Lyft Sign Up Bonus Update | Spring 2017

We've noticed a steady increase in Lyft signing bonuses over the past month or so. During the winter, sign up bonuses were unusually low. They averaged $40 per new driver after 50 rides in many Lyft cities. Generally, the winter months are slow months for ridesharing, so the lower bonuses are expected.

Since the slow winter months, Lyft has gradually picked up new driver bonuses. They've done a lot to encourage driver referrals, and they've also boosted their standard promotions for drivers.

Driver referrals were boosted to an average of $250 per new driver after 120 rides. It was a nice increase from the winter lows, but still a modest signing bonus with a heavy ride requirement.

Since the bump to $250 referrals, Lyft has again boosted bonuses in late march. The driver referral bonuses are now as much as $600 in Philadelphia and $360 in Seattle. 

We expect to see these referral amounts heat up even more as summer nears.

Standard promotions from Lyft are also increasing. Lyft is offering up to $1,000 in sign up bonuses to new drivers in many cities. This bonus is unlocked after 400 rides in 60 days in Seattle. New drivers should weigh the benefits of this higher bonus against the difficulty of completing 400 rides in 60 days. It's not an easy task.

Lyft has definitely added to the complexity of their sign up bonuses.

After all, they are running promotions here. The goal is to get people excited about signing up to drive for Lyft. It takes fresh ideas to keep the buzz alive.

One of the things that they've done is brought back the $1,000 sign up bonus for drivers.

Don't get too excited. If you remember far enough back, the $1,000 signing bonus was literally a singing bonus. All drivers had to do was sign up to unlock this bonus. 

That promotion got too much buzz. Lyft ended up singing up a ton of drivers that didn't really intend to drive. So they changed the structure and added a minimum ride requirement.

Fast forward to the current $1,000 bonus, it has a ride requirement of 400 rides in the first 60 days. That amount of rides over two months requires some hustle, and a commitment to driving with Lyft.

Other than the reappearance of the $1,00 bonus, there have been a couple other awesome changes to bonuses at Lyft. One of those changes is the unlock as you go feature. In many cities, Lyft will distribute the sign up bonus evenly across however many rides are included in the minimum ride requirement for that city. So if the bonus is $300 for 30 rides in the first month, you'll unlock an extra $10 for each of your first 30 rides.

It takes a lot of pressure off of drivers to meet a minimum requirement for rides.

Another cool feature is the referral bonus incentive for drivers. Lyft has realized that drivers are also great recruiters, and recruiters need to be paid well. 

While the new driver referral bonuses aren't at all time highs, they set up to attract recruiting drivers.

In Seattle, Lyft has a promotion for extra bonuses on top of double sided referrals for drivers that refer multiple driver through May first.

It's up to an additional $4,800 on top of referrals sitting on the table. This should definitely spur referrals for Lyft.