The proposed settlement in a class action lawsuit against ride-hailing app Lyft is quite modest compared to what the drivers initially sought: they’re getting about fifty bucks each, and Lyft has agreed to not remove drivers from the platform with no warning and without cause. Now the judge in that case is questioning the settlement, mostly because Lyft has grown significantly in California just in the time that the case has been going through the courts. [More]
lyft
Attorneys: Lyft Would Owe Drivers An Extra $126M If They Were Employees
By 3.21.16
In a class action against the company, drivers for ride-hailing service Lyft won two important things: the right to not be removed from the service without being told why, and a $12.25 million settlement. The interesting thing about that figure, though, is that the lawyers’ own research shows that being given “employee” status would mean that drivers were owed an average of $835 each, or a total of $126 million for just the employees in California. [More]
Uber Objects To Atlanta Airport’s Plan For Driver Background Checks, Fare Fees
By 3.18.16
The next time you need a ride at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, it’s not likely going to be an Uber driver who picks you up. The ride-share company has balked at the airport’s proposal that would require Uber and Lyft drivers to get fingerprint-based background checks, as well as impose fees on every fare. [More]
Police: Lyft Driver Drove Drunk With Passenger In The Car
By 3.15.16
When you’ve had a bit too much to drink to get behind the wheel, you might get a cab or have Uber or Lyft pick you up. But police in Austin say one Lyft driver could’ve used a ride himself, after arresting him for allegedly driving while drunk with a passenger in his back seat. [More]
GM Will Rent Cars To Lyft Drivers For $99/Week
By 3.15.16
If you were wondering what General Motors planned to do with its $500 million investment in ride-sharing service Lyft, you might have an answer; or at least part of one. The carmaker will now rent out Chevy Equinox SUVs to prospective drivers who lack the all-important piece of the ride-sharing puzzle: a set of wheels. [More]
General Motors Acquires Self-Driving Car Startup
By 3.11.16
Two months after General Motors unveiled a $500 million investment in Lyft, the mustachioed ride-hailing service, with the hopes of one day providing the masses with rides in a self-driving fleet, the carmaker has taken a step that might help it realize that goal: acquiring self-driving vehicle startup Cruise Automation. [More]
Former Uber, Lyft Drivers Are Selling Their Vehicle Decals Online
By 2.29.16
The bright pink mustaches and the “U” decals used to designate ride-sharing vehicles for Uber and Lyft have found a second purpose: making their owners quick cash on sites like eBay. While selling the insignias might be a good way for former drivers to pad their wallets — sometimes by thousands of dollars, it means the decals might be used for other purposes. For that reason, always be sure to double check the license plate, and driver’s name before getting in a hailed vehicle. [Business Insider] [More]
Lyft Partners With Waze In Effort To Be Faster, More Efficient Than The Competition
By 1.26.16
What’s a ride-hailing company to do when it’s got a rival or two cruising around town trying to pick up the same customers it wants? It has to have a leg up on the competition. Getting passengers to their destinations quicker than other services is one way to beat out others, which is why Lyft is partnering with Google’s traffic app Waze. [More]
GM Investing $500M In Lyft, Hopes You Will Eventually Get Rides From Self-Driving Fleet
By 1.4.16
The world of business partnerships is kicking off 2016 with a bang, bringing together the old world of cars with the new. GM, the occasionally troubled behemoth carmaker founded in 1908, and Lyft, the once-mustachioed ride-hailing service (that isn’t Uber) founded in 2012, are embarking together on a half-billion dollar plan to bring the future to a street near you. [More]
Sidecar Calling It Quits, Ceasing Service Dec. 31
By 12.29.15
There will be one less ride-sharing company to shuttle you and your packages around the city come January 1: Sidecar plans to shutter its ride and delivery service by the end of the year. [More]
Facebook Users Can Now Use The Messenger App To Hail A Ride
By 12.16.15
In its ongoing effort to keep Facebook users inside the Facebook universe at all times, the social media giant is adding a new feature to Messenger that will allow folks to hail a ride with Uber and other on-demand car services from within the app. [More]
Uber, Lyft Given Final Approval To Stay In Portland After City Council Vote
By 12.3.15
What a difference a year makes: it’s been almost 12 months since Uber and officials in Portland, OR agreed to work on new rules together to allow the company to operate in the city, and now, those rules have finally been approved, giving ride-hailing services the go-ahead to do their thing. [More]
Lyft, Uber To Offer Homeless Veterans Free Rides To And From Jobs, Interviews
By 11.10.15
Ride-hailing companies have always shared a bit of a spirited rivalry: a hacker redirected Uber’s petition site to Lyft and Lyft accused Uber employees of requesting and then canceling 5,600 rides. But today the companies announced they would put their differences aside and team up to offer free rides for veterans in need of transportation to and from jobs and interviews. [More]
Lyft Can Send You Free Zombies On Demand For Halloween
By 10.28.15
Companies that send vehicles on demand also enjoy giving people the ability to summon other things with the power of their smartphones, like when Uber let people in select cities summon puppies and kittens or free fruit deliveries when the company was suspended from giving rides in Germany. Lyft’s Halloween publicity stunt is less cuddly and more spooky: they’ll send you zombies on demand if you order one. [More]
Lyft & Verizon Partner Up To Offer Free DeLorean Rides To NYCers On Oct. 21
By 10.20.15
Marty McFly probably didn’t need a time machine to predict that where there’s a popular, revered movie franchise, there will be plenty of publicity stunts staged around it. As Oct. 21 approaches — the date Marty and Doc traveled to in Back to the Future: II — companies are falling all over themselves to get a piece of the attention, offering flux capacitors, commemorative Pepsi Perfect sodas and more. This time it’s Verizon and Lyft, who have joined forces to offer New York City passengers free rides in a DeLorean DMC-12 for the day. [More]
Lyft Partners With Hertz To Recruit Drivers Who May Not Own A Car
By 10.9.15
Don’t have a car, but want to make a few extra dollars picking up strangers and taking them point A to point B? A new partnership between Lyft and Hertz car rentals aims to let you do just that — and get free gas, kind of. [More]
Lyft & First National Bank Busted For Forcing Customers To Accept Robocalls & Spam Text
By 9.11.15
As we recently pointed out with the PayPal terms of service, it’s against the law for a company to require that its customers to accept spam text messages and pre-recorded, auto-dialed robocalls. Someone should have forwarded that message on to Lyft and First National Bank. The FCC has cited both companies for forcing their customers to agree to unwanted marketing messages, in violation of federal law. [More]
Sen. Calls For More Precise Data On “On-Demand” Economy & Workforce
By 9.1.15
Independent contractors are nothing new — taxi drivers paying to use a medallion, barbers renting out chairs to cut hair, local artisans selling jewelry and apparel on consignment — but the boom in online platforms that give everyone immediate access to these services and products has resulted in an “on-demand” economy and workforce whose true size and scope is unknown. In an effort to get a more accurate picture on this issue, one U.S. senator is calling on federal officials to provide more relevant data. [More]
