Lyft is cracking down on people who use the ride-share app, but aren’t conscientious about their driver’s time. The service will now start charging riders an extra fee it they make their driver wait more than two minutes when they’re being picked up.
The ride-share app quietly updated its support page, introducing a new by-the-minute late fee that has been around since December 2022, per The Verge. The decision comes several years after its main rival, Uber, introduced its late fee in 2016.
Lyft will consider a user late to their ride if it takes them more than two minutes to get to the vehicle after the scheduled pickup time. That number rises to five minutes, though, when riders choose a Lux Black or Lux Black XL ride.
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Importantly, the fee doesn’t begin two minutes after the driver arrives, just after the scheduled pickup time. That means that if a driver arrives early, the timer doesn’t start counting down until the ride was supposed to start.
Lyft says, though, that additional wait time charges could be applied depending on how busy the app is and fees will vary based on location. If you cancel a ride, however, you only need to pay the cancellation fee, not an additional waiting fee.
Wait time fees also do not apply to Lyft Shared, Lyft Access, Lyft Assisted, or Car Seat rides. Riders with disabilities and those who frequently accompany someone with a disability that makes getting into a vehicle slower can submit a waiver for wait time fees, which will make them exempt.
That’s an important caveat, because Uber’s late fee structure, and allegations that it discriminated against people with disabilities, led to a lawsuit led by the U.S. Department of Justice. The company eventually agreed to a $2 million settlement to compensate disabled riders affected by the charge.
