Spring is in full swing and the beautiful weather means that more people are out and about, requesting Lyft rides. Lyft is constantly making changes to their sign up bonuses to reflect the current status of demand for rides. We’ll go into that more later. Here’s a brief summary of what to expect from this post:
- We’ll take a look at Lyft new driver promotions from a historical perspective
- I’ll give you the updated list of bonus amounts in each city
- We’ll discuss some of the terms of these promotions, and I’ll give you a link to sign up
To better understand the big picture of sign up bonuses for Lyft drivers it helps to take a look at the amounts they’ve offered historically. These amounts have fluctuated a lot over the last year or so. The last time we saw referral bonus amounts as high as they are currently was last spring. The incentives shot up during last spring, stayed high through summer and then cooled off in the fall and winter. At their peak last year a new driver promotion was good for $1,000 after the required number of rides. We have hit that number again, with sign up bonuses reaching $1,ooo in New York City and San Francisco after 100 rides in 30 days. With that said, now is as good of a time as ever to apply to drive.
We’ve also seen something this spring that blows last years sign up bonuses out of the water. Lyft introduced a $5,000 sign up bonus for new drivers in LA who complete 1,000 rides in the first 90 days. For those interested in this promotion you can use my lyft promotion code for new drivers. Keep in mind that it is not easy to complete 1,000 rides in 90 days. You’ll have to average over 10 rides each day. This is a challenge that only full time drivers should accept.
For those of you wondering what the sign up bonuses are in each city, here they are in order from highest to lowest as of today:
LA – $2,000 (500 rides)
San Francisco – $1,000 (100 rides)
New York City – $1,000 (100 rides)
Boston – $750 (75 rides)
Orange County – $750 (75 rides)
San Diego – $750 (75 rides)
Washington DC – $750 (75 rides)
Silicon Valley – $750 (100 rides)
Portland – $750 (75 rides)
Atlanta – $500 (50 rides)
Dallas – $500 (50 rides)
New Jersey – $500 (50 rides)
Denver – $500 (50 rides)
Baltimore – $500 (100 rides in 60 days)
Sacramento – $500 (75 rides)
Philadelphia – $500 (50 rides)
Phoenix – $500 (50 Rides
Sacramento – $500 (50 rides)
Nashville – $350 (50 rides)
Indianapolis – $300 (30 rides)
Las Vegas – $300 (50 rides)
Detroit – $200 (30 rides)
New Orleans – $200 (75 rides)
San Bernardino – $200 (30 rides)
Pittsburgh – $200 (50 rides)
Chicago – $150 (50 rides)
Colombus – $150 (30 rides)
Seattle – $50 (50 rides)
Miami – $50 (100 rides)
Now is as good of a time than ever to sign up. It’s a good idea to read over the terms and conditions of Lyft before you become a partner. As for the terms of the promotion, here are a few of the important points:
- Referring driver must be an existing driver in good standing
- Referring driver must share their referral code with the applicant
- The new driver must start the Lyft application while the promotion is ongoing
- They must input the code in the “promotion/referral code” box on bottom of application (shown below)
- The new driver must complete the required number of rides within the required number of days
- No more than two rides with the same passenger count towards the ride requirement
- The review process length may vary
- Bonus amounts will change from time to time
- If a driver starts a second application, they are still only eligible for bonus amount used for their original application.
The last bullet point shows you the importance of applying with a bonus code the first time you apply towards Lyft. I have heard of a few drivers using a different phone number and email on a new application, then haggling with Lyft support for some time to get eligibility for the better promotion rate. I can’t personally not recommend this method, as it is against the terms and conditions. A few other articles that might come in handy if you’re new to rideshare driving are Insurance for Lyft and Uber and the Inside Scoop on Surge Pricing With Lyft.
If you’re reading this and still can’t find a friend with a referral code, feel free to use mine. It works for anyone signing up to drive for Lyft for the first time.
Photo Credit: tom.lasten via Compfight cc
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