Uber rival Lyft expanding into Canada
TORONTO — Ride-hailing company Lyft, Uber’s main rival, will soon offer lifts to residents of the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton in its first foray outside the United States.
“We’ve been a business for five years and have been focused entirely on the United States, so we were very deliberate when making a decision to launch in Toronto as our first international market,” John Zimmer, Lyft’s president and co-founder, said in an interview.
“We see it as a world-class city. It will likely become one of our top 5 markets overall. We expect that to happen, and we see it as a city that really shares the values that we have at Lyft — focusing on people taking care of people, treating people well, treating people with mutual respect and promoting both inclusion and diversity.
“It’s a big decision. It’s a big moment for us, and we’re excited to be coming to Toronto.”
Preparing to go head to head with Uber, Lyft is signing up local drivers — including some who will respond to smartphone hails via both companies — and set up a local “hub” offering expertise to those who want to use their personal cars to make money.
Lyft plans to launch next month in the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton with five options:
regular vehicles for up to four passengers; the Plus service, with vehicles that can carry up to six people; Premier, offering high-end cars; Lux, with luxury black cars “piloted by a top driver”; and an SUV version of Lux.
The company is not yet ready to announce passenger rates, driver fees or details of the Toronto office.
The expansion comes more than five years after Uber barged into the Toronto market, upending the traditional cab industry. Its lobbying efforts helped produce, just over a year ago, council-approved regulations legalizing app-based “private transportation companies” alongside taxis.
Uber has become part of Toronto’s transportation scene, with almost 50,000 drivers — many part-time — and new services including food delivery.
Uber remains ride-hail king in the United States, and quickly expanded to other countries, but has been rocked by scandals and lawsuits that triggered a #DeleteUber movement, questions over driver treatment, and the replacement of chief executive and founder Travis Kalanick.
Lyft, which retired fuzzy pink moustaches in drivers’ grilles in favour of glowing “Amp” dashboard signs, has mostly avoided such headlines.
Asked how Lyft will compete, Zimmer says 5,000 Torontonians downloaded the app this year with no service available. And, while he won’t say the word “Uber,” he has no hesitation in positioning his company as a more ethical option to “our competitor.”
“It’s important to give people a choice … In order to provide the best hospitality to the end customer, you need to take best care of the drivers, and that’s something we’ve done for five years,” Zimmer said. “It will be reliable, it will be affordable, but it will also be an experience more focused on the hospitality service.”
He pointed to Lyft’s decision, long before Uber, to let users tip drivers within the app, and a program to help non-owners rent cars by the week so that they, too, can earn money as drivers.
Khalid Ahmed, 31, says he makes about $30 an hour, less expenses, as an occasional driver for Uber. He plans to switch to Lyft.
“It’s new, it’s fresh. It’s like waiting in line for the new iPhone — I’ve got to have it,” he said with a laugh. He also likes the company’s mission statement and driver incentives. “At the end of the day, I’m available to the highest bidder.”
Few, however, expect human drivers to be part of ride-hailing’s future. Uber has set up a lab in Toronto to test self-driving cars. Zimmer himself, in a September 2016 blog post, predicted that by 2021 the majority of Lyft rides would be in “autonomous fleet vehicles.”
CapitalG, the growth investment fund of Google parent company Alphabet, is leading a $1 billion US round of financing in Lyft.