Lyft puts a hold on your account for the cost of your [car] rent. So, until you make enough rides to cover that rent, you don’t have any income. Typically drivers spend the first two days of the week driving to cover that rent. It’s not until Tuesday or Wednesday that they actually have money that they can withdraw from their account. That’s two days where they have to figure out what meals they can and cannot eat.

Source: Los Angeles Times May 21, 2019 10:30 UTC