California drivers, it’s time for another big announcement from Uber! As we’ve covered over the last few weeks, Uber has rolled out a series of new changes, including new driver features and fare card changes. Today, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Uber is announcing even more changes related to its fare multiplier. Essentially, at certain airports, Uber drivers will be able to set their own prices.
Before we get into that exciting news, some background. By now, all drivers in California should be able to see where their passengers are going and see estimated earnings when they get a request. In addition, all drivers have the surge multiplier and Quest Bonus in the form of a lower service fee. The new driver features were released by Uber in December 2019, and fare card features were released in early January 2020.
Over the next two weeks, Uber will be rolling out more changes to the ways drivers determine their own pay – starting with today’s announcement for drivers in Palm Springs, Sacramento and Santa Barbara.
There are two main components to the upcoming changes:
- Drivers picking up at the Palm Springs, Sacramento and Santa Barbara airports will be able to set their own price (via multiplier) at the airport or just outside of the airport. Drivers can set their prices higher, lower, or the same as Uber’s price.
- Drivers will be able to opt out of surge – drivers can set their multiplier from the airport and choose to not accept surge pricing.
Drivers won’t see all of these changes at once – first, they’ll only affect drivers picking up at those three airports. Second, the opt out of surge feature won’t come for another week or so. Uber may roll this out slowly to other California drivers and airports, but with a change this huge, it’s not going to happen at LAX tomorrow.
So let’s break down how this works and what drivers can expect to see soon!
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