Even though Uber is currently dominating the ride sharing market, it still has competition. Lyft, for example, is one of its main rivals, trying to follow the same strategy. This fact was confirmed this week, when they announced fare cuts through the United States, in an attempt to compete with Uber, which made a similar announcement recently, reducing fares in 100 cities.
According to Venture Beat, the discounts will be available in 33 cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Baltimore and Washington. Clients will pay less for a ride, as the company is trying to attract more and more of them.
Trying to keep up
The same source mentions that this shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Lyft has been following suit with Uber, as the on-demand car service seems to be a very profitable industry.
Depending on the city they’re in, Lyft users should expect to save from 10 to 30 percent on a ride. “Lowering the prices are necessary to stay competitive,” said one of the company’s spokespersons. “With Uber price changes, we had to protect the ridership and the long-term earnings of our drivers.”
Until now, Lyft hasn’t had long discussions with its drivers, but the company claims that they are aware that the service is “still the best option for them and we only make these changes when we need to.”
Will the drivers earn less?
Still, this raise some questions. After announcing their fare cuts, Uber said that their drivers’ earning won’t be affected by this. On the other side, there’s no word about Lyft doing the same thing.
The company has been introducing new features and services for its drivers, like allowing them to receive instant deposits on fares and benefits from Shell and Hertz. Finally, this week, the ride sharing company introduced a pre-matching function, in order to make getting rider requests quicker.
