good rating. Uberx is not that much more expensive and the drivers are much nicer and have much better manners. I'd much rather pay the extra few bucks on an Uber.
- pain_perdu 13y ago
  Lyft is more fun. I took 50+ rides in the summer. Unlike Uber, Lyft hires for personality. I became friends with some of my drives, had crazy city tours (including a walking tour!) and just generally had much more pleasant experiences versus the many Uber trips I've had in multiple cities.
  - CaveTech 13y ago
    But you're paying for it. It's friendship prostitution.
    - goldenkey 13y ago
      That's a perverse analogy. You're still paying for the ride, not for the conversation. An enjoyable conversation as oppose to silence, is icing on the cake. Consider this: We don't pay for the barber to talk to us but would we go back to a barber if he wasn't socially adept?
      - MichaelGG 13y ago
        I'm probably not the only one that'd say: Yes, I'd prefer if the barber doesn't talk. Unless I'm in a particularly outgoing mood I'm probably not really interested in talking to a stranger. I'd pick the barber based on how smooth the transaction and service was. Perhaps I'm in an odd minority.
        xivzgrev 13y ago
        Tough to say whether you're in odd minority. As I suggested above, I think market is splitting between riders who want a quiet/professional ride, and a fun/engaging ride. Uber is clearly leader in first, and Lyft is clearly leader in second. UberX has some soul searching to do. Are they going to be the Lyft competitor (fun/engaging), or the cheaper Uber black (quiet/professional)? So far I see them in the second bucket, but this ad makes me ponder.
philip1209 13y ago
I noticed this last week that Uber has begun distributing lit logos for UberX cars to display on their dashboards. It struck me as quite Lyft-like.
leeskye 13y ago
Lyft received some major 'lift' today via Conan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNM7Z7hir_I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNM7Z7hir_I
- goldenkey 13y ago
  The flatbread line was priceless.
- sargun 13y ago
  I wonder if they paid for this, and how much it cost.
erex78 13y ago
Does this bother you? Aggressively targeting your competitor's employees? Imagine if Google went to your startup and offered everyone 100K signing bonus to leave. Would this be OK, within the bounds of acceptable competition?
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  Google and Facebook were doing that to eachother for a while, until they reached a gentleman's agreement to stop poaching eachother's employees. If memory serves HN was very angry, saying it was collusion to keep developer salaries below true market value.
  - jamesaguilar 13y ago
    So was the government. They sued these companies, apple also.
    - crbnw00ts 13y ago
      Slight correction: the government went after them for anti-solicitation agreements[1], and then they were sued for salary-fixing by former employees[2]. [1] http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/September/10-at-1076.html http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/September/10-at-1076.html [2] http://www.macworld.com.au/news/apple-and-google-face-salary-fixing-lawsuit-51566/ http://www.macworld.com.au/news/apple-and-google-face-salary...
- jamesaguilar 13y ago
  As an employee, I sincerely hope companies are doing this.
  - praptak 13y ago
    As an employee I say it depends. What if they just wait after the competitor dies or just loses the contracts and fire the employees afterwards? Even if I know that the company making the offer has such plans I'm still in a nasty tragedy of the commons with my coworkers.
po 13y ago
What this makes me think is that the market for drivers (or at least good drivers) is in high demand and they are a limited pool with more leverage than is recognised. That means they can probably command higher prices which will ultimately have to be passed along to consumers somehow.
- anigbrowl 13y ago
  Higher input prices are not wholly passed along to consumers, although this is a common misconception. The degree to which prices go up vs producers accepting a smaller profit depends on the elasticity of consumer demand. Where this relates to the apportionment of a tax burden, it's known as tax incidence, which is probably the best search string to start with.
- xivzgrev 13y ago
  It's a fair point. I think you'd have to segment labor market a little more, by personality (silent & professional/fun & engaging). My thought is that Lyft does well with the second type, and Uber is recognizing value in that market. I don't think it will drive up costs though. Here Uber is not promising them a higher rate - just switching bonuses. Uber has strong incentives not to offer higher rates, changes their whole cost structure. This is just a recruiting expense. I don't see these services implementing multiple tier payment structures, because that would have to be passed to consumer and then pricing gets complicated when all you want is a ride now. Now I think you're absolutely right the supply is tight. Lyft has some serious driver shortages as it is, and this is not helping matters. I wonder when they'll start letting drivers share cars (or even use a third party car such as Zipcar), but that would help open up the SF market to labor that is constrained by not having a car of their own (which, I'd estimate that's quite a few people).

19 points by hackhackhack 13y ago

I just arrived in Indianapolis for a conference and the Uber experience was far superior. First Lyft wouldn't pick me up at the airport and now at 1am they are closed? p.s Uber brought me to Steak and Shake and actually meet me inside the airport personally and escorted me to their car. I love how their service is still paramount to the overall experience.

xivzgrev 13y ago
Uber black or UberX? UberX would be the fair comparable to Lyft.

elsewhen 13y ago

Is Uber developing a lyft-like p2p service in addition to their black-car & taxi offerings?

joshfraser 13y ago
Yes, they're calling it UberX and they've had it for a while.
- cmwelsh 13y ago
  No, that's their taxi service, which is mentioned in the grandparent.
  - apendleton 13y ago
    At least in DC, they're distinct. The taxi service sends actual city-licensed taxis to pick you up, and the rate you pay is based on the meter (though you still pay for it via their app). UberX uses cars licensed as livery vehicles (like the black car service), and the rate is set per mile or minute or whatever by Uber, but they're mid-range cars like Priuses rather than towncars.
- cjrp 13y ago
  In London, UberX is just a cheaper cab service using the Prius.

thefallsman 13y ago

Uber has been making huge strides. I think it is a much better company that lyft. With lyft you're supposed to talk to the driver, keep them entertained so that you get a good rating. Uberx is not that much more expensive and the drivers are much nicer and have much better manners. I'd much rather pay the extra few bucks on an Uber.

pain_perdu 13y ago
Lyft is more fun. I took 50+ rides in the summer. Unlike Uber, Lyft hires for personality. I became friends with some of my drives, had crazy city tours (including a walking tour!) and just generally had much more pleasant experiences versus the many Uber trips I've had in multiple cities.
- CaveTech 13y ago
  But you're paying for it. It's friendship prostitution.
  - goldenkey 13y ago
    That's a perverse analogy. You're still paying for the ride, not for the conversation. An enjoyable conversation as oppose to silence, is icing on the cake. Consider this: We don't pay for the barber to talk to us but would we go back to a barber if he wasn't socially adept?
    - MichaelGG 13y ago
      I'm probably not the only one that'd say: Yes, I'd prefer if the barber doesn't talk. Unless I'm in a particularly outgoing mood I'm probably not really interested in talking to a stranger. I'd pick the barber based on how smooth the transaction and service was. Perhaps I'm in an odd minority.
      - xivzgrev 13y ago
        Tough to say whether you're in odd minority. As I suggested above, I think market is splitting between riders who want a quiet/professional ride, and a fun/engaging ride. Uber is clearly leader in first, and Lyft is clearly leader in second. UberX has some soul searching to do. Are they going to be the Lyft competitor (fun/engaging), or the cheaper Uber black (quiet/professional)? So far I see them in the second bucket, but this ad makes me ponder.

philip1209 13y ago

I noticed this last week that Uber has begun distributing lit logos for UberX cars to display on their dashboards. It struck me as quite Lyft-like.

leeskye 13y ago

Lyft received some major 'lift' today via Conan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNM7Z7hir_I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNM7Z7hir_I

goldenkey 13y ago
The flatbread line was priceless.
sargun 13y ago
I wonder if they paid for this, and how much it cost.

erex78 13y ago

Does this bother you? Aggressively targeting your competitor's employees? Imagine if Google went to your startup and offered everyone 100K signing bonus to leave. Would this be OK, within the bounds of acceptable competition?

sliverstorm 13y ago
Google and Facebook were doing that to eachother for a while, until they reached a gentleman's agreement to stop poaching eachother's employees. If memory serves HN was very angry, saying it was collusion to keep developer salaries below true market value.
- jamesaguilar 13y ago
  So was the government. They sued these companies, apple also.
  - crbnw00ts 13y ago
    Slight correction: the government went after them for anti-solicitation agreements[1], and then they were sued for salary-fixing by former employees[2]. [1] http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/September/10-at-1076.html http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/September/10-at-1076.html [2] http://www.macworld.com.au/news/apple-and-google-face-salary-fixing-lawsuit-51566/ http://www.macworld.com.au/news/apple-and-google-face-salary...
jamesaguilar 13y ago
As an employee, I sincerely hope companies are doing this.
- praptak 13y ago
  As an employee I say it depends. What if they just wait after the competitor dies or just loses the contracts and fire the employees afterwards? Even if I know that the company making the offer has such plans I'm still in a nasty tragedy of the commons with my coworkers.

po 13y ago

What this makes me think is that the market for drivers (or at least good drivers) is in high demand and they are a limited pool with more leverage than is recognised. That means they can probably command higher prices which will ultimately have to be passed along to consumers somehow.

anigbrowl 13y ago
Higher input prices are not wholly passed along to consumers, although this is a common misconception. The degree to which prices go up vs producers accepting a smaller profit depends on the elasticity of consumer demand. Where this relates to the apportionment of a tax burden, it's known as tax incidence, which is probably the best search string to start with.
xivzgrev 13y ago
It's a fair point. I think you'd have to segment labor market a little more, by personality (silent & professional/fun & engaging). My thought is that Lyft does well with the second type, and Uber is recognizing value in that market. I don't think it will drive up costs though. Here Uber is not promising them a higher rate - just switching bonuses. Uber has strong incentives not to offer higher rates, changes their whole cost structure. This is just a recruiting expense. I don't see these services implementing multiple tier payment structures, because that would have to be passed to consumer and then pricing gets complicated when all you want is a ride now. Now I think you're absolutely right the supply is tight. Lyft has some serious driver shortages as it is, and this is not helping matters. I wonder when they'll start letting drivers share cars (or even use a third party car such as Zipcar), but that would help open up the SF market to labor that is constrained by not having a car of their own (which, I'd estimate that's quite a few people).