Yahoo Finance Why Lyft is getting into delivery
Lyft (LYFT) has its sights set on entering the delivery industry. But don’t expect the ride-hailing giant to enter into the delivery marketplace business like rival Uber (UBER).
“We started talking to retailers across the board in various categories and what we heard is they need a logistics partner, not a consumer marketplace to step in between them and their consumer, but someone to help them get their packages from point A to point B and sometimes use that shared ride technology to get multiple packages going to one route,” Zimmer told Yahoo Finance Live. “Stay tuned. We are excited to have more of a B2B approach versus a consumer approach, and that will be added to what we are doing in transportation.”
Lyft’s entry into some yet undefined logistics business comes hot on the heels of a turnaround in its core ride-hailing operations in the third quarter.
This week, Lyft reported that third quarter active riders rose 44% sequentially to 12.5 million as states opened back up from quarantine. Revenue increased 47% from the second quarter to $499.7 million. Improvements in each metric is not too unlike what rival Uber saw in its third quarter shared last week.
Zimmer pointed to some $300 million in fresh cost savings by the end of the current quarter as a key driver to profitability. The company reiterated its goal of being adjusted EBITDA profitable by the fourth quarter of 2021.
All eyes on the Street now on whether Lyft could sustain its momentum into year-end as COVID-19 related lockdowns pick up nationwide.
Zimmer is staying hopeful.
“Some of the headwinds are now tailwinds after most of the year with the wind in our face — it's now at our back. And we are one of the best recovery stocks there is, and vaccines will further accelerate our recovery,” Zimmer said. “The recovery is real. The fundamentals are strong.”
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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