How to consistently earn $35+/hour as a Lyft Driver (5 Great Tips to Earn More Money while Driving Rideshare)

This page is dedicated to ideas, tips, and tricks on how to make and hold that “$35 dollars an hour plus” goal as a Lyft Driver. With which whom, I talk to a lot of people about and they don’t believe is true or accurate:

1a. Invoke a “Time is Money” Mindset. Your time is your money, so play the game — predetermine and decide mentally how long you want to drive on a given early morning, late morning. afternoon, mid-afternoon, evening, or late night. Then try to make as much money as possible in that session and try to make more the next session. I guarantee that if you read use and follow even at least one of the tips that I laid below in this guideline you will achieve higher payouts for the time you are trading for driving. Really, Invoke this mindset. I wish I did earlier.

1. Priority one on earning $35+/hour consistently is to keep and maintain your focus on earning tips. This means to not just simply focus on only “just getting more” tips, but more specifically gettings tipped more frequently and receiving bigger tips. Strive to earn a tip every ride. Before your passenger even gets into the car think about how you can manifest just a one dollar tip from this person. Of course, a tip every single ride is impossible to do, but aim for at least a 25% “Tips to Passengers” ratio. A good “Tips to Passengers” ratio is 25%. A great “Tips to Passengers” ratio is 40%. What does this mean exactly? This means that if you give 10 rides in a given night, and 3 passengers tipped you out (even just $1.00 each.) you will have had, in theory, an above average paying night because your “Tip to Passengers” ratio was 3 out of 10 rides (or 30%). Try to get it to to a solid 40% on a consistent nightly (or daily) basis. Of course you can do everything in your power and deliver a spectacular ride and service and still not get a tip from a passenger during a ride… But you can maintain your composure throughout your shift. If you don’t get tipped after giving a great ride we’ll maybe you will get tipped on the next one. Put your focus and attention on what you can control– (is your car freshly vacuumed at the start of your week/shift?; Do you have bottled waters and mints for your passengers?; Are you playing neutral-friendly music and at a comfortable volume? Like Classical, Jazz, Classic Rock, or Pop? Are you getting out of the car and loading luggage both into and out of the trunk during airport rides etc.? Are you wearing nice and clean clothes? Any little thing like this could get you another tip. And any little thing nuisance or annoyance to a passenger could miss you a tip. See my post on how to maintain your focus on earning bigger and more frequent tips.
2. There are two ways to really drive for Lyft. The first way is to go out and just drive on your own time. A couple rides here and there — you are driving on your own time which is nice but you won’t make as much. The second way, (more lucrative of course) is to read the Weekly Earnings Summary and Weekly Bonus Schedule every Sunday night and plan out your personal weekly driving schedule ahead of the week on either Monday morning or Sunday evening. If you always “Do the Bonuses” and “Hit the Streaks” I guarantee you will make more money while driving for Lyft. The Lyft Driver App (since 2020) frequently offers a 3 for at least $9 bonus during the week nowadays. Actually it’s often a 3 ride Streak for $18 – a superb rate! If you begin every shift with a 3-ride streak like this you will see your earnings go higher on a weekly basis.
3. Know that your first hour of Lyft each week is worth at least $40 in that hour. Yes, you read that correctly, if you drive only one hour you are almost guaranteed to make $40 in that sole hour if executed correctly. If Lyft is just one of your side gigs, remember to always drive for at least one hour every week to supplement your income. This is because there is a Survey Called Product Lab that you can fill out that will give you an extra $7.00 every week that you participate in it. Think of it as filling out a timesheet for an extra $7 bucks. Once you do it a couple of times it literally only takes 2 minutes. Be sure to see my full post on doing this. Doing this survey, coupled with your one hour week of driving is a guaranteed $40-50. Last week, I made $49 (Screen shot to come as proof). Not bad for an hour or hour and fifteen of work. It’s kind of like a benefit of just keeping and staying current as a Lyft Driver.
4. Give Airport Rides – Giving Airport rides is probably the most disciplined you can be as a Lyft Driver. If you wear nice clothes and/or even a suit, and always drive back to your nearest International Airport every time you drop off a passenger to where they are going, you will just about guaranteed make more money than usual as a Lyft Driver. Make sure you know and understand the specific Airport’s rules for rideshare pickups and drop offs. And even understand that Lyft usually gives bonuses for doing Airport rides. I will have a post on giving airport rides at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport as there have been some recent rules and regulations now being implemented for Rideshare Drivers. In short though, for what I know, make sure you are doing your drop off and pickups on the outer curbs because if you don’t you could face a 15 day ban on your Lyft account. This is just something that I heard. See Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport website for more information regarding what I mean here.
5. Get to Platinum Tier and Use your Lyft Direct Card — After a certain period of time as a current Lyft Driver, you will be able to apply for Lyft Direct. What is Lyft Direct? Lyft Direct is a payout and debit card system that allows you to save a little bit of money on Gas and Food and Groceries. You can save up to 7% on Gas, 4% on Dining out, and 1% on Groceries and although it is only a little bit of money, it will add up and remember we are trying to maintain our $35 dollars per hour goal so every little bit of saving helps. Be sure to see my post on how to set up and use Lyft Direct. Sign up and use it as soon as you are possibly able to because going off direct experience if I used it as soon as I could have I would have saved money from the start. Again even though it is just a little bit of money but it adds up, especially over long periods, so make sure you do it and use it if you are new to the platform.

If you enjoyed this post, and you or somebody you know wants to become a Lyft Driver, head over to mylyftjournal’s New Driver Quickstart to Signup to become a New Lyft Driver and to get a Sign on Bonus when you start driving for Lyft.