Lyft reaches $500 million in driver tips

Ride-hailing service Lyft has always offered passengers the option to tip their drivers and all those tips have added up — to half a billion dollars.

The San Francisco company announced Monday its riders had tipped $500 million. More than half of those extra earnings came in 2017. It took tipping a while to catch on — the first $100 million came in over a four-year period. Then last year $260 million was tipped in one year, with $100 million coming in in the past four months.

After new tipping options came online last year the average tip amount increased almost 10 percent. Lyft doesn't give out  average tip amount.  Lyft says higher tips come in on Friday and Saturday nights, during weekend brunch hours, and afternoon work day commutes.  Read more...