Lyft Changes Bonuse Sytem to Prevent Drivers from Cheating

A year ago, Lyft introduced a new way to pay its drivers which offered more money based on the number of hours a driver clocks. But this system was easy to manipulate, forcing the ride-hailing company to rethink its strategy. Now Lyft have decided to distribute bonuses based on number of rides a driver makes instead, which is definitely hard to falsify.  So if a driver clocks 100 rides a week, 30 of them during peak hours, she gets the full price of the ride.

According to Engadget, previously, Lyft would forego taking its commission for those who clock 50 hours per week -- unfortunately, some unscrupulous drivers would apparently log into the app to accumulate hours even if they had no intention of picking anybody up. Drivers would log into the app but not make a pick-up or they would select a pick-up then stall, waiting for the rider to cancel, netting the hours but not the gas toll - or the ride. (The Power Bonus program requires that drivers maintain a 90 percent acceptance rate.) That said, drivers do tend to cite flexibility and bonus opportunities as reasons for favoring Lyft over larger rival Uber.

A company spokesperson told Recode that the new bonus scheme was designed to give its drivers more flexibility, but we think the best thing about it is that it translates to more real rides you can hail.

Lyft said it has paid out $22 million to drivers so far through the program, which is expanding in three cities. That's not a massive amount. But if we take its financials as reported by Bloomberg - $46.7 million in revenue, after paying out drivers, for the first half of the year - that's roughly akin to a fourth of its annual sales. That is quite a sum to keep drivers from spending more time with Uber.

We think the new tweak made by Lyft to prevent drivers from cheating through finding loopholes and securing bonuses without additional mileage will be hard to falsify. This new system will also provide more flexibility to drivers earning bonus.