Win a Free Trip to Lyft HQ via the Driver Advisory Council

Do you think it would be cool to score a free trip to Lyft headquarters in San Francisco? Well, Lyft is currently accepting applications for their 2019 Driver Advisory Council. Joe here with The Ride Share Guy and today we are going to discuss what the Lyft Driver Advisory Council is.

Now first off, applications are only open until October 16th so if you want to apply you should do it as soon as possible and we’ll leave a link in the description where you can apply. Also, if you do miss that date the Driver Advisory Council brings on new members every single year so you have a chance every single year to apply.

What is the Lyft Driver Advisory Council?

The Lyft Driver Advisory Council originated back in 2016 after a volley of price cuts that were initiated by Uber and in an effort to combat driver backlash, Lyft actually flew out drivers from across the country to the Bay Area in order to meet with Lyft Co-founder and President John Zimmer.

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Our driver’s experience at the Council

Christian over at the rideshareguy.com was actually one of those selected drivers and he recalls that for the first 30 minutes of that meeting he and the other nine drivers that were invited actually grilled John on the recent price cuts, letting him know how it affected real people and how it would be difficult for Lyft to retain drivers going forward.

The second half of the meeting consisted of all of them bouncing ideas off of each other on how to make driving for Lyft just a little better in light of the price cuts. And from that meeting, they managed to get Lyft to remove their 200% cap on prime time, changed the referral bonuses to pay out more and also create a permanent Driver Advisory Council.

What drivers do in the Lyft Driver Advisory Council

So what is the Driver Advisory Council? In essence, it’s a way for Lyft to include drivers in the process of running their business, rolling out products, partnerships and changing policy with input from drivers.

But it is important to remember that it is not a union. It largely acts as an in-house consulting forum. But with that being said, everyone who has been on the council takes their position very seriously. All drivers on the council receive a paycheck from Lyft to hold meetings with drivers from their region. They talk with engineers and other employees at Lyft at least once a week and provide insight and feedback on changes being considered for drivers.

A lot of what they do is prevent Lyft from running with bad ideas and all that has already been happening quietly over the last few years. And the Driver Advisory Council tends to revolve around what they call the three Ps for driving for Lyft, product, partnerships and policy. And as far as product, Advisory Council members work with the product and engineering teams at Lyft to provide insights into different app updates that Lyft is working on and one example of this is allowing passengers to be rated up to 24 hours after a ride.

Changes and partnerships that happened because of the DAC

And as far as partnerships, the DAC is often consulted on partnerships with different brands, the promotions that they will be running and provide a temperature check on how drivers feel about being associated with these brands. And a couple of examples of this, the DCA weighed in on Roundup and Donate and they also weighed in on Lyft’s partnerships with Budweiser and Disney.

As far as policy, policies are parts of driving that affect drivers’ bottom line, that don’t involved updating the app or rolling out new technology. For example, they encouraged Lyft to reduce the time required to qualify for a cancellation fee from five to two minutes. And here’s a look at the 2018 Lyft Driver Advisory Council territories and reps. Each member has a email account that they monitor where drivers can submit feedback or offer suggestions and you can find and contact your local rep via this web form and we will provide this link in the description.

If you would like to apply for the 2019 DAC, applications are being accepted until October 16th and Lyft usually gets thousands of applications for the DAC so it’s important to try and make your application stand out. Maybe you could even include a video with your application.

Note: Applications are now closed, but stay tuned this year if you want to be on the DAC!

Overall, the Driver Advisory Council has been pretty beneficial even though the effects have been pretty minimal. From personal experience, a lot of the changes that have been implemented have improved my driving experience and it’s just cool to represent drivers, give feedback and talk directly with Lyft.

Let us know what you think of the Driver Advisory Council and if the changes that they have impacted have influenced you. If you haven’t subscribed to the Rideshare Guy channel, please subscribe. We post new videos every single week. Thanks again for watching and drive safe.

 

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