Lyft News: Car-less drivers can be part of Lyft for only $99/week
In its bid to bait in more drivers to drive for its car-sharing program, Lyft and General Motor's Maven has announced a short-term car rental program for its Lyft drivers based in Chicago. The program, dubbed as Express Ride, will enable those living in Chicago who don't have a qualified car for Lyft's program to finally rent GM Maven's vehicles and be part of the car-sharing service.
Those who would like to drive for Lyft, but don't have a car that meets the qualifications set by Lyft or have no car at all may avail of the short-term car rental program for prices as low as $99 a week. Express ride will kick off in Chicago this month and will be eventually launched in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Boston, and many other cities.
Under the program, a driver who delivers less than 40 rides in a week's time will pay the base weekly rate of $99 plus 20-cents for every mile he traveled. On the other hand, those who deliver more than 40 rides will only pay the base rate, while those who complete 65 rides a week don't need to pay any charge at all.
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"On the rides business, Lyft gets all the revenue… on the rentals business, that's Maven, so we will make sure that GM is getting paid for those rentals, whether it's coming from the drivers or us," Lyft co-founder and CEO John Zimmer said.
As compared to Uber, which also has a similar rental program, Lyft has the upper hand in terms of pricing, as the former charges a $210 rental fee a week. CNBC remarked, however, that while Lyft's program is more beneficial to its drivers, this move may be costly for both Lyft and GM to maintain and pay insurance for the fleet of Chevy Equinoxes.
