A ride offer shows you one number: the payout. That number alone doesn't tell you what the ride is actually worth, because it doesn't account for how far you have to drive to reach the pickup, how long that takes, or whether the trip itself is worth the miles you'll put on your car. DriveLens exists to close that gap.
Effective $/mi and effective $/hr
The two numbers DriveLens actually cares about are effective dollars per mile and effective dollars per hour, where "effective" means they're calculated against your full commitment, not just the paid portion of the trip.
Most ways of estimating a ride's value only count the miles and minutes of the trip itself, once a rider is in the car. DriveLens counts the drive to pickup too. A ride that pays well per mile once you're rolling can still be a bad ride if the pickup is ten minutes out of your way and the trip itself is short. You're burning time and gas on the approach that never shows up if you only look at the trip leg.
Total commitment miles and minutes (pickup drive plus the trip) are the denominator. Payout divided by that is what DriveLens shows you, before you accept.
A hard payout floor
Percentages and rates can look fine on paper for a ride that's simply not worth accepting in absolute terms, like a short trip with a great $/mi that still only pays a few dollars. DriveLens backs that up with a hard floor: a minimum payout, in dollars, below which a ride gets flagged red regardless of how good the rate looks. Rate and floor work together; a ride has to clear both to grade well.
Thresholds you set
The specific numbers behind all of this (minimum effective $/mi, minimum effective $/hr, minimum payout, and maximum pickup distance or time you're willing to drive) are yours to set. DriveLens ships with reasonable defaults, but drivers in different markets, with different vehicles and different goals, don't all want the same thresholds. Custom scoring rules are a Pro feature, alongside the live on-screen overlay that shows you a grade the moment an offer appears.
Grades, not just numbers
Every scored offer gets a grade: green, yellow, or red, along with the underlying $/mi, $/hr, and payout figures behind it. On the Free tier, you get basic analytics after your shift: totals, average $/hr, average $/mi. On Pro, you see the grade live, on screen, before you decide.
Why full-commitment metrics matter
The rides that actually hurt your average aren't the obviously bad ones; those are easy to decline. It's the ones that look fine on the surface: decent payout, reasonable-looking rate, until you factor in a pickup that eats ten minutes and a couple of miles you'll never get paid for. That's exactly the kind of ride full-commitment scoring is built to catch, before you've already committed to it.