UBER announced yesterday a series of changes that will ultimately increase the fares of the trips we will make using the transport platform. More precisely, those at UBER are making a series of changes for the drivers who use their platform and transport customers between various locations, they will have the option to refuse to take certain trips, and this will lead to an increase in fares.
UBER will initially allow drivers to choose what kind of rides they are willing to take, so that fewer cars will be available for certain types of rides. If there are fewer cars available than necessary to make certain trips, then UBER will increase the rates for those trips, so drivers will receive more money for transports, although their number will be smaller.
UBER will also allow drivers to refuse to make some trips that take too long, specifically those that can last more than 45 minutes. Until now, the UBER people did not tell the drivers how long a ride would take until the moment they accepted it, but those longer than 45 minutes can be refused, and in a city like Bucharest, this means that in the evening some rides will be refused.
UBER - changes that will increase fares
UBER claims that these changes will result in an increase in the number of drivers who activate the platform, and this could be 100% true. However, if the prices of UBER rides will increase significantly, then the final effect will be a decrease in rides and implicitly in the income generated by the platform, which could drive away the drivers who still earn good money transporting people without a license.
UBER is making these changes as part of a larger plan to make its drivers happy when they use its platform to earn money. It is well known that UBER drivers are not satisfied with the money generated by the rides made on the platform, and the new president of the company has made it his mission to please them, even if in the end the customers will pay more for the rides, which which will not suit many.
"By giving a driver more information we actually help them make that decision [if they're] in a position to accept a long trip. Riders want to feel that their driver is not unhappy. This is something I think about a lot, [and we're working on] extra special features that we can launch that will be positive and mutually beneficial to both riders and drivers."
UBER also announced that in the 2 months in which in certain US states it offered the possibility to leave tips for drivers, 50 million dollars in tips were generated. The amount is 5 times lower than that generated by UBER's competing services, but things will change as the option is extended to all states where the service is available, but also to other countries around the globe.
