Your Lyft ride got cheaper because the company laid off so many employees
- Lyft has lowered ride prices after laying off over 1,000 corporate employees this spring.
- As a result, it has claimed some market share from rival Uber, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Lyft's layoffs this spring may be one of the reasons your ride is cheaper than usual.
In April, Lyft laid off just over 1,000 employees or about a quarter of its corporate workforce. Part of the company's justification for eliminating those jobs was to use the money to lower fares for riders and compete with Uber.
As planned, Lyft has lowered prices in the months following the layoffs, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. This, in turn, has helped it gain share from Uber, its larger rival in the ride-hailing space, according to the report. CEO David Risher, who took the top job at Lyft earlier this year and oversaw the layoffs, said that he's using his previous experience in the nonprofit world to operate the company with fewer resources.
Still, the company has yet to publicly set a timeline for achieving profitability, and it's considering selling off its bike-focused division, the Journal reported. Meanwhile, Lyft has called employees back to the office — an about-face from its previous work-from-home stance — and Risher said they should be lured by office snacks.
Lyft has made other changes to compete with Uber lately. As of May, travelers at some major US airports can request a ride with Lyft as soon as they land instead of waiting to deplane and get their luggage, for example.
The cost of catching a ride through Uber and Lyft has risen over 80% during the last several years, according to data cited by Forbes. In October, the company raised a fee it charges all rides to cover insurance costs, Reuters reported.
Municipalities are also adding and contemplating new fees on rides through the apps. Washington, DC, for example, is considering a $2 fee that would apply to ride-hailing trips into or out of the District's downtown, DCist reported in April.