Route Change increases Fare
 

I use Uber and Ubereats a lot. Usually drive to airport but have some calls to make so was going to use Uber, and still did, but noticed something odd. Almost like Uber knows you are looking and likely going to buy a ride and increases prices.

At 1030 I check app and it's 41dollars for VIP and IberX. There are at least 10 cars nearby. Says 7min wait. I want to leave at 11am so I finish packing. Check at 1040 to confirm nothing has changed and 7min wait. Same cars and same price.

At 1055 I go to setup and the pricing has jumped to 51 dollars. Same amount of cars. I notice the change has come that the route says to use the bypass around the city adding substantial time and mileage. Check google maps and traffic cams literally no problem going straight there.

Why? That seems pretty sketchy to just alter the route which adds almost 20% to the Fare.

Best part of this is, if your driver uses the Uber Driver app to route him/her for the trip, it will route them the shorter distance.

It's a double dip for Uber. You pay the extra costs associated with the bypass, but then Uber routes the driver through the shorter distance and pays them for the shorter distance.

Not defending Uber, but the number of cars you see in the app is a fictitious representation of what's actually available as reported in other places in the past, so this is not a good indication of how many cars are actually available.

Assumed this was the case... because we went straight down the highway. Beat the estimated time by almost 15min and turned substantially less miles. The app intentionally changed the route to a longer mileage/time which increases the fare.


I would be willing to wager this is the case put out by Uber and not reality. Are you saying Uber is intentionally lying as to what cars are nearby? I get the idea you are saying in that just because someone has the app on and 'searching for fare' doesn't mean they are but...

This is an older article, and Uber apparently denies it, but you can form your own opinion:

Uber's real time car map is fake

Also:

Why your Uber app is lying to you about available cars
Uber: There are no ghost cars in our app
DON’T BE FOOLED BY UBER’S “REAL-TIME” CAR MAP — IT’S NOT REAL

I know of those. Uber denies it but why even show cars if it is 'fake'. They are either there or they are not. If they are there to be 'ghost cars' then they are there to intentionally deceive.

And I was more talking about a change in the route. Which definitely happened in my case. The route was changed with NO need as the route was clear(direct route). I was charged 20% more for no reason.

What would have happened if you instructed the driver to take the first route?

Get charged the same rate you agreed to. Which is what happened.

I thought you got charged a base fare + time/distance. Is the latter actually "time/distance in excess of original routing"?

Why not just take a taxi which would charge you based on the actual route taken? You could even arrange for a pick up at your specified time.

A taxi from where I am would be more and a pain. I prefer Uber.

Uber and Lyft raise the price based on number of searches & requests. Recently took Lyft to a show, about 8 miles, $15. After the show, we looked for cars on both apps, and the prices surged from first $120 to later over $200 for the same return trip! Rode with some poor sucker that had agreed to a $160 fare to his hotel, and got an $8 Uber from there (out of the surge area).

Sounds like Uber was a pain. And Uber cost more.... than Uber.

1. Uber charges you whatever they think a rider is willing to pay, including higher rates in areas of wealth.
Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...willing-to-pay

2. Because even if Uber increased rates 1.5x in Boston (where you are located), it would still be cheaper to take Uber than a taxi.

That makes sense. Of course they should charge what the market will bear.

And if it was still cheap, why is OP complaining?

Did you actually read what happened? It wasn't raised because of surge pricing or 'wealthy area'. The route was altered to be longer in both mileage and time. Thus the rate goes up. Then the driver went the original route because it is faster and had no traffic issues.

Altering the route and charging more when the most direct route is open and clear is what I made the post about.