Be your own boss

Making your own hours is the highlight of this job

Making money on the go is very appealing to me. This is why I signed up to become a Lyft driver. I was quite skeptical at first as to how much money I could actually make driving for Lyft but that aside I was interested in how the process worked.

I began my Lyft application by entering my information as requested to create a driver account. This was a simple process and took no more then 10 mins to finish. When finished, I was assigned a mentor who would help me complete the transition to become a Lyft driver. My mentor contacted me within 15 mins. I had a few questions regarding my vehicle.

If I have small scratches on the paint of my car will that effect my chances of becoming a Lyft driver?

He asked me to send some photos. Once received he let me know that the damage to my vehicle was minimal and would not effect my ability to become a driver.

We then scheduled an appointment for later that day.

This was great! I was ready to get started so the fact that we were able to meet same day was nice. From what I understand this is a common practice among the mentors.

During our meeting my mentor took photos of my insurance, drivers license and registration. He also checked lights, blinkers, breaks and things of that nature.

We started a walk through of how the app works. He walked me through a mock pick up and drop off. We took a short drive around the block and we were finished!

The whole meeting took a total of 30 mins. Once finished my mentor let me know that it would take about a week for my background check to be finalized and i would receive an email letting me know if I passed.

A few days went by and I got an email with a short video I was required to watch, and at the end I would need to answer a few test questions. The questions are not hard at all. Just pay attention to the video and you will get 100%. I also received a video instructing me on how to add my banking info for deposits.

After doing both of these things I got the notice, 4 days after applying, my background check was cleared and I was ready to drive.

Tip: If you are going to start driving right away (before receiving your welcome packet in the snail mail) be sure to print out a lift symbol for your window. If you are pulled over while working and you don't have a Lyft symbol in the window you may be ticketed.

The first few days I was driving I was mainly driving around hoping to catch a passenger. I only drove 5 people and made about $35 the first day (logged in for a total of 8 hours). My second day wasn't much better. I was feeling a little discouraged and a little confused. I know people who have made decent money working for Lyft. What was I doing wrong?

I spent my Friday night in Fullerton, Ca and made about $100. On Saturday I drove to LA then to Newport Beach, Laguna then finally went home at 5:00 am.

During my downtime I found places to park. As you are driving around in the heavily populated areas you will notice other Lyft and Uber drivers parked as well. My suggestion is to stop and have a chat with them. Every driver I spoke with was so nice and excited to see a noob on the road. They were all happy to share their methods and gave great advice.

Tip: When you drop somebody off after completing ride and rating passenger PULL OVER! Do not drive around to try and catch another ride. I know from first hand experience it won’t happen. You need to give the app a little time to catch up with you. Once I started doing this the Lyft requests immediately started coming in more frequently.

Even though I had a somewhat busy night on Friday and Saturday I still had a little downtime. If I was waiting for more then 15 mins for a Lyft request I would turn on my Postmates app (a courier app similar to Lyft) make a few deliveries then jump back on Lyft. This worked out well as my deliveries were all in the area.

I have only been doing this for a week and I know I still have a few kinks to work out. My next mission is to figure out how to work the airport. Stay tuned for more info regarding my hustle with Lyft and just about anything else that will make me a buck.

Driver Referral Code: LINDSEY1681

Passenger Referral Code: LINDSEY1681

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