Table of Contents
Lecture 1: The best times to drive
Follow the movement patterns of the people in your city.
- Morning rush hour
- Evening rush hour
- Sports, concerts, and shows
- Airport schedule
- Follow the alcohol
Rush Hour
The morning rush hour is a great time to find riders because many have to get to work. Next is lunchtime as hungry office workers head out for food, and others look to delivery. As the workday comes to an end, the evening rush hour is another great time to find rides as the same workers you drove to work have to get back home.
Sports, Concerts, and Shows
Think about the weekends in your city. What events are happening around you this weekend that the people in your city will need transportation to and from? Sporting events and concerts are major drivers of demand.
Airports
Go even further by studying your airport arrival and departure flights to get a sense of how many people are coming into or out of town.
Follow the Alcohol
Follow the drinking and nightlife scene in your city. Rather than risk a DUI many revelers opt for rideshare solutions. You’ll most likely find increased demands around last calls in areas of your city where the bars and nightclubs are. The best times to drive are the times where the people in your city are moving and in need of transportation. Once you understand this concept the question of when should you drive becomes less daunting.
If you aren’t sure of the movement patterns of your city, take a clue from the driver apps. They basically tell you when and where the rides are from the surge map. Study when and where surge happens in your city and write down these locations and times. By keeping track of the surge pattern, you’ll be able to pinpoint the demand spots in your market. Try this in your driver app now!
Take Action for Lecture 1
- Look at the events happening in your city this weekend in the Gridwise app
- Take note of your airport arrivals and departure numbers in the next 4 hours in the Gridwise app
- Write down the top events that may attract out of town visitors and the peak arrivals and departure times at your airport
- Write down the times you think are the best to drive based on step 3 above
- Let us know in the comments section below!
Lecture 2: How the Surge Works
Ideally, the number of drivers in a given area will be exactly equal to the number of riders in a given area. So whenever there are more riders than drivers, rideshare services will launch a surge. This doesn’t necessarily mean there are a ton of potential riders, there is just an imbalance. So the surge is simply meant to do one thing: Redistribute drivers.
The surge is a way to get drivers onto the road when passengers are looking for rides.
How to Spot Surge In Your Driver App
The surge will be displayed as colored areas on the map in both the Uber & Lyft driver apps. Take a look at the below images for examples of what this looks like in-app.
The surge is a way to get drivers onto the road when passengers are looking for rides. When there are too many people looking for trips, for example when a sporting event lets out, there can be a sudden spike of wait times as all the available drivers nearby are booked.
By temporarily increasing prices, surge can boost the supply of drivers in that area. This increase in driver supply can be from a combination of drivers logging on for the surge payouts, and drivers from surrounding areas relocating to catch the surge.
As more and more drivers flock to the surge the number of passengers looking for rides balances out and demand stabilizes. When this happens the surge will slowly decrease and eventually disappear. The entire system is automated and completely dynamic, which means it adapts to the current situation. Think about how you can use this knowledge to your advantage.
The dynamic design of the surge system allows you to use this to your advantage. By understanding the supply and demand patterns across your city, you can predict when and where surge happens. So how do you do it?
- Brave the bars
- Wake up for the morning rush
- Know about big events
- Get out in the rain
Brave the bars
The late-night bar crowd on Thursday’s, Friday’s, and Wednesday’s can be a gold mine for the driver willing to deal with a more “exuberant” crowd. From about 9:00 – 11:00 you can find riders that are headed to the bars from the more docile parts of the city. Then from 1:30 – 3:00 you can catch riders in popular going-out areas who will need a designated driver to get them back home. These areas will almost always have big increases in demand which turn into predictable and sustainable surges.
Wake up for the morning rush
Demand during the early morning hours from 6:00 – 10:00 is very high in most cities because of the high volume of commuters either going to work, going to the airport, or leaving the airport. Depending on your city, you can find workers either coming from the suburbs or more residential parts of the city into the downtown areas.
Mornings are also a great time to catch business travelers going to and coming from airports. You can use your Gridwise app to know when flights are coming in and catch a big fare at the airport. Or hang near hotels and find a traveler catching their early flight.
Know about big events
If you want to predict rider demand look no further than your local sporting, concert, and theatre venues. When they are having some of their bigger events, hundreds to thousands of people will be looking for rides to their next destination after the event is over.
You can spend an hour looking through multiple websites for events or you can check the Gridwise events list.
Get out in the rain
Many drivers have a love/hate relationship with the rain. While it can be a pain to drive in a downpour, there is almost always a significant amount of demand during a rainstorm because riders who may have otherwise taken a long walk to their destination will decide to take a ride, while some drivers will decide it’s not worth it to try and drive.
Take Action for Lecture 2
- Open up your driver app and see if there are any surges happening in your area
- Check out the events listing for compound events in your city
- Check out the airport graph for arrivals and departure peaks
- Write down your weekend surge predictions by listing the hours you expect peak demand, and the areas you expect these to happen