Lyft is offering up more money to avoid trial over claims that its drivers should receive employee benefits.
A month after a federal judge rejected Lyft s $12.25 million offer, the ride-hailing company has more than doubled it — to $27 million.
The new deal still doesn t force Lyft to change the status of its drivers. The company has been adamant that people who use the app to shuttle passengers from one destination to another should remain independent contractors, because it gives them flexibility and freedom.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria had said the prior $12.25 million offer, which mostly would have compensated drivers for gas and vehicle maintenance, was too low. That s because the offer was based upon old driver data, he said. The lawyers involved began negotiating a settlement in June 2015, using data from that period to calculate how many miles Lyft drivers had traveled, and how much they might be entitled to in expense reimbursements. But by the time the parties approached the court with a finalized deal — in March — drivers had racked up significantly more miles.
In a proposal submitted to the court Wednesday, the lawyers upped the dollar amount to reflect more current driver mileage data.
If the court approves the new deal, most drivers would receive an average of $131 each. But frequent drivers, who drove an average of about 700 hours from 2012 through the date the settlement is approved, would get an average of $2,000.
Lawyers for the drivers will ask for up to $3.675 million from the deal, subject to the court s OK.
The deal also includes a provision that would prevent Lyft from kicking drivers off the app at will, and would allow drivers an opportunity to correct problem behavior before being booted.
Lyft s chief competitor, Uber, recently settled a similar case for up to $100 million. That deal is pending court approval.
Photo: Lyft passenger Christina Shatzen gets into a car driven by Nancy Tcheou, in San Francisco, in a 2013 file photo. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
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