Consumers in the San Francisco area will be able to drive for Uber Technologies Inc. by leasing a General Motors vehicle for as little time as a week, through a new partnership announced Tuesday in a joint press release from the popular rideshare service and the car maker’s mobility services program, Maven.
“This is the latest in our efforts to provide driver partners with greater flexibility and more options to access vehicles in a way that works for them,” said Rachel Holt, Uber’s regional general manager of U.S. and Canada. “This partnership with Maven combines our vast ridesharing network with GM’s extensive fleet vehicles and gives people without access to a car the ability to easily make money driving on the Uber platform.”
The program starts as a 90-day pilot in the Bay Area and will leverage GM’s network of Chevrolet dealers to secure the vehicles for pick up, the company said in the release. It’s also part of Uber’s Vehicle Solutions program, which provides flexible options to access vehicles for use on the rideshare platform.
For a weekly price of $179 plus taxes and fees, consumers will be able to drive Chevrolet Cruze, Malibu, and Trax vehicles for Uber, the company said. No extra fees will be added if consumers choose to also use the vehicle for personal use during that time, and insurance is included in the cost.
Earlier this year, GM invested $500 million in Uber’s biggest competitor — Lyft. That investment resulted in the Express Drive program, which launched in March and now operates in 10 U.S. cities. Lyft’s program with GM also allows consumers to lease a car on a weekly basis, but long time drivers that meet certain weekly ride counts will have the rental fee waived completely.
“It’s expected that vehicle access programs have multiple partners,” Sheila Bryson, a Lyft spokeswoman told CNBC in a statement. She added that Express Drive also partners with Hertz to rent cars on a weekly basis.
The new Maven program address key challenges of both company’s business model. For GM, this is a way to “manage residual values for ex-lease and fleet vehicles,” said Julia Steyn, GM vice president of Urban Mobility.
For Uber, this is a way to attract more drivers who previously didn’t have access to a car or didn’t want to commit to long-term, expensive lease deals.
In Chicago there were 60,000 people who applied to drive for Lyft, but didn’t have qualified vehicles, the company stated in its announcement of Express Drive earlier this year. Uber is hoping GM’s Maven program will similarly help potential drivers get behind the wheel.
