Possible big reduction in Lyft availability

JimMIA

There's more to life than mice...
Joined
Feb 16, 2005
Lyft has a program called "Express Drive," which provides car rentals from Hertz for Lyft drivers. Many drivers who don't own cars, or don't own cars new enough to qualify, use Express Drive.

Lyft is discontinuing Express Drive, and drivers have been told to return their cars -- in most cases by the end of June.

A very large segment of the Lyft driver population uses this program, so this situation may really impact the availability of Lyft service. Lyft will still provide service, but wait times may increase greatly.

We'll see in July.
 
That's also assuming that demand has remained high which I highly doubt it has. Purely speculative but I would imagine this is 100% Lyft's idea because it has too many drivers. Hertz is on the verge of bankruptcy. The last thing they want is more cars. They literally have parking lots off airports right now filled with thousands of rental cars and are all depreciating much faster than planned therefore causing balloon payments that they cannot afford.
 
I've noticed that many drivers work for both Lyft and Uber. Should we expect an impact on Uber service as well.
 


That's also assuming that demand has remained high which I highly doubt it has.
No, demand is way down, like -80% -- although it's starting to pick up a little as we begin to slowly reopen.
Purely speculative but I would imagine this is 100% Lyft's idea because it has too many drivers. Hertz is on the verge of bankruptcy.
There is no such thing in rideshare as "too many drivers." The more driver saturation a company has, the quicker the pickup times and therefore fewer canceled requests because the other company was quicker. And Lyft has never had enough drivers anywhere.

Hertz' problems probably have a lot to do with this decision. It's entirely possible that Hertz called the cars back in to prepare for bankruptcy. Also possible Lyft terminated the relationship because they didn't want to get caught in the middle.
 
I've noticed that many drivers work for both Lyft and Uber. Should we expect an impact on Uber service as well.
Drivers who own their own cars drive for both companies.

Those who rent cars usually drive for only one company because the terms of the rental agreements are designed to force them to do so. I don't know the percentages, but my sense is that Lyft has always had a much greater segment of their drivers using rental vehicles.

As far as impact, that will differ greatly from market to market. Here in Miami, the loss of rentals will hurt Lyft greatly because they have hundreds of drivers who do not meet Uber's requirements driving Hertz rentals -- and often 2-3 drivers using the same car.

It will be interesting to see how Lyft looks here in July. They have two rental car companies in some cities, and I'm sure they will be trying to get a replacement for Hertz.
 
Which makes hertz different from every other car rental compang whose primary business comes from air travelevs, how? Anyway, https://www.ft.com/content/e19f4b5c-c47f-4c18-9f51-6bc1e4624bf3

This particular thread involves Hertz. Avis appears to be weathering this storm much better. In terms of stock price, Avis has actually almost doubled over the past week whereas Hertz has continued to decline. Enterprise is also different from both because many of their rentals come from insurance replacement.
 


No, demand is way down, like -80% -- although it's starting to pick up a little as we begin to slowly reopen. There is no such thing in rideshare as "too many drivers." The more driver saturation a company has, the quicker the pickup times and therefore fewer canceled requests because the other company was quicker. And Lyft has never had enough drivers anywhere.

Hertz' problems probably have a lot to do with this decision. It's entirely possible that Hertz called the cars back in to prepare for bankruptcy. Also possible Lyft terminated the relationship because they didn't want to get caught in the middle.
Looks like you were right about Hertz....

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/22/business/hertz-bankruptcy/index.html
 
Generally Im a big fan of ride sharing. But like everything else, rental cars have become dirt cheap again.
 
Enterprise is also different from both because many of their rentals come from insurance replacement.
Although true that Enterprise does a lot in the local rental market for insurance replacement and car repair replacement., they are the corporate parent of both Alamo and National. Obviously, Alamo and National have major presences in the airport rental business. In terms of rental car market shares, the corporate parents Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis capture over 90% of the US market in the form of their various marketing labels, in that order. Enterprise alone has over 40% of the market, about 3X the size of Hertz alone and four times the size of Avis alone. Alamo and National are each about half the market share of Hertz alone.
 
One update and it's a little weird.

Uber also has a rental program with Hertz, and that program is apparently remaining intact.

That leads me to think this is something else between Lyft and Hertz that might be unrelated to the Hertz Chapter 11 filing. No idea what that could be.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Latest posts

Top