How to Get the Same Driver Again Instead of a Stranger Every Time

Both apps have shipped a version of this, and the details matter.

Uber has Favorite Driver. According to Uber's own rider help page, checked in September 2026, you add a driver to a favorites list at the rating step, and the feature applies to Scheduled Rides. It is available in select areas, and it needs the ride booked at least 30 minutes ahead through Uber Reserve. Uber's help pages are also plain that the app otherwise connects you with the nearest available driver.

Lyft has a favorite-driver feature too. Lyft's own blog, checked in September 2026, describes favoriting a driver after a good ride so that Lyft prioritizes matching you with them on future scheduled rides. Lyft says a favorited driver is notified and gets priority access to that rider's scheduled requests.

So the honest summary is that both companies have heard this complaint and both have answered it the same way: a preference, on scheduled trips, passed to a matching system.

It does not hold a person for a time you choose.

Your favorite driver has to be working, has to be in range, and has to take the request. If any of that is not true, the system matches you with somebody else and the trip goes ahead normally. That is not a flaw anyone snuck in. It is what a preference is.

It also does nothing at all for the thing most people mean when they search this. Open the app on a Tuesday morning and press the button, and you are back in the general pool with everyone else.

Because it is a matching system, and matching is the opposite of remembering.

Connecting any passenger to any nearby driver within a couple of minutes, at any hour, in any city, is genuinely hard, and Uber and Lyft are very good at it. The whole design goal is that neither side has to know or choose the other. That is why the phone number is masked and stops working after the trip, why your next ride starts by opening an app rather than by thinking of a person, and why a five star rating is a compliment rather than a way to find somebody again.

None of that is going to change. It just means the lever you want is not inside the app.

Some drivers take direct bookings. A driver who does has their own booking page at their own handle, with their name on it, the rides they take, and the price they have set.

Here is what that changes, end to end.

You book a person, not a car. The booking is with that driver by name. There is no pool and no reassignment.

You pick the time and the pickup. The same motion you already use to book a haircut or a dentist.

You book at the driver's stated price. They set it and they state it before you agree to it, so the number is settled in advance rather than at the moment you request. Payment is captured on the ride.

If the trip repeats, you stop rebooking it. A one-off booking covers a single trip. A standing booking covers the same trip every week. For a standing arrangement the driver marks you as a regular, you give your consent, your card is saved, and the weekly ride bills on its own.

That is not exotic. Booking a specific person for a specific time is one of the most ordinary things an adult does. Rideshare is the unusual one for not offering it.

Do the arithmetic on a trip that repeats.

A standing weekly appointment is about 50 rides a year. Two mornings a week is about 100. A weekday commute is about 250. Under the app, every single one of those is a separate roll of the dice: a new person, a new car, the address explained again, and a real chance nobody shows up on the one morning it matters.

A trip you take once does not need a known driver. A trip you take 250 times does.

The ones worth the ask are the repeats and the ones where a no-show is expensive. The early airport run. The weekly appointment. The shift that starts at the same time four days a week. A parent who should not have to explain where they live to a stranger every Tuesday.

There is no button for this. There is a sentence, and you say it at the end of a ride that went well, before you close the door.

"Do you take direct bookings?"

If the answer is yes, the driver gives you a link or shows you a code to scan while you are still sitting down. Save it. That is the entire transaction. If the answer is no, nothing is lost, and you had a good ride anyway.

Ask Your Driver is the short version of that conversation: the exact wording, what happens after you ask, and what to do if the driver has never heard of any of this.

There is no list of drivers here. You cannot search one, browse one, filter one or be matched to one. SOLODRIVE.PRO does not find a driver on your behalf and does not put one in your area.

We also make no claim about any driver's background, screening, licensing or insurance. SOLODRIVE.PRO is a software platform, not a transportation provider and not an insurer. The reason you would book a particular driver is the only honest one there is: you already rode with that person and you would do it again.

Everything above starts there. If you have not met a driver you would book, this page cannot help you today, and your next good ride is the one where you ask.

Then you are looking at the ask from the other side, and it is the easiest one you will ever get.

A passenger who says I would book you directly if you had a way for me to do it has already done the hard part. All that is missing is the page to send them to: your own handle, your own prices, your own standing bookings. That starts at /start/. The pages below are the driver-side versions of everything on this one.

Can I request the same Uber or Lyft driver?

Not on demand. Uber and Lyft both let you add a driver to a favorites list and both apply that preference to scheduled rides only. Uber's own rider help page, checked in September 2026, says Favorite Driver applies to Scheduled Rides, is available in select areas, and needs the ride booked at least 30 minutes ahead. Lyft's own blog, checked the same month, describes favoriting a driver so Lyft prioritizes matching you with them on scheduled rides. Neither one is a booking, and neither applies when you open the app and request a car now.

Does favoriting a driver guarantee I get that driver?

No. On both apps it is a preference the matching system tries to honor when the driver happens to be available and accepts. If that driver is off, busy, out of area or simply does not take the request, you get whoever the system matches you with instead, the same as any other trip.

How do I book the same driver again for certain?

You book them rather than requesting a car. Some drivers take direct bookings and have their own booking page at their own handle. You get that page from the driver, you pick your time and pickup, and the booking is with that person by name. The only way to get it is to ask the driver, because we do not hand it out.

Can you find me a driver who takes direct bookings?

No. There is no list of drivers here to search, no map, and nothing on SOLODRIVE.PRO that matches a passenger to a driver. Every path on this page starts with a driver you have already ridden with. If you have not met that driver yet, this page cannot do anything for you today, and we would rather tell you that than waste your time.

Is it cheaper to book a driver directly?

We do not set or cap what a driver charges, so we cannot tell you it is cheaper and we will not. What is true is that the driver sets the price and states it before you book, so you agree to a number in advance instead of watching it move at the moment you request a car.

Can I set up the same ride with one driver every week?

Yes, if that driver takes direct bookings. A driver can take a one-off booking for a single trip or a standing booking for the same trip every week. For a standing arrangement the driver marks you as a regular, you give your consent, your card is saved, and the weekly ride bills on its own instead of being rebooked by hand.

Do I need an app or an account to book a driver directly?

No. A driver's booking page opens in the browser you already have. There is nothing for a passenger to install and nothing to sign up for.

What if my driver does not take direct bookings?

Then favoriting them inside the app is the lever you have, and it is worth using on scheduled trips. It is also worth telling the driver you would book them directly if they had a way for you to do it, because most drivers who have not set one up have simply never been asked.