Uber faces fight for riders, drivers as Lyft expands into capital region
Warmer, fuzzier ride-sharing rival touts ‘laser focus’ on its drivers
Lyft is confirming Ottawa will be the next Canadian city eyed for its ride service, going head to head with Uber in a battle for customers and drivers in the capital region.
“We’ve been very intentional with the markets we’ve selected in Canada,” Aaron Zifkin, Lyft’s managing director for Canada, said in an interview.
“The most important thing for us is we’re aligning the values of our company with the type of communities that we’re going to be operating in and Ottawa was a natural fit. It’s the capital of Canada and obviously the heartbeat of the country and so we wanted to launch there as quickly as possible.”
The city’s bylaw department tipped off councillors last November that Lyft was asking about the municipal licensing system in Ottawa.
Lyft, which has filed its paperwork at city hall, hasn’t announced a specific launch date in Ottawa as it starts to recruit drivers and go through the licence application process.
“We’ll be launching in the coming weeks,” Zifkin said.
The battle isn’t solely for passengers. Starting Monday, Lyft will assemble its driver roster. No doubt, drivers already signed up with Uber will look into Lyft. They might even end up driving for both.
For customers, Lyft and Uber work the same way, using smartphone applications to enter their credit card information and order rides without having to call a dispatch. Customers rate drivers and drivers rate passengers, all through the app.
Ottawa taxi companies have also launched apps, but customers have the option to make a phone call to order a ride.
Ottawa’s largest taxi company isn’t worried about Lyft. Marc André Way, chief executive of Coventry Connections, said the battle between Lyft and Uber will have little effect on cabbies.
“It’s the same group of drivers running for the same piece of pie,” Way said. “The users of that type of platform are already gone from our market.”
Way, who’s also president of the Canadian Taxi Association, said there’s an opportunity for cabbies to cash in if there’s another competitor using a supply-anddemand pricing scheme.
( Way is also a plaintiff in a classaction lawsuit against the City of Ottawa over the new licence system.)
Lyft and Uber raise prices at busy times to encourage drivers to log on and pick up customers. Lyft calls it prime time and Uber calls it surge pricing.
Taxis can’t raise prices past the city-set maximum fare, but they ’re allowed to decrease their rates if they take ride orders through an app. The “soft meter” discussions are ongoing between cabbies and city hall.
This kind of price war is exactly what city hall envisioned when it changed the licensing regime in 2016; the fare-paying customer is in the driver’s seat.
In Ottawa, city hall regulates taxi companies and private transportation companies (PTCs) differently The companies licensed as PTCs in Ottawa are EcoRides, Teslift and Uber.
Lyft already operates in the Greater Toronto Area. Ottawa is the next wave of its Canadian expansion.
The Toronto-based Zifkin, who has also lived in Ottawa, said when he has free time he turns on his Lyft driver application to chauffeur people around Toronto, meeting passengers and learning about neighbourhoods.
Zifkin said Lyft’s pricing is equal to that of the competition.
Lyft sees itself as a warm-andfuzzy alternative ride service. Zifken, who recently joined Lyft after overseeing Airbnb’s operations in the Americas, avoided making any direct comments about rivals.
“We don’t spend too much time thinking about the competition,” Zifkin said.
“The reason why (Lyft) has seen the incredible growth that they have is really differentiation with how we treat people, in this specific instance with the way we treat our drivers. We really believe that if we treat our driving community well that will in turn create a great experience for our rider community.”
Is that to say Uber doesn’t treat its drivers well? Again, Zifkin avoids talking about the other company.
“We’re laser-focused on making sure our drivers have a great experience and really understand the core values that have made Lyft grow so fast historically and we plan on doing the same thing in Ottawa,” Zifkin said.
Uber, to be fair, has made an effort to improve its relationship with drivers. It launched a “180 days of change” program last year in response to feedback from drivers.
Uber doesn’t seem to mind more competition in Ottawa.
“Uber is proud to have paved the way for ride-sharing in Canada and we welcome competition that encourages the use of more transportation alternatives,” Uber Canada spokeswoman Susie Heath said. “More options can help reduce congestion and pollution as consumers increasingly make the switch from driving their own car to using shared mobility services.”
The City of Ottawa reported last November it completed almost 2,000 audits of driver and vehicle records for PTCs over the previous 12 months. Those checks would almost all be for Uber.
Zifkin didn’t know exactly how many drivers Lyft is hoping to sign up in Ottawa.
Lyft says it’s finalizing an accessibility fee with the city, but it intends to pay the same amount as other PTCs. Uber is paying a surcharge of seven cents per ride to the city, which brought in about $450,000 in the first year.
Zifkin said Ottawa isn’t part of a larger multi-city Canadian rollout for Lyft.
“We’re just really focused on Ottawa and making sure we have a great experience for our riders, drivers and the city at large,” Zifkin said.