White House teams with Uber and Lyft on free rides for veterans
Uber and Lyft are doing a rare team-up to offer "tens of thousands" of free rides to veterans who need transportation to seek work, according to a message from the White House. Uber pledged to donate 10,000 rides worth around $125,000, while Lyft told Techcrunch that it's giving away "thousands of rides" in total. The White House pointed out that the rides will be particularly beneficial to the estimated 50,000 homeless veterans, two-thirds of whom don't have access to transportation. In addition, Uber will today offer riders a chance to donate $5, which it'll use to offer additional rides.
According to the "Joining Forces" program headed by the First Lady and Vice-President Joe Biden, the PenFed Foundation will offer stopgap funding to veterans who have lost their jobs and need emergency funding. Uber is actually one of the largest employers of US military veterans thanks to its UberMILITARY program, which has signed up 40,000 or so veterans as drivers. According to stats from January, Uber has around 160,000 active driver, making veterans a significant portion of that pool.
[Image credit: LA Times via Getty Images]
