Company Offers Financially Friendlier Alternative To Taxi Cabs In LA
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Many Los Angeles residents are starting to notice cars, driving around the city with pink mustaches on the front of their hoods.
The cars are part of a new car-sharing service called Lyft, which is helping people who don't have cars of their own to get around LA for cheaper than the price of a taxi cab.
The company, which started it's service in San Francisco, has a mobile device application that allows people to look up location of participating vehicles, which are driven by local people in the community, and select to get a lift to wherever they need to go.
Erin Thayer is a driver for Lyft, when she is on the road. Thayer also works as an aspiring actress, and says that the service takes place whenever she is on the road.
"I can go to my audition," Thayer said. "And then I can hop right in the car and continue to 'lyft'."
The company offers lifts at rates that are around 30 percent cheaper than a taxi.
There is no money transaction that takes place in the vehicle. Instead, once the application is downloaded, you can enter your facebook and credit card information to allow you to start to search for the nearest Lyft cars that happen to be in your area.
Once a lyft is requested, a picture of the driver appears on the app, along with that driver's ratings from previous passengers.
As soon as the ride is completed, a suggested donation appears on the mobile device. The price, however, is up to the passenger.
Within the first three months of operation in Los Angeles, the type of appeal differed somewhat from that of San Francisco.
"We just got incredible stories of people getting their breaks or having an agent hear their demo tape," Lyft Los Angeles General Manager Woody Hartman said.
Hartman also suggests that the drivers of Lyft Los Angeles exceed driving safety standards.
The fluffy pink mustaches on the cars reportedly have no hidden meaning, and act only as a logo.
