
Uber Offering Lyft Drivers Free $50 In Gas, Signing Perks To Switch Teams - hackhackhack
http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/11/uber-offering-lyft-drivers-free-50-in-gas-signing-perks-to-switch-teams/
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leeskye
Lyft received some major 'lift' today via Conan:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNM7Z7hir_I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNM7Z7hir_I)

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goldenkey
The flatbread line was priceless.

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erex78
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?

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jamesaguilar
As an employee, I sincerely hope companies are doing this.

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praptak
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.

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po
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.

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xivzgrev
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).

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thefallsman
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.

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pain_perdu
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.

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CaveTech
But you're paying for it. It's friendship prostitution.

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goldenkey
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?

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MichaelGG
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.

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xivzgrev
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.

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livestyle
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.

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

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philip1209
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.

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

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joshfraser
Yes, they're calling it UberX and they've had it for a while.

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cmwelsh
No, that's their taxi service, which is mentioned in the grandparent.

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apendleton
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.

