Lyft teams with Carvana to get drivers to ‘ditch’ their cars
Ride-hailing company offers free rides for people willing to give up vehicles
Lyft is willing to give away free rides to its service users in San Francisco. All those people have to do to get the deal is sell their cars.
On Thursday, Lyft announced a new partnership with online used car retailer Carvana called Ditch Your Car. As the program’s name suggests, Lyft and Carvana want San Francisco drivers to, literally, ditch their cars in favor of taking up Lyft’s ride-hailing service as their standard method for getting around town.
Under terms of the sixweek program, Lyft riders in San Francisco will get an email from Lyft offering them $250 in Lyft credits, and three free months of the Lyft Pink ride-hailing service for free, should they follow through with selling their car with Carvana. Lyft Pink is a new option that Lyft announced in October that, for $19.99 a month, gives riders a 15% discount on unlimited rides, as well as priority airport pickups and three free 30-minute bike or scooter rides a month via Bay Wheels and Lyft scooters in San Jose and Oakland..
Lyft said the car- selling program is meant to build upon a similar one it offered last year that got more than 8,000 San Francisco drivers use Lyft and alternative transportation methods by giving up their cars for a month.
“We believe in a future in which San Francisco is built around our community instead of cars,” said David Kunst, general manager for Lyft’s San Francisco market. Kunst added that the program is part of Lyft’s philosophy to “fundamentally change the way we think about car ownership.”
Once a person gets their offer email, they are given a link to Carvana to start the vehicle appraisal process. Carvana then comes up with a price estimate based on a car’s details such as year, make and model. When a person accepts an offer, Carvana sends out a check and makes arrangements to pick up the vehicle. The seller then gets the credits for Lyft’s services upon the deal’s completion.
Lyft said that in addition to San Francisco, the Ditch Your Car program will be offered during a six-week period in Los Angeles and Chicago.