Lyft Asks US Drivers To ‘Ditch’ Their Cars Against Free Rides


11/07/2019



Users of the United States based ride sharing company Lyft has said that it would be ready to offer free rides to those users of its services in San Francisco who decide to get rid of their cars and sell them off.
 
A new program called Ditch Your Car was announced by Lyft on Thursday as a part of the company’s partnership with the online used car retailer Carvana. The two companies want drivers in San Francisco to literally get rid of their cars and choose to use the ride hailing services of Lyft as their preferred choice of mode for travelling within the city.
 
This program has been announced for a period of six weeks under which an email from Lyft to its riders in San Francisco will be sent wherein the company would be offering $250 in Lyft credits along with three free months of the Lyft Pink ride-hailing service for free if the users would decide to accept the offer and sell their cars with Carvana.
 
A 15 per cent discount was offered to riders of the company on unlimited rides was offered by Lyft in a program called Lyft Pink offered by the company in October this year for $19.99 a month. In addition, the company also offered to arrange for priority airport pickups and other benefits for such users that are not given by the company to the standard users of the company.
 
A similar program was launched by Lyft last year which resulted in more than 8,000 San Francisco drivers making use of services of Lyft and alternative transportation methods as they gave up their cars for a month and the latest car-selling program is aimed at augmenting and following up that earlier program, Lyft said.
 
“We believe in a future in which San Francisco is built around our community instead of cars,” said David Kunst, general manager for Lyft’s San Francisco market. The program is part of Lyft’s philosophy to “fundamentally change the way we think about car ownership,” he added,
 
A link to Carvana to start the vehicle appraisal process is given to those who get the email from Lyft. Then based on the details of the car such as year, make and model, Carvana comes up with a price estimate for the cars of such individuals who decide to ditch their cars. After such an offer is accepted by the person, a check is send out by Carvana and then arranges for picking up of the vehicle of the user. Then upon the deal’s completion, the seller then gets the credits for Lyft’s services.
 
The Ditch Your Car program will be offered during a six-week period in Los Angeles and Chicago in addition to San Francisco, Lyft said.
 
(Source:www.mercurynews.com)