Lyft Contracts Uber To Deliver Drivers’ Lunches

SHUTTERSTOCK

Everyone knows that politics makes for strange bedfellows … but, apparently, the same can now be said for the ride-sharing business.

As part of a continued effort to show its appreciation for its drivers (and perhaps keep them loyal to the company, while attracting new ones to it), Lyft had been in talks with a number of food delivery services about entering into a long-term agreement through which lunch would be provided — on Lyft’s tab — for the ride-sharing company’s drivers throughout the United States.

Yesterday (March 31), it was revealed that Lyft has settled on one service in that regard, contracting — of all companies — UberEATS.

UberEATS is, of course, the food delivery arm of Uber, the vanguard (and dominant) player in the field of ride-sharing and the primary competitor of Lyft, which continues to toil as second banana to the company.

Why, then, did Lyft opt to effectively boost Uber’s business by handing it a long-term contract?

“We don’t see it that way,” Ron Storn, VP of people at Lyft, told PYMNTS. “We looked at a lot of food delivery companies operating in the same cities that the majority of our drivers do, and it just turned out that UberEATS happened to be the best fit for our needs in terms of their record of service, availability, pricing and, frankly, the depth of menu options that UberEATS is able to offer through their restaurant partnerships.”

“We’re good at all of those things, too,” Storn was quick to add. “Not the food delivery part, because we don’t do that — not yet, anyway. But all the other stuff. In fact, we’re better at all those other things than Uber. Lyft is number one.”

Attesting that Lyft, for its purposes, regards Uber and UberEATS as two completely separate entities, John Zimmer, Lyft’s cofounder and president, told PYMNTS that his company sees no conflict of interest regarding its contract with UberEATS.

“Yeah, they have the same name, and they’re technically part of the same company,” remarked Zimmer, “but Uber is stupid. UberEATS is fine.”

“In fact,” he continued, “around the office, we have a little nickname for Uber. We call them ‘Stuber.’ Like, ‘Uber’ and ‘stupid’ put together…”

“Yeah, maybe that doesn’t work. I don’t know … We’re working on it,” said Zimmer, who went on to state, “Maybe we shouldn’t have contracted UberEATS to deliver lunch to our drivers. Saying it out loud, now, it seems weird.”

“Yeah, we thought it was super weird,” Jeff Holden, chief product officer at Uber, told PYMNTS about Uber’s initial response when Lyft first approached it about contracting with UberEATS.

“But, whatever,” he added. “We’ll take their money.”

Editor’s Note: This article is part of the PYMNTS.com special April Fools’ edition. Any connection to fact is purely coincidental.