Uber and Lyft are reportedly going to give money to some of its drivers to enable them to buy stock in the transportation companies’ respective initial public offerings, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier today.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the WSJ says both Uber and Lyft will reward some of their more active or long-time drivers with a cash award with an option to buy stock in the initial public offerings. Uber’s program will reportedly be worth hundreds of millions of dollars; based on a sliding scale, that takes into account the driver’s time working for Uber, as well as the number of trips or deliveries made.
This comes after Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in May that the company was looking to offer benefits and insurance to its drivers. The WSJ says Uber has been looking into providing drivers shares in the company since 2016.
Lyft, on the other hand, reportedly plans to give drivers who have completed at least 20,000 rides $10,000 in a cash award or the equivalent amount of stock.
Both Uber and Lyft have confidentially filed for IPOs. Lyft is expected to debut on the Nasdaq this coming March. Neither Uber or Lyft have disclosed the number of shares they expect to offer.
TechCrunch has reached out to Uber and Lyft and will update this story if we hear back.