Lyft Testing Monthly Subscription Plans For High-Frequency Users

• Lyft announces that they are testing new plans to start a subscription-based model for high-frequency users. 
• Termed as the "All Access Pass", it will allow riders from 30 to 60 rides a month, depending on which plan a user purchases.
• Each ride is covered up to $15. Current confusion is regarding how the user will be charged if travel fare is above that sum.

Lyft, a popular on-demand transportation company, is testing a monthly-based subscription service for their high-frequency users, The Verge reports. At a recent event, Lyft CEO, Logan Green announced they were testing the new subscription plans.

Termed as the ‘All-Access Pass,’ these monthly subscription packs will come in three models. There is the base $199/month plan which allows users to access to 30 standard Lyft rides, another $300/month plan, and the top tier $399/month plan which provides for 60 rides in total.

Image Courtesy of Greg Bensinger (Twitter)

Do note, each ride is only covered up to $15. So basically, these subscriptions will hold significant value to users who spend around $15 per ride, amounting to a total of $450 monthly travel expenses. However, the only confusion that remains is how users will be charged if the fare exceeds the $15 mark.

During the event, Green also announced their new partnership with Magna - an auto parts producer, to develop self-driving cars. More often than not, Lyft has portrait themselves as think tanks with revolutionary ideas that can change the future of transportation. A similar sentiment was observed when Logan Green commented, “We are going to move the entire industry from one based on ownership to one based on subscription,” as he introduced the new subscription model idea.

Now, subscription-based on-demand transportation service isn’t a revolutionary concept. Previously, in 2016 Uber had also tested out a similar idea in some cities. However, it is still unclear how that experiment turned out. As far as Lyft is concerned, they have been testing the all-access passes for months now and will continue to do so.