Harvey put Lyft’s ‘relief rides’ into gear for first time

App proved worth as storm limited transportation

Perhaps it was fitting that when Kaleb Miller mobilized a small battalion of drivers to ferry evacuees from shelters after Hurricane Harvey, he did it from the front seat of his car.

“I didn’t have power,” Miller explained earlier this month. “I couldn’t get reception, so I went out to my car and plugged in my laptop.”

Others, however, had far greater problems than a few days without power and Miller — general manager for the ride-hailing app Lyft in the Gulf region — had a way to help. Once streets were open, Miller and Joshua Sanders, a Houston lobbyist for the ride company, worked with city officials to connect Lyft’s willing drivers with the thousands of people who soon would transition from shelters to temporary homes or back to the ones they fled in the face of Harvey’s floods.

The cooperation was a marked change from the sometimes contentious relationship between Lyft and

city leaders during the past three years. The company, one of two that launched in Houston in February 2014, before city regulations were in place, left after the rules went into effect rather than comply. Lyft only returned to Houston in September after statewide rules — which the company lobbied heavily for and helped craft — trumped Houston’s regulations.

None of that mattered when it came to chipping in, city and company officials said.

Never done before

City officials have said the process, which relied on allowing Houston shelter managers and the American Red Cross access to Lyft’s concierge service to coordinate rides, worked with clocklike precision.

“What they did during Harvey, no one had ever done before, and it worked from the first trip,” said Lara Cottingham, deputy assistant director of Houston’s Department of Administration and Regulatory Affairs.

It was a first for Lyft, too, Miller said, and one the company quickly replicated in Florida when Hurricane Irma threatened millions along the Sunshine State’s western coast. It also was used briefly to evacuate people after a gunman opened fire on a country music concert audience of thousands at the Las Vegas strip last month.

“We have turned the relief rides program into a national thing,” Miller said.

When Miller and Sanders started working with city officials, boats were the main mode of transportation around Houston. Mayor Sylvester Turner and others were telling people to stay off the streets. Lyft and Uber, its main competitor in the paid ride market, remained offline. Yellow Cab was only making critically needed trips in consultation with the city.

By the Wednesday after the storms pounded the Houston area, things were improving as floodwaters receded.

“There was a lot of internal discussion of when to turn the app back on,” Sanders said. “We didn’t want to launch and cause more problems.”

Once active, Lyft’s platform provided an easy way to request, track and verify trips from the shelters around Houston, especially the George R. Brown Convention Center, Toyota Center and NRG Park.

Concierge system

What made it effective, Miller said, was use of the concierge system, which lets someone set up a ride for another person. Initially created for health care-related trips, Miller and others quickly trained a handful of shelter staff and allowed them access to the concierge system via computer and smartphone.

“Keeping tabs on who the person was going with and where the person was going was so much easier,” Cottingham said.

Officials then firmed up the process for transporting people from the shelters to wherever they needed to go, and in some cases back and forth from doctor’s visits.

Drivers also brought Red Cross volunteers back and forth, and, in some cases, carried food or donated items to and from other locations and the shelters.

The bulk of the rides were evacuees leaving the shelters. Finally able to bunk with cousins or friends, families and individuals leaving the shelters would communicate with volunteers. Once the people and their belongings were outside, Lyft had a designated pick-up spot where willing drivers would pull in, load the people and belongings and be on their way.

Communication crucial

Sanders said communication in both directions was crucial to funnel cars and people in and out. People leaving the shelters needed to have all their belongings — sometimes clumped in trash bags — with them waiting on the curb.

Drivers, meanwhile, were given advance warning of the trips, and asked to confirm whether they wanted to provide the ride or ferry food.

“They were the ones who made all of this possible,” Miller said of the drivers. “They did this on their own backs.”

Given the efficiency and the fact all the recordkeeping was electronic, Cottingham said the city would certainly turn to the app-based companies again, if needed, for shelter services and other emergency uses.

“We need as many transportation options as we can get,” she said.

Lyft provided the rides and paid the drivers for their share of the fares based on the typical mileage and time of trip. Miller said the company is not seeking any reimbursement from local, state or federal officials, because Lyft opted not to bother with the paperwork necessary to submit trip vouchers.

Though using the concierge system was very valuable, company and city officials said it cannot perform optimally in every potential disaster that might hit Houston.

“We got really lucky that this wasn’t Category 4 winds that knocked out all our power,” Sanders said. “We don’t have crank phones.”