Understanding the Lyft Driver Rating System

Are you a new Lyft driver and curious about how Lyft’s rating system works and why it matters?

Every passenger you take can give you a rating.

Lyft driver ratings directly impact your earnings, so it’s worth learning how they work.

What Are Lyft Driver Ratings?

Your Lyft rating tells passengers how good of a driver you are.

After each ride, a passenger can rate you from one to five stars based on factors such as:

• How well you drove
• How clean your car was
• Whether you were pleasant and friendly
• How professional you were

Lyft may review your account and even deactivate it if you have a poor driver rating.

It doesn’t want its passengers to have unpleasant experiences when using the Lyft app.

In addition, a rider may cancel the ride if they notice you have a poor rating.

For example, they may worry that you will be rude to them or drive unsafely.

How Do Lyft Driver Ratings Work?

After each Lyft ride, passengers can rate their drivers.

Your goal should be to get a five star rating after each ride.

The fewer you get, the more likely you are to have a bad average rating.

Later on, I’ll explain how Lyft calculates your overall rating.

Conversely, there is also a Lyft passenger rating system.

In other words, each rider has a rider rating that tells drivers how good of a passenger they are.

While you can’t rate someone for not tipping, you can give them a low rating for making you wait, being rude, being inebriated, making a mess in your car, and so on.

How Lyft Uses Driver Ratings

Lyft uses driver ratings to ensure that everyone offers good customer service and maintains professionality.

It will deactivate a driver with consistently poor ratings.

Having a two-way rating system is Lyft’s way of ensuring that both drivers and riders can have a safe experience.

How Lyft Calculates Driver Ratings

Your driver rating is the average of your last 100 ratings.

If you get 85 five-star ratings, 14 four-star ratings, and one three-star rating, your average rating will be 4.84.

That might sound like a good rating, but it’s not—you want it to be as close to five stars as possible.

A rating of more than 4.95 is ideal, but it shouldn’t dip below 4.9 if you can help it.

However, the good news is that Lyft has several features that help drivers maintain high ratings.

To start with, if a Lyft rider gives you no rating, the rideshare app will automatically assign you a five-star rating after a couple of hours.

Unfortunately, the reality is that people tend to be the loudest about things they are upset with.

If they are satisfied with your service, they might not rate you at all.

Of course, if they are dissatisfied, they are likely to give you a bad review.

This feature ensures that drivers who get no complaints still get good overall ratings.

In addition, if a rider gives their driver a lousy review (a rating of four stars or less), Lyft will ask for driver feedback.

If the rider indicates that the bad rating was due to something outside the driver’s control, it will not count that rating.

Finally, Lyft will automatically remove the lowest rating after each 100 rides you complete.

Getting an occasional one-star rating is normal, but it can seriously impact your overall rating.

If you get 80 five-star ratings, 19 four-star ratings, and just a single one-star rating, you will have an overall rating of 4.77.

That is pretty bad, which is why this feature is so helpful.

Does Your Lyft Driver Rating Matter?

Of course. Your Lyft driver rating matters because it directly impacts your earnings and your ability to continue driving on the Lyft platform.

Lyft may prioritize higher-rated drivers for rides if your driver rating is low.

Depending on the demand, you may get fewer ride offers, leading to more irregular earnings overall.

In addition, passengers may cancel if they see you have a bad rating.

Finally, if your rating dips too low, Lyft may suspend or deactivate your account for good, preventing you from earning with the company again.

Understanding Good and Bad Lyft Ratings

So, what is a good rating?

A rating of 4.5 stars might sound good at first glance, but it’s poor if you’re a Lyft driver.

What Is a Good Lyft Rating?

A positive Lyft rating is anything above 4.95.

Getting a flawless five-star rating can be challenging, as there will always be a few passengers giving you four stars or less.

However, if your rating is 4.98 or 4.99, you can consider that good.

What is a Bad Lyft Rating?

You should start getting concerned as soon as you dip below 4.8 stars.

Anything below 4.8 is already too low, so you should start thinking about what you’re doing to annoy passengers.

Are you driving too fast? Are you not greeting them politely? Are you being bossy?

A rating under 4.7 is bad.

What Lyft Driver Rating Gets You Deactivated?

Lyft isn’t very clear about this.

The consensus seems that if your rating goes below 4.7, you risk a manual review and even a suspension.

If it happens only once, you probably don’t have much to worry about, especially if you can get your rating back up.

If you drop below 4.6 stars or even 4.5, your account is at risk of deactivation.

What Happens if You Get a Bad Lyft Driver Rating?

If you get just one bad Lyft rating, not much will happen.

Your Lyft rating will drop, so it’s critical to keep trying to offer excellent customer service.

That way, you will get good ratings to make up for the poor ones.

Remember that Lyft removes your worst rating from every 100, so one bad rating will make little difference over the long run.

However, two one-star ratings could cause a drop that is hard to recover from.

Lyft may take a second look at your account if you get bad ratings consistently.

How To Check Your Lyft Driver Ratings

You can check your Lyft ratings in your profile. Your rating will always show up when you look at your profile, whether you’re a passenger or a driver.

You can find your Lyft driver rating in your profile. In addition, every week, Lyft will email you a summary of anonymous feedback you have received. That way, you can learn more about things you can change, such as your driving style or how you greet people.

How To Check Your Lyft Rating

Here is how to check your Lyft rating:

• Open the app.
• Navigate to the left-side menu.
• Click on “View Profile” right under your profile picture.
• You will be able to see your Lyft rating on your profile.

In addition, you will see how many rides you have undertaken in total and the number of years you have been with for Lyft.

Note that this information is visible to riders. The longer you have been working for Lyft and the more rides you have taken, the more you will be trusted by passengers.

Can You Dispute an Unfair Lyft Driver Rating?

Yes. It’s possible to dispute an unfair Lyft rating as a driver.

To do that, go to your ride history, select the ride you want to dispute the rating for, and submit your feedback.

Lyft will exclude the lowest rating out of every 100 rides, as I already mentioned.

It may also exclude more ratings if it feels that the rider gave the rating for reasons that are out of your control, but it is not guaranteed.

If you need to frequently dispute ratings, the problem may lie with you rather than with the rider.

You can visit the Learning Center to find Lyft’s tips for getting more five-star ratings consistently.

However, overall, it all boils down to this:

• Get to the pickup location as fast as possible. Try not to bother the passenger by asking for directions.
• Greet the rider with a smile and a polite greeting.
• Maintain a clean and good-smelling car.
• Ask the rider if they would like specific music, and encourage them to open or close the windows to make themselves comfortable.
• Avoid driving erratically or unsafely. Always follow road rules, and try to take the quickest route possible.
• Drop off your passenger exactly where they specified, even if it takes a few extra minutes.
• Don’t ask directly for a tip.
• Give the rider a good rating as they leave your vehicle.

5 Ways to Improve Your Lyft Driver Rating

What do you do if your rating is below 4.8 stars?

The precise answer depends on your situation, since many factors can contribute to a low driver rating.

However, here are five techniques that work in our experience.

1. Keep Your Car Clean

No one wants to ride in a dirty, smelly car.

You don’t have to detail your car every day or vacuum it after every ride, but you should do your utmost to make it pleasant to ride in.

Air fresheners are always a nice touch (though stick with inoffensive scents such as “new car” to be safe).

You should also get regular car washes and keep the car free of crumbs, dust, hair, dirt, and other debris.

Furthermore, your car should be free of clutter.

Don’t forget to keep your trunk clean and open, as some passengers may be traveling with groceries, luggage, or other items that can’t fit in the seat with them.

Also, be sure to keep your passenger seat clear; some riders prefer the front seat, especially those who may suffer from motion sickness issues.

2. Always Drive Carefully

We hope that you always stop completely at stop signs, change lanes gradually, and slow down for bumps.

But even if these aren’t your normal behaviors, you should make sure to do them when you’re transporting passengers.

Even if you aren’t actually being an unsafe driver, giving passengers the impression that you’re unsafe is just as bad from a ratings and reviews perspective.

3. Be Polite and Friendly

Driving with Lyft can be exhausting some days, especially if you’re driving in the mornings or evenings before or after work.

These are very well known to be the best times to drive for Lyft.

But you should try to be as friendly as you can to passengers and always be polite.

We’re not saying you have to make friends with every passenger you transport; some passengers just want to relax in silence.

But attempt to make a bit of conversation if you can.

If you pick a passenger up at the airport, ask if they’re looking for recommendations of things to do while they’re in town.

If the passenger comes out of a cool bar, ask them if they’d recommend it.

Don’t force the conversation, but don’t be afraid to talk to your riders — most of them will appreciate the gesture.

4. Offer Amenities for Passengers

A Lyft ride is not a limousine, and passengers know this.

They’re not expecting bottles of champagne or heated seats.

But small amenities can go a long way to making a passenger feel special and cared for.

Here are some easy, cheap amenities you can include in your ride:

• Both iPhone and Android phone chargers
• An aux. cord to play your passenger’s music
• Mints, gum, or candy
• Bottled water
• Guidebooks or city maps (you can usually get these for free at your local tourist bureau)
• Holiday-themed items (if driving on a holiday)

There’s no need to include all of these, but just having a couple can make a huge difference in passenger experience.

If we had to suggest just one, we’d recommend the phone chargers — passengers who are traveling or coming home from a night on the town especially appreciate this touch, as they’ve likely just left somewhere without a place to charge their phones.

5. Accommodate Reasonable Passenger Requests

Our final tip for boosting your Lyft driver rating is to accommodate passenger requests when you can.

For instance, some passengers may prefer to listen to a particular radio station or even want to play their own music.

Others may prefer to ride in silence.

You might get a rider to ask you to drive just a tad bit farther to drop them off at a specific building in their apartment complex.

Or you might have one tell you to take a different route than what your GPS indicates (since sometimes GPS can have difficulty navigating in rural or suburban areas).

All of the above are requests that don’t ask you to do anything illegal, unsafe, or unreasonable.

We recommend accommodating such requests if you can.

Mind you, there may be legitimate reasons not to, and you should always use your best judgment.

You certainly shouldn’t let passengers threaten, harass, or intimidate you into doing anything.

Report any such actions to Lyft and make note of it in the rating you leave your passenger.

Final Thoughts

Getting good Lyft driver ratings will ensure you get more rides and can keep driving for Lyft without an account suspension.

Check your Lyft rating, and if it’s below 4.8, start taking action to improve.