Only 57% of my shift time was booked. And some dayparts showed much higher booked hourly rates than others.
Those are the two things that jumped out as I worked through my Lyft data. With limited hours available to drive, I want to understand both: how much of my working time has a passenger in the car, and what those rides produce.
This is Part 1 of Tips I’m Learning—no pun intended. I’m working this simple sheet myself and sharing what I find as I go.
57% booked deserves a closer look
Roughly 43% outside passenger trips, including driving to pickups.
In this workbook, booked time means pickup to drop-off. The remaining time includes driving to pickups as well as waiting and other gaps. I’m not treating all 43% as wasted time or earnings I could automatically recover.
But it is a big enough share of my working time to pay attention to. At my starting assumptions of $10 per ride before tips and tips equal to 11% of those earnings, the sample comes out to about $52 per booked hour and $30 per shift hour, before expenses and taxes.
The daypart differences matter, too
That’s a meaningful difference to investigate. These are estimates using the same earnings assumptions across the sheet; the ride counts and durations come from my export. They are not a claim that every evening ride pays better or that your market will look like mine.
The full-shift comparison matters alongside it: roughly $33 per hour in the evening versus $24 in the morning. I also look at how many rides sit behind each average before deciding a time window looks promising.
The workbook is live. Use it as you wish.
I’ve made this first version available at hudsondriver.com/tools/lyft-daypart/. Load your own Lyft data, enter your average pre-tip earnings and tip percentage, and the daypart report runs automatically.
It breaks the week into seven days and six four-hour windows. Compare rides, booked-time percentage, booked hourly rate, and the hourly rate across your full shift time. Then try the adjusters: move booked time up in one-percentage-point steps, or change your earnings and tip assumptions, to see projected rates beside the current ones.
Your files are processed in your browser tab and are not sent to Hudson Driver. This first version groups rides in Eastern time. Closing or reloading the page clears your report.
How to request your data from Lyft
1. Open Lyft’s data privacy page at Lyft’s data privacy page and sign in to your Lyft account. Lyft recommends a desktop computer for requesting and viewing the download.
2. Find the download-data section and choose Start. You are requesting a copy of your data; you do not need to delete your account.
3. Watch for Lyft’s email when the download is ready, or check its data privacy page for the status. Lyft says preparation may take a few days.
4. Download the ZIP file. Open the workbook and select that ZIP, or select driver_rides.csv and driver_sessions.csv together. You can add payments_to_user.csv for recorded payout totals.
Lyft’s official download instructions · See “Download account data.”
I’ll share more details as I keep working through the sheet, and I’ll keep improving the workbook. Uber coming soon.
YOUR TURN