Uber Vs. Lyft – How They Are Transforming Ridesharing
Nearly every person wants to know differences between Uber and Lyft. Some of the questions they ask include: who is cheaper than another? Who offers great ridesharing experience, Lyft vs uber? You should note that these are two competing rivals in a rapidly growing industry, ridesharing.
In various ways, these companies provide nearly same services. They are all popular ridesharing companies. However, their philosophies are quite different.
Lyft Vs. Uber
These two service providers are simply Transportation Network Companies, TNC. This means that they are connecting paying passengers with drivers that offer transportation on non-commercial vehicles. Passengers and drivers connect through a computing platform, which creates a live marketplace, where services are matched with demands. In this case, ridesharing means ordinary people that drive their cars to get paid for driving passengers who want to get somewhere.
Timeline
Uber was founded in 2009 by Travis Kalanick and Garett Camp. Later in 2011, they changed the name to Uber. In the years that followed, they introduced other services such as UberX. Over the years, it has rapidly expanded across the world. On the other hand, Lyft emerged out Zimride. This was a ridesharing company founded in 2007 by John Zimmer and Logan Green. What was known as Zimride changed to Lyft in 2013.
Market Share
Although Lyft and Uber are main competitors offering ridesharing services, these two companies are not of the same size. In fact, Uber is bigger than Lyft to a huge extent and operates in many countries. On the other hand, Lyft is limited to the United States with plans for future expansion to other countries.
For drivers, they get more volume from Uber than Lyft. This is because its popularity means that there are several opportunities as compared to its competitors. Thus, if you want to become a ridesharing driver, then there is a lot of potentials to earn more in Uber than Lyft.
Culture
Uber is wel
l-known for professional-oriented services. On the other hand, Lyft encourages informality in drivers. This explains why they have pink mustaches on their cars. Therefore, Lyft has a good reputation for being a friendly alternative to Uber.
Drivers
The cultures of these companies also affect how they operate internally. For instance, they have a contrasting approach to hiring a new driver. Uber is quite formal. Thus, it evaluates drivers through strict guidelines. Lyft uses mentorship program where drivers are guided through the whole process of becoming a driver.