Scheduling Rides in Uber and Lyft

June 8, 2018 Mike Off Rider Tips,

As a rideshare driver, one of the biggest questions I get is, “How do I go about scheduling rides?”

It comes up a lot in rural areas, where there aren’t as many drivers around. I picked up a very nice woman last week, who had finished working a 10-hour overnight shift and had been trying to get a ride home for two hours. The soluting for her is to start scheduling rides.

Scheduling Rides with Lyft

Scheduling rides with Lyft isn’t available in all markets yet, and not universal in those where it’s been made available. But if you have the option, it works pretty well for both riders and drivers. It’s not hidden in the app anywhere, so you really don’t need to bother looking around for it. You have it or you don’t.

You’ll set your pickup and drop-off locations, as usual, then it will give you the option of setting the time you want to be picked up. You can schedule your pickup time up to 7 days in advance. You can cancel up to 30 minutes before the ride if you need to. If you do so within the last 30 minutes, you’ll be charged $10.

The drivers in the area will get a notification that a scheduled ride is available. They’ll also get an overview of your trip with approximate locations. They can decide whether or not they’ll be in the area at the requested time, and decide to accept the ride. They’ll then get reminders that they need to be in your area at the appropriate time.

Scheduling Rides in Uber

Between Uber and Lyft, it’s more effective to schedule rides in Lyft. Uber will let you schedule rides, but it doesn’t show up for drivers to select the ride in advance. It just shows up as a ping for drivers as a regular ride would. It doesn’t let them know to be in the area, and doesn’t give them an overview of your ride.

To go about scheduling rides in Uber, you open the Uber app, then select the clock icon before you set your pickup and dropoff locations. If you don’t have the clock icon, you don’t have the option yet to schedule rides.

The Wild Card: Scheduling Rides and Drivers with Uzurv

Would you pay a little more to pick your favorite drivers? Looking to search for some needed features? The Uzurv app provides this service. You’ll pay a small fee to Uzurv for every reservation. Find out if your driver has child seats, room for lots of luggage, or can take a wheelchair before you make your reservation. This isn’t something you’d want to do for a trip to the grocery store or a five-minute trip to the doctor’s office, but if you need to get to the airport on time, or are taking a long-distance trip, Uzurv makes a lot of sense.

You can get your first Uzurv reservation for free by using my invitation code, nuwriter, or by clicking on the link here.

Here’s a quick look at what scheduling rides looks like in Uzurv.