Lyft lays off about 60 employees, shutters in-house car rentals program

Lyft has joined the ranks of tech companies trimming its workforce.

The news of the layoffs, initially spotted in LinkedIn posts by now-former Lyft employees, has been confirmed by the company.

Lyft said it has laid off about 60 people and dropped its in-house car rental service and is consolidating global operations. The Wall Street Journal was the first report on the layoffs.

The cuts total about 2% of staff, which in the grand scheme of layoffs this year, isn’t as bad as other companies in the transportation space (lookin’ at you, Tesla). Lyft’s layoffs mainly hit operations teams, according to posts cropping up on LinkedIn. Based on those posts, it appears at least some staffers were given 30 days notice to pack up their desks.

The layoffs come about two weeks before Lyft is set to report its second-quarter earnings.

In addition to the layoffs, Lyft is shuttering its first-party car rental service on the app, which it was running in five locations. This trim-the-fat-to-focus-on-core-operations strategy has become increasingly common in recent months as economic conditions have worsened. Bird, for example, recently dropped its vehicle sales pursuits, just before it laid off 23% of staff.

Lyft will still offer third-party rentals in over 30 locations, a spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch.

“We have decided to discontinue Lyft’s first-party rentals business to focus on our best-in-class third-party rentals with Sixt and Hertz,” said a Lyft spokesperson. “This decision will ensure we continue to have national coverage and offer riders a more seamless booking experience.”