By Akash Sriram
(Reuters) -Lyft on Tuesday rolled out steps to increase pay for longer-than-estimated trips and prioritize safer drivers for rides as it looks to bring more people to drive on the ride-hail platform.
The company would also introduce a new earnings dashboard, “preferred drivers” getting more requests and the ability for electric-vehicle drivers to get matched with rides that fall within their battery range.
“We have about 1.3 million or so drivers over the last year that have been on the platform. We’ve seen pretty tremendous growth year over year … Our goal is to continue to grow that,” Jeremy Bird, EVP of driver experience at Lyft (NASDAQ:), told Reuters.
Lyft has been pursuing strategies to gain ground in a fiercely competitive U.S. ride-hailing market dominated by Uber (NYSE:) by attracting passengers with competitive pricing and implementing programs to recruit and retain drivers.
The company will now display the estimated hourly rate for each ride to help drivers decide if a ride is worth their time and pay more for trips that are at least five minutes more than the estimated time.
These features, along with the “preferred driver” program for those who have a higher safe-driving score, are not matched by Uber.
In the three months ended June, Lyft saw the most new drivers in any quarter since 2019, including 34% more women and non-binary drivers compared to the year-ago period.
Earlier this year, Lyft had assured drivers would earn at least 70% of fares each week, a first for the U.S. ride-hailing industry.
The company also said on Tuesday it has partnered with Merit America to enable drivers to take on free courses and with Stride Health to help them find lower-cost health insurance.
