Lyft to suspend calls in California

Lyft to suspend carpooling service in California on Thursday following a court order in the state – arguably its largest market – which requires it and rival Uber to reclassify drivers as employees.

“Following a court order, we will be suspending carpooling across California at 11:59 p.m. PT on Thursday, August 20,” the company said in an update on its website. “We have done everything we can to prevent this from happening and keep Lyft available to you, but it has not been possible to revise our business model and operations in ten days.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman ruled on August 10 that transportation companies must start classifying their drivers as government employees. The judge said the injunction against the companies would not be enforced for 10 days to give them a chance to appeal – which both companies said they are doing.

The injunction is part of a lawsuit against Uber and Lyft filed by the state of California in May. The lawsuit says the companies “have exploited hundreds of thousands of California workers” by classifying the drivers as independent contractors and are in violation of California’s Worker Classification Act AB 5, which came into effect in January.

See also: Uber vs Lyft: we compare the two ridesharing apps

Uber and Lyft classify their drivers as independent contractors, which means workers pay for their own expenses, such as gasoline, car maintenance, and insurance. Drivers also do not have social benefits such as minimum wage, health insurance, or paid sick leave. If they were to be classified as employees, many of these costs would fall on businesses.

Lyft and Uber said last week that if California forced them to classify their drivers as employees, they would. suspend operations in the state.

Lyft noted on its website that people can still use the Lyft app to access bikes, scooters, car rentals, and public transport information.

In a blog post Thursday, Lyft also urged people in California to support a voting measure that companies support called Proposition 22. In total, Uber and Lyft – along with Doordash, Postmates and Instacart – put $ 110 million behind. measurement. The proposal, which will be put to a vote in November, aims to exempt companies in the odd-job economy from AB 5.

Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CNET’s Dara Kerr contributed to this report.

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