In 2016, Lyft was struggling to expand its share of a rideshare market otherwise dominated by Uber. But there weren’t enough Lyft drivers to meet demand, nor were there enough car owners willing to drive for the app, placing hard limits on the company’s growth in key locales. That year, to expand its driving capacity, the company launched its “Express Drive” program, partnering with three agencies (Avis, Flexdrive, and Hertz) to provide rental cars to prospective Lyft drivers.

To maintain enrollment in the program, each Express driver is responsible for driving a minimum of twenty paid trips through the app each week. Drivers in the program must also give enough rides to cover the weekly cost of their rental (usually between $240 and $270) before they can pocket any income themselves. In a 2018 letter to investors, Lyft COO Jon McNeill reported that 180,000 new drivers had begun working for the company through the Lyft Express in the previous two years (for two-thirds of those drivers, he said, the rental car was their only vehicle).

The Express Drive program has been a rewarding element of Lyft ’s larger growth strategy. The year after Express Drive was launched, Lyft extended operations to fifty-four new cities, and the company’s total number of passengers increased by 92 percent. The company now controls about 30 percent of the total US rideshare market.