Uber is dishing out ‘appreciation awards’ up to $10K to let prolific drivers buy stock

As Uber gears up for its highly-anticipated public debut, the company is setting aside some dough for drivers that have logged some serious rides on the platform as a reward for sticking with the service. The company follows Lyft which also rewarded drivers with one-time cash bonuses during its public offering.

The company is setting aside shares of common stock at the initial IPO price that drivers who earn this “appreciation award” will be able to purchase.

Drivers will get $100, $500, $1,000 or $10,000 for completing 2,500, 5,000, 10,000, or 20,000 lifetime trips respectively. The caveat being that drivers will need to have also completed at least one ride in 2019 as of April 7 and be “in good standing.” We’ve reached out to Uber about what exactly that means.

Uber’s “driver appreciation awards” are pretty identical to what Lyft did for its public offering, which awarded drivers with 10,000 and 20,000 rides with $1,000 and $10,000 respectively. The key difference being Uber has some nice smaller cash bonuses for less prolific drivers. Uber detailed that for drivers outside of the United States, the appreciation award “may be adjusted on a region-by-region basis to account for differences in average hourly earnings by region.”