On Nov. 12, Lyft made Arizona home to its second-ever Driver Center.
Joined by Arizona and San Francisco Lyft employees, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and Lyft drivers, Lyft celebrated the grand opening of the Driver Center in Phoenix. The 20,000-square-foot space includes maintenance services such as oil changes; tire rotation and replacement; brake pad replacement; battery replacement; free diagnostic inspections and will offer collision and body repair in December.
The Center also offers driver support where drivers can connect with Lyft Community Associate representatives about the app, driver accounts and more. In addition, the Center has comfortable spots to rest, coffee, drinks and restrooms to give drivers a place to rest and recharge. The goal of the Center is to serve as a home base for Phoenix-area drivers, and give drivers affordable, efficient and quick service so they can get back out on the road.
“Phoenix continues to be an important market for Lyft and Lyft continues to invest in Phoenix, and given our growing number of rides and drivers on our platform, we anticipated that this would be an incredibly beneficial thing for our drivers,” said Drena Kusari, regional director, Southwest region for Lyft.
“For our drivers this is another way that we’re hoping to give value back to them,” Kusari said. “The approach here is like a race car pitstop, we’re trying to minimize the time that the car sits in the shop so the driver can have access to it quickly so they can get back on the road to earning because on our platform, their vehicle is how they earn money.”
“The Lyft Driver Center is purpose-built,” said Neha Ajmera, senior director of fleet business operations, Lyft. “One of the main reasons we got into the business is drivers have been telling us for a long time that the cost of doing business on a rideshare platform is expensive and up to 50 percent of their operating costs can come from vehicle maintenance and services and we want to help drivers lower this cost. And 60 percent of our drivers express dissatisfaction with repair shops and are generally unhappy with the experience and the service that they receive.”
In addition, repair shops can be more expensive and because of high volume, which can keep cars for service longer, and Lyft wanted to change that experience for their drivers, Ajmera said.
“We want to have affordable and honest prices and we are below the average market prices for most services,” Ajmera said. “We don’t upsell drivers on services they don’t need and want to continue to deepen the relationship with our drivers – they want to get back on the road and we want to provide them with services to do that and keep them happy on our platform.”
Kusari said a benefit of the multi-functional driver center is the driver support and service aspect where drivers can connect with a “friendly community associate who is very knowledgeable about the platform and app, and as a lot of them are existing or former Lyft drivers, they can empathize with the driver experience.”
Glenn Hamer, president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce said Lyft has helped people travel from public transportation and contributes to road safety and reducing traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions.
“We’ve seen firsthand the significant impact Lyft has had on our communities both in Arizona and across the country. First, Lyft has made our local communities safer, according to a recent study 73 percent of passengers in Phoenix say they are less likely to drive impaired because Lyft is easily available as an option. Lyft also significantly helps to reduce traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions and the same study shows that 46 percent of vehicle owners use their cars less because of Lyft and 61 percent of non-car owners in Phoenix say Lyft has impacted their decision to not own or lease a personal vehicle.”
The Lyft Driver Center in Phoenix is one of many locations Lyft hopes to open up across the country within the next year. Kusari said the Driver Center gives Lyft a competitive advantage with potential drivers, and believes it is a strong reason to consider driving with Lyft and encourages current Lyft drivers to come to the Center and see what services they offer.
Lyft’s other driver services include:
Express Drive: A program which connects Lyft drivers to rental vehicles with standard maintenance and insurance coverage. Learn more at lyft.com/expressdrive.
Lyft Direct: A bank account designed for drivers’ needs with no fees, linked to a debit card, where they can instantly access earnings and receive cash back on specific purchases.
Openbay: Through our Openbay partnership, Lyft drivers will be able to get exclusive discounts on vehicle service through a network of quality service providers all around their city.
