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2020
New Transportation Options with Lyft

New Transportation Options with Lyft

January 21, 2020

We are excited to announce that Lyft is now a preferred rideshare partner for Northwestern. Schools and departments can now work with Lyft to set up rideshare programs to solve programmatic transportation needs in your department or school. Examples of scenarios where a department could utilize Lyft for official business using University funds are:

Event transportation
Campus visitor transportation
Patient or healthcare transportation to support research
Student programs

These programs are not intended to be used for individual staff transportation in and around campus at the University’s expense or official business travel transportation needs. Lyft offers various business products that could fit your department’s transportation needs such as:

Product	Description	How to Pay
Codes	For one-off events or non-recurring rides. Departments can purchase codes for one-off events and rides for non-recurring programs. The codes can have a set location, time, or dollar value or they can be unlimited. The codes have a set expiration period of no longer than 4 months.	Offline Billing - net 30 invoice. There are no upfront purchases of codes. Once the code is created for that month or 4 month period, the school/department is then only charged based on how many times that code was redeemed/used on a Net-30 day basis. There are two ways to make a code: Lyft reps can build it or the user can build it on the app with a credit card. If Lyft does it, it requires a minimum spend of $250 and can take 3-5 days to build but you can be invoiced after the fact. If the user does it, there is no minimum spend and can be done within a few minutes but does require upfront payment.
Credits	For rides that recur regularly. Departments can provide a list of eligible riders to Lyft who can receive Lyft credits. This way a code doesn't have to be generated and sent out for every use. Credits can also be restricted by date, time, and location. Eligible participants can sign up using their @northwestern.edu email. Credits are typically used for people needing to get to a location or specific area several times a week or monthly.	Offline Billing - net 30 invoice. Once the eligible person has opted in the program through their @northwestern.edu email address and received their monthly credits, the department/school is only billed based on actual usage of the credit for the Net 30-day period.
Concierge	For guests who don't have the Lyft app. Lyft’s web-based portal can be used by the departments/schools to book trips on a rider’s behalf. The Concierge platform offers a user-friendly booking interface that is compatible with any internet-enabled device, such as a desktop or laptop PC, tablet, or smartphone	Offline Billing or Corporate Card. Concierge rides include an additional 15% or $3 charge (the department chooses which one) on a ride that is dispatched through the web-portal system.

Product

Description

How to Pay

Codes

For one-off events or non-recurring rides. Departments can purchase codes for one-off events and rides for non-recurring programs. The codes can have a set location, time, or dollar value or they can be unlimited. The codes have a set expiration period of no longer than 4 months.

Offline Billing - net 30 invoice. There are no upfront purchases of codes. Once the code is created for that month or 4 month period, the school/department is then only charged based on how many times that code was redeemed/used on a Net-30 day basis.

There are two ways to make a code: Lyft reps can build it or the user can build it on the app with a credit card.

If Lyft does it, it requires a minimum spend of $250 and can take 3-5 days to build but you can be invoiced after the fact.
If the user does it, there is no minimum spend and can be done within a few minutes but does require upfront payment.

Credits

For rides that recur regularly. Departments can provide a list of eligible riders to Lyft who can receive Lyft credits. This way a code doesn't have to be generated and sent out for every use. Credits can also be restricted by date, time, and location. Eligible participants can sign up using their @northwestern.edu email. Credits are typically used for people needing to get to a location or specific area several times a week or monthly.

Offline Billing - net 30 invoice. Once the eligible person has opted in the program through their @northwestern.edu email address and received their monthly credits, the department/school is only billed based on actual usage of the credit for the Net 30-day period.

Concierge

For guests who don't have the Lyft app. Lyft’s web-based portal can be used by the departments/schools to book trips on a rider’s behalf. The Concierge platform offers a user-friendly booking interface that is compatible with any internet-enabled device, such as a desktop or laptop PC, tablet, or smartphone

Offline Billing or Corporate Card. Concierge rides include an additional 15% or $3 charge (the department chooses which one) on a ride that is dispatched through the web-portal system.

To get started, please email Lyft to schedule a discussion about your business needs to determine which program works best. Lyft will guide you through the set up process.

Lyft contact: edu-ride-programs@lyft.com

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