Reward Tiers

Rider Score sorts every active rider into one of six tiers. Each tier has its own perks and its own monthly wallet credit cap. Tier assignment is automatic and recomputes after every scored ride.

Default tiers

All thresholds are per-subaccount editable. You can rename tiers and reshape the curve. You cannot delete the Beginner tier - it is required for the cold-start rule.

What a tier controls

Each rider_score_tiers row holds:

How rewards reach the rider

This is the most important section of this article. Every wallet credit issued by Rider Score flows through the existing ride-refund pipeline. There are no direct wallet writes anywhere in the system.

The pipeline:

1. The reward engine inserts a rider_score_rewards row with status='pending' and a reward type (e.g. per_ride_credit, tier_promotion_bonus).
2. A ride_refunds row is created against the qualifying ride.
3. creditWalletForRefund({ referenceType: 'ride_refund', rideRefundId }) is called. This is the same function used by automatic and manual ride refunds.
4. The reward row is updated with the linked ride_refunds.id and wallet_transactions.id, then marked status='issued'.

If the per-rider monthly cap is exceeded, the reward row is marked status='skipped_cap' and no credit is issued.

When rewards fire

Three reward types are issued today:

Per-rider monthly cap

The cap is enforced at the reward engine level. A typical default is $10 per rider per month for Silver and below, $25 per rider per month for Gold, and $50 per rider per month for Platinum. Adjust to your unit economics.

The cap is calendar-month based and resets at the first of each month in the subaccount's timezone.

Per-subaccount monthly cap

Set a fleet-wide ceiling at Settings > Reward budget. When the fleet-wide cap is hit, all subsequent reward rows for the month are marked status='skipped_budget'. This is your circuit breaker against viral abuse or a scoring bug spraying credits at riders.

Rider visibility

Riders see:

• Their current tier and badge on the Rider Score home tab.
• The exact threshold to reach the next tier (rolling score delta).
• A list of unlocked perks with plain-English descriptions you configure.
• A history of wallet credits issued by Rider Score, with the linked ride.

What riders do not see

• The internal weights snapshot.
• Other riders' scores (no public leaderboard in v1).
• The fleet-wide monthly cap.
• Reward rows in status='skipped_*'.

Beginner cold-start perks

Brand-new riders in their first 3 rides get Silver-level perks if they complete the helmet selfie verification. This is intentional. New riders should feel rewarded for safe behavior immediately, not made to grind for a tier they can already prove they belong in.

Once the rider has 3 scored rides, the cold-start override drops and they are assigned a real tier from their rolling score.

Tier transitions and notifications

When a rider crosses a tier boundary:

• Up: push notification, in-app celebration, optional tier_promotion_bonus reward.
• Down: push notification with what changed. No reward. No automatic intervention - the ladder is evaluated separately.

Practical recommendations

• Keep your Platinum tier rare. 3-5% of active riders is healthy. 20% means your thresholds are too generous.
• Use the per-ride credit instead of large tier-promotion bonuses. The drip is stickier and harder to game.
• Run with conservative caps for the first month, then loosen. It is far easier to expand a budget than retract one once riders have come to expect it.

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