Uber and Lyft awarded $ 810 million federal contract

After performing an infamous and finally succeeded campaign to avoid paying concert workers in California a living wage at all costs, Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc have been awarded an $ 810 million government contract.

Under the five-year agreement, issued Monday by the General Service Administration, trucking companies be responsible for providing transportation to up to 4 million federal employees and their families.

“Expanding our customer base to include government is a natural next step for us, and we’re proud to help federal agencies tackle some of the biggest administrative challenges they face,” said Ronnie Gurion, Global Director of Uber for Business, in a press release.

Although federal employees have often used private transportation services for travel in the past, the new contract formalizes this relationship. allowing Uber and Lyft to promote their services directly within government departments.

The contract was tentatively announced for the first time in April, when Charlotte Phelan, the Federal Purchasing Service nailssistant cordered for tenredo, ttransport and llogistics, wrote in a blog post this Uber and Lyft were open to abandon some Additional costs, and that the agency too I was able to negotiate considerable discounts with the transport service companies comparable to what large business customers would normally receive.

“The GSA’s new government-wide carpooling / carpooling BPAs modernize official rides and will make it easier and cheaper to use carpooling services for official rides, ”Phelan wrote. “There are no new apps to download, no paper receipts to waste.

Verónica Juárez, vice president of social enterprises and government at Lyft, said Reuters that the agreement was the culmination of an almost four-year negotiation process. Although he declined to say how much the company expected to grow as a result of the contract, Juárez noted that US government spending on ground transportation peaks at about $ 200 million every year.