In an effort to better accommodate bar and restaurant employees who work late nights, Lyft will soon begin piloting a new program — the Late Night Employee program — in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Starting June 11, eligible employees who work at businesses open past midnight at The District, a historic Nashville neighborhood along the Cumberland River, will be able to apply for discounted rides for the duration of July.
The first 200 applicants will receive 50% off 10 rides in The District from June 18 to July 30. Employees must provide proof of employment in the form of a redacted pay stub or a photo of a work schedule with their name on it, and 3-4 business days after their application is received, they’ll get an email indicating whether they were approved or denied.
A Lyft spokesperson told VentureBeat via email that while the Late Night Employee program won’t expand beyond Nashville this summer, the company is open to expansion if all goes well.
“[B]ar and restaurant employees talk about the difficulties of working late nights. They often work until last call, and have a potentially unsafe walk to an expensive parking spot miles away,” Lyft wrote in a blog post. “Lyft … is here to help make those late nights a little cheaper, and a lot easier for those valued, hard-working employees.”
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The pilot comes just over a year after the debut of the Detroit Department of Transportation’s Night Shift, which offers workers commuting late at night or in the early morning $7 in credit toward a Lyft ride as long as they’re arriving or leaving from somewhere in Detroit outside of the greater downtown area. Washington, D.C.’s Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Metro similarly intends to subsidize trips taken with ride-hailing or taxi companies during late-night hours for eligible workers, primarily in the hospitality and health care industries.
