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First Boston Lyft Drivers Initiation!
This was the first Lyft Drivers Initiation ever and it took place in Boston! I heard that there were community managers from other cities at this event.
As the Lyft driving community grows, the team felt that they were losing part of that small and tight community feel to it so they wanted to have a gathering of drivers regularly. They mentioned how it may be once a month but no set plans on that.
Subsequent events will be targeting new drivers and help bring them into the Lyft community and teach them what Lyfting is all about.
I was working on Lyft the hour before this event and hope not to get anyone and just drive downtown to park. I unfortunately got a request and drove over. Turns out that I picked up two lyft drivers heading to this same event. They asked if I was going and I said I was and I’ll figure out a place to park.
We got to the community center and there was parking! It wasn’t a whole lot of parking but there were a few spots left. The small courtyard can fit about 10 cars and I was the 8th car going into there. There was one or two more spots left before they were taken in the next five minutes. It was good that we got there 10 minutes early.
We all came in to a room filled with dry ice smoke and party poppers. After about 10 minutes there were a few group activities to break the ice and have a bit of fun.
There was an activity where groups of 5 would sit together, like in a Lyft. The front left person would be the driver and they had about 10 seconds to horse around. You can see the picture below of one of the passengers flirting with the driver.
Below is a lyft with 4 people in the back. Also pretty common in real lyfts as well.
It was pretty funny to hear what the passengers commonly do or request during lyft. Some were pretty ridiculous but I totally believe it happens in real life, which made it even funnier.
The last part was my favorite part of the night. All of us drivers, new and long-time drivers, sharing lyft stories in a large circle. Most of them were funny but a few were very touching.
One of the Lyft community managers that was here from Baltimore and Dallas (she manages both) said that she got into Lyft after her first lyft experience when she first moved to SF. She had a lot of groceries and needed to get about a mile up to her house as it was too far to walk. The lyft driver told her it wasn’t a problem and helped her with her groceries after the lyft was over. She was very touched by the generosity from someone she didn’t even know.
There were a few of these stories and many drivers were glad to hear it from the passengers point of view. Drivers rarely hear the other side of the story as its uncommon for us to get the same client twice. I would believe a few months ago it would be more common as Lyft started in Boston in June. Now would be harder given that the requests are coming from all over the city.
Some drivers have gotten the same clients twice and that’s when they hear an earful (in a good way) about their last experience with them.
This was a great event. I would definitely rearrange my schedule to go to the next one. I had to make some time for this event. I generally don’t meet other Lyft drivers but many of them meet at certain places and hang out. I never knew it was such a tight community and I hope to explore it a bit more after my traveling in the next two months.
After the activities, pizza was served. I ate this before my run. Many people left after having their pizza and finishing their conversations. One of the managers said we had to be out of there by 9pm so I started leaving about 8:40 or so. I still had about an hour run after I get home.