Earlier quoted context omitted.
Under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), and their European equivalent, IFRS, a company generally cannot include in income payments it receives on behalf of others. Lyft, and Uber, rely on the fiction that they are merely booking apps for drivers, so the fares belong to the driver, and Lyft and Uber are merely entitled to a portion of the fare for providing the booking service. At no time are they/were…
Do Lyft/Uber get to float the money before paying it to drivers? If they get a week of float then it's maybe(?) gross income that they can make quite a lot of money off of before paying out drivers.
That only works if Lyft/Uber get the money from the credit cards very quickly.