Brookdale and Lyft Partner Up on Ride-Hailing Pilot

The largest provider of senior housing in the nation, Brookdale Senior Living (NYSEBKD) has started a new pilot with one of the most popular ride-hailing companies in the country, San Francisco-based Lyft.

The partnership will allow Brookdale residents to book a Lyft ride on-demand or schedule in advance through a concierge in their community, the Brentwood, Tennessee-based provider announced Wednesday in a press release. Similar to Lyft’s other partnerships with senior organizations, residents will not be required to own a smartphone to use the service.

Lyft’s Concierge service, launched in January, lets a “requester” book non-emergency medical transportation for seniors. This is what will be used by Brookdale staff.

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The Lyft services are currently being piloted in 10 Brookdale communities. One is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and the other nine are in Phoenix, according to Brookdale. Lyft’s scale would make it possible to launch the services across its facilities nationwide.

“It means if this pilot is successful, we could replicate the service across many of our 1,100 senior living communities in 47 states,” Andrew Smith, director of strategy and innovation at Brookdale, said in the press release. “It would be virtually impossible to achieve this level of quality and availability without Lyft.”

This partnership fits into Lyft’s plans to reinvent senior living transportation and is by far the most high-profile addition to a growing list of senior living-related partnerships since the company’s inception in 2012. Other companies in the senior service industry that Lyft has partnered with include Sunshine Retirement, GreatCall and Detroit-based SPLT, among others.

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Prior to the program with Lyft, Brookdale was piloting services from another ride-hailing service company based in San Francisco, Lift Hero. Brookdale did not immediately respond to questions about whether that is ongoing.

Written by Alana Stramowski

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