Originally Posted by
paulgcohen
Really comes down to Uber's technology implementation as drivers can have a very circuitous shift back and forth between SF bay area bridges.
The rule of thumb or should I say logic should be that only the westbound rider be charged the bridge toll with the following caveats:
1. If a driver decides to start their shift by first driving westbound across a bridge, they are on the hook themselves for paying the toll
2. If at the end of a shift, the driver needs to drive westbound across a bridge, then the last ride eastbound across a bridge
3. Tolls are tracked in chronological order throughout the shift via debits and credits i.e. eastbound payer gets credited once a westbound trip occurs
4. Doesn't matter what bridges are cross throughout the shift and take into account the varying tolls as follows:
a. All bridges except golden gate $7 or $3.50 for carpool 2+ people or clean air vehicle during carpool hours
b. Golden Gate bridge $9.25 or $7.25 for carpool 3+ people (no clean air vehicle discount) during carpool hours
Example Ride Shift: (driver lives and starts shift in East Bay and all rides are single passenger)
1 - Oakland to San Francisco (Bay bridge) - rider 1 pays $7 toll and no toll refund possible
2 - San Francisco to SFO - no bridges, no toll
3 - SFO to Berkeley - rider 3 not charged $7 toll as driver on home side of bridges
4 - Berkeley to San Rafael (Richmond San Rafael bridge - rider 4 pays $7 toll and no toll refund possible
5 -San Rafael to San Francisco (Golden Gate bridge) - rider 5 pays $9.25 toll
6. San Francisco to Livermore (Bay bridge) - rider 6 not charged $7 toll as driver on home side of bridges
Drive decides to end their shift and all riders have been charged or credited correctly for the shift.
this way too complicated, and will change everytime someone takes a ride over a bridge. Same ride today has different fees than the one tomorrow (regardless of ‘demand pricing’).
something consistent. I don’t personally think ‘splitting’ makes sense, as there may be no return to split with. For those of that do drive across these bridges, we know driving westbound incurs the toll and eastbound doesn’t (and if someone really want to ‘freeload’, there are ways such as driving around the bay that isn’t efficient any other way except financially, but those are different arguments). I think tolling based on the actual tolls incurred makes most sense. Like I said, if Uber really wants to make the extra, they can adjust fares across a bridge and no one would even know.
Originally Posted by
trueblu
Looking back at a few receipts, I was also charged "Bay Bridge Eastbound" by Uber a couple of times. I usually take Lyft and looking at a couple of receipts, wasn't charged a toll by them, just fyi. No idea if that's because the Lyft driver lived in the East Bay or what.
tb
I suspect it’s just the different ways they handle.
Originally Posted by
bzcat
This is just an example of "junk fee" companies put on the bill to goose up their gross margin. I think we can all agree there was no toll for this trip but Uber sees an opportunity to upcharge and instead of building it into the base fare, they call it a bridge crossing fee. Like fuel surcharges or resort fees.
my thought exactly.
like I said, if they really want it, they could bury it in a fare, particularly given a point A to point B ride is going to be a different amount each time anyway. I’m honestly surprised I saw almost nothing when I tried to google or nothing on FT. And given the amount of litigation we have in this country, surprised this has not garnered a class action filing yet.