Ride Sharing: Uber / Lyft
This blog will give you all the in's and out's of ride sharing apps Uber and Lyft. My blog is based on my recent travels through the USA.
For the first month of our 7 month trip we were using public transport, expensive taxi's and transfers. It wasnt until we were in Las Vegas we came across the ride sharing app Uber.
We downloaded the app which is easy to use and free to download. We had our first Uber ride from out hotel in Las Vegas to the airport which cost us less than $6.00. The added benefit of this in the US is no tipping is required.
Firstly a few things you will need to be able to use the ride sharing apps:
You will need to have an American sim card with your own local number for your profile in addition to wi-fi. You need the internet to be able to go online and order your Uber through the app.
The map will generate where you are and you type in the address of your destination from here the app generates who is the closest available driver to you and you are given yours vehicle registration number, name, make and model of their car and their phone number should you need to contact them.
The app will also show you your drivers location so you can follow how far away they are and what their arrival time will be. Unfortunately with the current apps you are unable to choose a specific driver just automatically allocated the closest driver. You can however select XL size vehicles if you are carrying luggage.
When you order a regular Uber / Lyft you are given an estimate of what your journey will cost. E.g $10 - 12. It will also tell you if you are travelling in a peak time and if you are paying a higher than usual rate. Say during peak hour between 5-7 and if a big sporting event just finished you may pay more than usual.
With these ride sharing apps you also have the ability to pay a set price by doing a share ride. This means that you have opted to pick up another passenger who may be travelling on a similar route to you and you split the cost. By doing this option you will pay less and will be given a fixed amount of how much your ride will cost you. It is also a great way to meet locals in the area and don't worry you will never be going out of your way to pick up another passenger. If you are in a hurry this is not a good option you are better to use the regular private ride option.
We found our drivers to be amazing and more like tour guides for us. As they are live in locals they know where the best of everything is and we became really good friends with some of our drivers. It was a cheaper way for us to travel and we made some good friends along the way which really made ride sharing an enjoyable experience for us.
When you sign up for Uber / Lyft you are usually given some sort of a joining bonus. When we joined Lyft we were given 10 rides with the first $5 off so we only ended up paying between $2-3 per ride for our first 10 rides which came in handy. Uber gave us a $20 voucher to use for 1 single ride. So we both joined up for both and this gave us some nice little bonuses for our trips. Also if you recommend friends you will get other rewards etc.
All of your rides are logged on your app so you can go back and look at your drivers or how much you paid for your rides. After your ride you are also asked to review your driver and how your experience was. There are call centres for each company and if you were not happy with your driver or felt unsafe you can report them.
Paying for your Lyft / Uber is easy. We had our credit card linked to our accounts so all of our rides were charged to our credit card. We did want to use our travel cash card to make our payments however Lyft were the only one to accept the card. Uber does not accept travel cash cards. Based on this we ended up using Lyft a lot more as this was a more convenient option for us.
Ride sharing can be easy to use and much cheaper than alternate options and we found this in most cities however be mindful that it is not always the best option so make sure you check the city you are in before just going straight to ride sharing. New York for example we went straight to ride sharing which is a LOT cheaper than taxi's but not overly cheap compared to other cities in the USA. We found that in New York due to the traffic the subway is the fastest and cheapest way to get around the city. Where as San Francisco and LA we found that ride sharing was much quicker and easier to get around. We got a Lyft from LAX to Hollywood and it cost us $22.00 and we were in the car for over an hour!
Hopefully this blog has given you some info on the benefits of ride sharing in the USA.
We really loved the experience and felt that we saved a lot of money on travelling around in the USA and would use it again next time we travel there.