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Uber Increases Booking Fee And Effective Commission

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Uber hasn’t officially cut rates this year, but they did increase their booking fee over the weekend.  The increase amounts ranged from $0.20 to $0.35 depending on the city and, while the amounts seem nominal, it effectively means that Uber is now taking a larger commission from each ride.

Uber’s advertised commission for new drivers is 25%, but since they charge a fixed booking fee directly to the passenger on every ride, their effective commission is a lot higher.  We crunched the numbers last year for an infographic and found the median ‘real commission’ over the course of 37 rides in San Francisco was 39.01%.

New Lyft Driver - Earn 1500:week

But now that there are higher booking fees, we re-calculated the numbers and found that Uber’s new effective commission went up to 40.44%.  So Uber will be earning more in commission on every ride going forward, but drivers will get the same amount.

Well, we saw it coming: Uber is increasing its booking fee and effective commission, meaning you'll take home less $$ than before.

How Does The Booking Fee Work?

If you’ve never compared what a passenger pays to what you receive as a driver, there’s a little math behind it, but it’s not too complicated.  On your typical ride, passengers pay a booking fee, base rate and a per mile/per minute rate.

Current UberX Rates (as of 2/21/17) in San Francisco

Based off the current rates in San Francisco, a 10 minute, 3 mile ride would be calculated as follows:

Booking Fee ($1.75) + Base Fare ($2.00) + (10 minutes * $0.22/minute) + (3 miles * $1.15/mile)

$1.75 + $2.00 + $2.20 + $3.45 = $9.40

So the passenger would pay $9.40, but in order to calculate your payout as a driver, you need to subtract the booking fee which goes straight to Uber and then subtract the 25% commission.

Passenger Fare ($9.40) – Booking Fee ($1.75) – [25%*($9.40-$1.75)]

$9.40 – $1.75 – $1.91 = $5.74

So you can see that while the passenger paid $9.40 for this ride, the driver only earns $5.74, meaning that Uber’s ‘effective commission was 39%. This seems pretty high to me!  To be fair, these are the exact same prices that Lyft pays and charges in San Francisco too.

(Note: Uber uses upfront pricing now in most cities, so what the passenger pays won’t be exactly the same every time, but drivers are still paid per mile/per minute.)

Re-calculating the Median Commission

Most cities saw an increased booking fee of $0.20 to $0.35.  A notification like this should have popped up in your driver app, and you may have had to sign a new partner agreement to go online.

Using our infographic example (with sample data from a driver in San Francisco), we re-calculated the numbers with a $1.75 (instead of $1.55) booking fee and found the median effective commission for San Francisco drivers went up from 39.01% to 40.44%.  That increase might seem small, but it’s actually about a 3.67% raise for Uber [(40.44-39.01)/39.01].

Are Minimum Fares Affected?

As you can see in the screenshot above, Uber states that ‘This change will not impact the amount you receive for each trip’ and that’s true.  Riders will pay $0.20-$0.35 more per ride but you’ll make the exact same amount since the booking fee is charged directly to the passenger.  And since Uber also increased the minimum fare by $0.20-$0.35, you’ll still earn the same amount on minimum fares.  Uber’s effective commission will be even higher though.

Why This Matters

A 4% raise for Uber isn’t egregious, but when you put it in context with what Uber has been telling drivers this year, it seems like a slap in the face.  Uber has proclaimed 2017 as the year of the driver, but it’s off to a rough start.

I criticized Jeff Jones’ letter big time last week because he didn’t even mention issues like tipping and UberPOOL and mostly skirted around the issue of earnings.  Now, instead of raising rates, which would benefit both drivers and Uber, Uber has chosen to only give themselves a raise.

I don’t really get this. Uber lost $3 billion last year, and I don’t see how this gets them significantly closer to profitability, but it does manage to anger a lot of drivers.

One of the biggest complaints I hear from drivers is that they want to earn more money.  But Uber has always maintained that lower rates are good for drivers since it means increased utilization and higher earnings for drivers.  I always thought that line was BS, but now Uber is even going against what they like to tell themselves.

Uber’s been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately and, although I really want to give them the benefit of the doubt, their actions speak louder than words.  A rate increase would be a mutually beneficial thing for both drivers and Uber but yet again, Uber has decided to make a change that benefits themselves but not drivers.

Readers, have you noticed the change in booking fee and commission? What do you think of this change? By the way, if you haven’t signed up to drive for Lyft, you might as well do it now with our link!

-Harry @ RSG

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Harry Campbell

I'm Harry, the owner and founder of The Rideshare Guy Blog and Podcast. I used to be a full-time engineer but now I'm a rideshare blogger! I write about my experience driving for Uber, Lyft, and other services and my goal is to help drivers earn more money by working smarter, not harder.
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  • Will Mette

    You said “we re-calculated the numbers and found that Uber’s new effective commission went up to 40.44%.” Of course, you meant that that only applies to the minimum fare in one market, markets do vary.

    4% would be huge in investors eyes, if that meant that trips with existing customers were profitable. The $3 billion probably would be worthwhile if that was the cost of increasing (doubling?) the number of riders and was only a temporary thing.

    • It applies to our sample size for San Francisco but other markets will be +/- 5%.

      • Matt Wernecke

        I guess its better than lowering our per ride payout by .20 to .35 .
        I really don’t understand how Uber is losing 3 billion a year.
        Here in the ATL, we net 3.75, for a 3 mile ride, uberx, or pool, but our gas price is 2.00 to 2.17 per gallon, not 4.50.
        I guess, I’ll now be accepting service dogs in my car.
        If the dog poops in my car will i get a compensated for the clean up?

        • VDubPDX82

          They are loosing money by throwing money at their copy-cat driverless tech. If they would just stick to the core model and forget the driverless option they would be profitable. Let others develop the tech and then invest in the completed tech when it comes out in 20 years. With so many companies working on driverless tech Uber isn’t in a position to waste money on the research.

      • Bruce Pollard

        I am confused as to why all the discussion about a booking fee increase. UBER has increased prices dramatically by using cost estimate upfront pricing.

        I drove a rider from Milpitas, CA to SFO. We started discussing rates and I was going to calculate his fare when I recalled that UBER quotes upfront. They charged him $65.xx. I have a screenshot of his charge. But they paid me on time and mileage which amounted to about $46.50.

        That was a whopping $19 difference. UBER made $19 off the top, plus a booking fee, plus 25% commission from my fare. I don’t need to tell anyone that they made very close to 50% commission.

        Will they ever raise fares…they already have and our scoring big over the backs of the drivers who foot all the expense…is this a well kept secret?

        Why isn’t this discussed and how does UBER get away with it?

  • Ben

    So basically uber is taking .20 from the driver for minimum fares and giving it to themselves?

    • No they have also increased the minimum fare so drivers get exactly the same, Uber makes around 4% more though on all rides.

      • Will Mette

        Uber makes around 4% more though on all minimum fare rides. About 2% more on the average ride.

      • thomasah

        The actual booking fee has increased by 14% to 17% depending of the original fee.
        (.2/1,2)= 16.7% increase, going from $1.20 to $1.40 or
        (..35/2.50)= 14% increase, going from $2.50 to 2.85
        average might be (.275/1.85) = 14.9% increase.
        I would like to get almost a 15% income increase just for nothing.
        Now if Uber applied the same increase across all charges, not including government fees then the mileage and time rates would look like this:
        minute = (.22*1.149)=$0.25 rounded
        mileage=(1.15*1.149)=$1.32 rounded for UberX

        • Sounds like the MORE complicated the formula, the better so that drivers can’t exactly tell how much more Uber is making and not sharing.

          Keep people confused to continue getting people to work for you is so smart. Way to go Uber!

  • john

    No one should be surprised by this. The past 2 years Uber has been concentrating heavily on how they can take a bigger cut of the pie from drivers and this was to be expected. They have very little interest in increasing rates where they see only 20 to 25% of the increase.
    April 2015 in San Diego saw each ride begin with a $1.85 starting fee (then shared between the driver-80%/Uber-20% or $1.48/$0.37) plus a $1 booking fee that went solely to Uber. That has changed over time where the starting fee went to $0 and the booking fee has twice risen to now be $1.95. In other words in that time they went from getting $1.37 per start of ride to the current $1.95 per ride while the drivers lost that $1.48 starting fee.
    Uber’s long range plan was obviously to eliminate any shared up-front fees and move that $$ to a fee that went solely to Uber. There is no reason to think this will change. Personally I expect no rate increases for drivers over the next year but wouldn’t be shocked if that booking fee gets increased again some time over the next year or maybe they’ll find some other new way to charge riders that isn’t shared.

    • Yea and honestly I would argue that Uber is free to do whatever they want. BUT I have a problem when they say one thing: this is the year of the driver. And then do another thing: increase booking fee which only benefits their bottom line and not drivers.

      • Karsus

        Naturally, none of that comes back to you in the form of bonuses or boosts or anything else…

        • Tony Pierce

          No one asked Uber for boosts or bonuses. We have asked for a tip button. If Uber wants to give us a $1.50 tip for each ride if we do 35 rides, that’s their own stubbornness and pride. If they would just put the tip button in there with a suggested tip of 15% or 20% of the fare drivers would make MORE than the boost and Uber could keep their precious money. But they would rather try to manipulate surges, and force drivers on the roads to make that money. Little do they realize that 3-4 years ago drivers were more than happy to keep driving as long as there was money to be made. The boosts and bonuses could go away with one simple tip button, but they are too hard-headed to do it. Why? They insist on absolute control. Even though control is an illusion.

          • No.bs

            Tip buttton is an awful idea and I hope it never changes. People swarmed to Uber for a number of reasons and getting rid of that obligation to tip was one of the biggest. It is also the reason Uber remains strong even after countless negative headlines. “If it aint broken, don’t fix it”. Well obviously it aint broken so leave all that tip bs out of the car.

          • Will Mette

            Low price & convenience are the driving forces.
            Tipping should be set during setup just like for UberTaxi to keep it convenient.

          • No.bs

            Pay attention. I said “one” of the reasons. The two you stated are the most obvious.
            Its still a bad idea. Uber knows it and won’t add it to their other services. Who wants to be obligated to tip some sketchy driver who smells bad while riding in his car that he doesn’t clean and barely knows where he’s going much less english? THAT is the driving force to why you wont see a tip button. Period.

          • Will Mette

            Your argument is not based on facts. Lyft offers in app tipping and is growing at a faster rate than Uber percent-wise. I know they are starting from a lower base, but the tipping option doesn’t seem to be slowing their growth.
            A tip button doesn’t obligate tipping, but encourages it.
            Notice I said driving forces, lack of a tip button is not a driving force.

          • No.bs

            That is true, i am giving my opinion. Im not writing for the Times, this is simply a forum consisting of peoples opinions. That is usually how these go, or am I wrong about that too? You give far to much credit to Lyft. They are able to grow so easily because of Ubers endless failures. Thats all and nothing more. If you were not keeping track, they are the only two options in most cities, that people will trust and obviously Uber is losing that trust. Of course Lyft is going to excel. People have no other choice. You continue to state the obvious. By the way, you said the “driving force” was convienance and low price. Most riders do not check the app at the end of their ride. I close it and thats good enough for them. Thats why positive reveiws are harder to achieve. My point is, Do you think people are going to tip at the beginning of their ride? To carry cash for an Uber driver is a drastic step in the wrong direction and NOT a convienance any longer. And giving you additional funds sorta takes away from the low price now doesn’t it? When I said “pay attention”, I meant pay attention to everything especially the riders, and not just your wallet.

          • Will Mette

            Lyft was able to grow so fast due to Lyft’s lack of failures and support for drivers.
            Lyft expects to be the first rideshare company to become profitable. http://www.marketplace.org/2017/03/07/economy/make-me-smart-kai-and-molly/7-lyft-co-founder-john-zimmer-says-company-could-be
            You continue to ignore the obvious.
            Pax know how much a ride costs for regular trips. If they live in Chicago, they know that when they take a taxi they usually pay twice as much. When upfront pricing is higher than expected, many Uber pax have told me they will try Lyft because they want to avoid the surge pricing. Many pax take pool/line rides to save a buck or two even though this is less convenient. Most want the non-pool/line convenience.

            Do I think people are going to tip at the beginning of their ride? Yes, but most people will not tip, before or after the ride because Uber insisted for so long that tips were included/not necessary. I feel many pax will tip before the ride because I do get tips & so many of them tell me that more than 99% of the drivers are great. If they had the option to remove the tip for the 1% bad drivers, they would be even more likely, but I think many would tip in advance without that feature – just like they did for UberTaxi.

            Corporate accounts tend to not tip on Uber because it comes out of the employee’s pocket, not the corporate credit card.

            Your sketchy Uber/Lyft driver who smells bad does not last long (or corrects his ways) due to poor ratings.

            But you are correct the tip button is not needed, raising fares 20% would be much better than a tip button for drivers & Uber’s bottom line. Uber would still be 40% cheaper here. Tipping should be gotten rid of everywhere, businesses should pay their workers a fair amount for work done. Whites should not make more than blacks, women shouldn’t make more than men, … Until Uber stops it’s predatory pricing, a tip button makes sense.

          • PrimalPabloFitness

            It is broken, they’re losing billions, they’re losing customers and Travis is losing it as a leader.

          • Arthur Issac

            There is no “obligation to tip”, the driver will not know until you are long gone.

          • No.bs

            “Driver will not know…” Well that sounds like whatever tips you were getting are long gone as well. How many times are you gonna hear “oh, I’m just gonna add the tip to the app.” And never see a damn thing? The answer, all the time. Once pax realizes that, then any tip you may have received is not going to happen any longer. The fact is people are cheap. The service still offers “pool” because there are still people who want to pay even less for a service that is cheaper and more dependable then anything else offered in history. That mentality is just pathetic.

          • Arthur Issac

            There is no “obligation to tip”, the driver will not know until you are long gone.

          • Thunder Thumbz

            Why should anyone be obligated to tip you? Where does this entitlement to a tip come from? As an Uber driver i admit i do not provide a service that’s of any real value. A trained ape could do my job. It requires minimal skill and certification. Being a waiter requires more effort and skill then driving around.

          • Tony Pierce

            1. Having a tip button does not obligate anyone to use it.
            2. It is not an entitlement, indeed in many cases it’s something passengers want too.
            3. I agree, you probably don’t.
            4. Bro, Uber can’t even train a computer to do the job. If they could use apes, trust me, they would.
            5. Then? Oy.

          • Thunder Thumbz

            I am not opposed to an option to tip in the app but it should not be required. I do have a problem with all these drivers that think that they always deserve a tip for doing nothing that is difficult. Uber really just needs to get rid of surge and raise the rates but at the same time they need to be cheaper then the competition other wise there is no incentive to use the service. Unfortunately Uber tried to undercut Lyft and Lyft has matched them so how can they go up in price from here?

          • Arthur Issac

            Tipping will be an option, not required.
            Giving you a ride for half the price of a taxi may be nothing to you, you probably do not tip taxi drivers. Do you tip waitresses who just do their jobs?
            Lyft followed Uber down, I expect that they would follow them up also. Uber should test it in one market first, then if Lyft follows, all markets.

          • Arthur Issac

            Tipping will be an option, not required.
            Giving you a ride for half the price of a taxi may be nothing to you, you probably do not tip taxi drivers. Do you tip waitresses who just do their jobs?
            Lyft followed Uber down, I expect that they would follow them up also. Uber should test it in one market first, then if Lyft follows, all markets.

          • No.bs

            Completely agree. Their ongoing fued with Lyft has only made it more and more difficult for drivers to make anything close to what we used to make just six months ago. I enjoy driving because in Vegas there is always something new (and a bit wierd sometimes) at 3am. Getting paid on top of that is only a benefit. Tip buttons are a bad idea and the very reason it has never been implemented. People just want a dependable service. Nobody should have “tipping” thrown in their face at anytime for a service that, you the driver, voluteered to perform. Hey if they got a couple bucks and want to throw them your way at the end, so be it. Thats the end of it. For those of us who provide great service without expectations there should be a “request” option. That would seperate the winners from the whiners.

          • Will Mette

            Who is talking about obligation?
            But it is likely that we would make more if tipping in the app became available and pax were reminded that they can tip.
            Executives for one would be willing to tip more if it could be expensed like taxi tips.

    • Susan Vue

      Drivers would be far better off starting their own cab service business than signing on with Uber.

      • Mary Susan Fanara

        Good idea!! My main concern is wear & tear on my car….went thru new tires in 6 months.

      • Will Mette

        Ridesharing is a more efficient model. No driving around looking for fares. In any case, if the profit goes up, more drivers will enter and profits will go back down again. The reason taxi companies were making so much money was an artificial shortage of taxis. Taxi drivers in Chicago were making $1 more than Uber drivers when medallions were $300,000. Who will lend me $50,000 to get a medallion when medallion prices are dropping and may become worthless?

        • Susan Vue

          Publico – My Parents retired to Puerto Rico and they took the Publico “Ridesharing”

      • No.bs

        You are on to something Susan. Check out RydenGo.com. They might have something that is along those same lines.

      • No.bs

        I see 10 times more Lyft dashboard lights then 3 months ago but every Lyft driver still says that Uber is where the money is at. Go figure.

  • Leila

    “A 4% raise for Uber isn’t egregious”.
    Per driver maybe not but when you multiply that by how many drivers they actually have driving for them that is most certainly a nice chunk of change.

    When you thought they could not possibly sink any lower on the asshole pole they managed once again to go down another notch or two.

    • Leila

      They raised it here in Phoenix $0.20 also taking it from $1.80 to $2.00

      What I would like to know is if they had no intentions of sharing any of the $0.20 with the drivers why did they tell us at all, unless it is to be able to explain it to the passengers when or if they ask.

      • Yea kinda strange that they even told us since it doesn’t affect driver pay.

        • john

          When we look at our 1099 breakdown its reflects the entire ride costs to the customers (safety fee, booking fee, Uber’s cut… driver’s cut) so I think this causes them from an Accounting standpoint to get us to acknowledge that less of the customer fees will be coming to us.

      • Will Mette

        4% times 1 million drivers is 4 million percent!
        Yicks! Just kidding.

        $0.20 times 40 million rides per month = ~$100 million per year

        Let us see. Uber lost $3 billion last year.
        They have raised $15 billion over the years, most of that has already been spent. Uber will probably will be broke (& drivers will be out of work) in 2 years if Uber continues to lose $3 billion per year.

  • thomasah

    I think Uber was making an error when they said that 2017 is The Year Of The Driver. They really meant that 2017 is The Year Of The Profit, just before 2018, which might be The Year Of The IPO.
    2017 should be The Year Of Driver Organization

  • AZ Drive Time

    To reiterate what I have written previously. (1.) On the Payment Statement Uber deducted (or should I say “carved out”) the Booking Fee from the Fare shown in the Ride Summary. (2.) Uber then added back the Booking Fee. (3.) The effect made it appear Uber was offset (zero out) the deduction and not charging the driver a Booking Fee.

    Example:

    If the fare shown in Ride Summary was $10.00 and Uber’s commission was 20% ($2.00), the Driver netted $8.00.

    However, what was reflected on the Payment Statement follows::

    FARE BOOK FEE BOOK FEE UBER 20% DRIVER NET
    ADD-BACK
    $8..20 ($1.80) $1.80 ($1.64) $6.56

    Result:: Uber “actual” percentage: 34.4%.

    IF Uber changed how Booking Fees are handled this is positive. But what about the past Rider Fees that drivers unknowingly paid?. The amount has to be staggering.

    • Are you referring to your tax summary and 1099 or …?

      • AZ Drive Time

        No. The Ride Summary with the ride fare and the Payment Statement were/are on my Uber account page. Both are Uber reports.

  • Cool. Congrats to Uber for taking a large cut and for still keeping riders on their platform!

    I, for one, stopped last year as the earnings were terrible. I’ll only try to find a ride if I’m going a long way and am not in a rush.

    Think for yourselves folks.

  • Karsus

    This is complete garbage. Uber has to find some way to pay for the bonuses and boosts they give drivers. The amount of dishonest bias against Uber in this site is cringe worthy.

    You would think that half of Lyft’s implementations weren’t more douchey. From their non-transparent surge pricing, to their guaranteed hours that as often as not you can’t make because you get a ride that kicks you out of the zone, to their power driver bonus that forces you to buy a newer car…

    • What part of this article was a conspiracy? You can’t argue with the math: their commission went up. Not sure what dishonest bias you’re referring to but we have plenty of articles on the joys of driving for Uber – this isn’t one of them though.

      We have covered many of Lyft’s more ‘douchey’ programs too just like non-transparent surge pricing: therideshareguy.com/uber-surge-vs-lyft-prime-time-shootout-where-do-drivers-earn-more/

      75% of my audience primarily drives for Uber though so yes we are going to scrutinize Uber more closely than Lyft – I’m running a business here and that’s biz 101…

    • john

      Manipulation? LOL, drivers make up their own opinions but sometimes reality is so obvious that there becomes a general consensus but its certainly not because someone is influencing the group as a whole. You don’t have to be a genius to have noticed how Uber has slowly but surely taken a larger piece of the pie (over and over) and often times even tries to basically hide what they’re doing. Your post is really quite pathetic.

    • JackM

      No, its not a charity. So Uber’s attempt to build a “viable network and business…” shouldn’t be about pimping cheap rides from independent contractors while selling a futuristic vision of flying cars. Whatever they want to claim to be, they still have to meet some sort of market reality that is based upon the present market conditions.

      You mention Uber’s real problems, I would love to hear someone on Uber’s side elaborate as to what those problems are and how they intend to reconcile them. We driver’s would love to have the smoke of conspiracy dissipated with some clear explanations as to what those problems are and how they can be mitigated. Because time and time again, the numbers that Uber wants to use are gross miscalculations (or exaggerations).

      The smokescreen of dragging Lyft into the discussion only exacerbates Uber’s perception problem. They won’t become the global monopoly that some glom to because such a model has proven to be unrealistically flawed. Uber needs drivers but won’t address their growing public relations problem of people exercising their choice and choosing not to be a part of what Uber spends heavily to project. And what is that future vis-a-vis driver? Can’t sell the self driving/flying cars of the future while ignoring the cold reality of the present. Its not about paying bonuses to new drivers, or to stench the current attrition rate, but about trying to by a market share (in this case a monopoly?) at hyper-inflated rates. Not unique but this isn’t a cliffhanger scenario either.

      We drivers may not agree on many things but when someone wants to tell us about being manipulated they need to come with a lot more than weak, old talking points about Uber. Uber does little to distinguish its self in how it operates, and for measure I’ll throw in Lyft on how they both seem to dwell in ambiguity when a little clarity could reinforce who/how they want to operate. In more and more markets, and more situations, Uber is coming out the loser on all fronts. You can’t diss drivers, bitch about drivers, and still expect to thrive without those pesky drivers.

      • Will Mette

        Uber’s problems are 1) failure to communicate. There is little chance that they will respond here. They spent less than an hour responding to drivers’ concerns when they finally had a Facebook meeting 2) lack of concern for drivers/too narrowly focused on customer experience 3) too focused on dominating the industry/high cash burn rate. Last I heard, it looks like they will be broke in 2 years unless they change or find more investors.

        • Thunder Thumbz

          The dirty little secret is there will always be people without options who will drive for Uber. Immigrants, the uneducated, people who pissed away life opportunities etc. So why would the company put any effort nor attention into addressing driver concerns. The customer is where the $$ is at. Drivers are replaceable. The solution, go develop a paying skillset and stop driving for uber.

  • No.bs

    To be fair (since Harry tends to not be) Uber does and will take care of driver problems without much pushback. I’m referring to getting reimbursed for a car cleaning or even a repair from damage caused by a passenger. That is a major reason for the increase. If a 20 cent increase was freely given out across the board I don’t think Uber would be easy to deal with at all if your car got damaged, which by the way would eat up that 20 cent raise pretty quick. I see them simply telling drivers to use there increase in pay to cover it.
    Please don’t forget, There are two sides to every coin.

    • What part of the article/site do you think isn’t fair? We cover the positive and negative issues pretty fairly imo – just look back at the last few weeks of content. I can’t do much though if Uber is instituting a lot of one-sided policies.

      And not sure what your comment is referring to but cleaning fees are charged directly to the passenger so Uber pays nothing out of pocket for those. And damage by a passenger is actually very hard to get taken care of since Uber won’t give out personal information of passengers due to privacy policy. So if a pax opens a car door for example and it gets hit by a car, you’re out of luck if the damage is less than $1,000 (since Uber’s insurance deductible is $1k) and you have to get the pax’s contact info right then/there and get them to pay for it.

      • No.bs

        My experiences with Uber have not been so dramatic and fairly easy overall. It was as simple as an email and a couple pictures. Of course my attitude as well as my rating do reflect a much better and more positive approach to things. How you deal with things is just as important as why you are dealing with them in the first place. I don’t know much (as John pointed out), but I do know that.

      • No.bs

        Sorry for the segmented reply. Had to step away to go rescue some kittens out of a tree and help an older lady cross the street. But to answer your question Harry, I don’t think the site is fair at all. You said yourself that you scutinize Uber so much more than Lyft. Do you think thats fair? Can’t you simply state facts about either one in an unbiased manner without all the opinionated banter. With a title like “the rideshare guy” a reader would think that is what they are getting but in reality its quite the opposite as your anti-Uber opinion is reflected in everything you write. And If you do still drive for Uber (even part time) this blog makes you a hypocrite as well. Or is it just business 101?

    • john

      “No.bs”? More like “no.clue”.

      • Lol John – first time in a while anyone has told me I’m too hard on Uber 🙂

    • Mary Susan Fanara

      I had a rider steal my car jacks and chargers. Because I don’t know exactly which passenger did it, no reimbursement from uber

  • Gaspar

    Excellent stuff. keep your eyes peeled to the “gaslighting”

    speaking of uber driver incentives. mashable says that in india there was yet another strike because uber stopped paying the incentives, so the poor drivers are stuck with the ridiculously low fares.

    http://mashable.com/2017/02/23/uber-ola-strike-bangalore-india/?utm_cid=hp-r-2#thdIbxormOqd

  • Will Mette

    I was on my phone and the ultimate rideshare guide ad popped up and I could not get rid of it. I already have paid for it and would like to reply on my phone but the ad blocks my view on my Android phone.

  • “over the weekend” increase, indeed. uber pushed the increase in booking fee notification (which required drivers’ acknowledgement and acceptance) at or about midnite on or about friday or saturday nite. if you did not “acknowledge and accept” the new terms, you were not able to log on. an attorney would describe this as a contract entered into under duress, and thus null and void.

    • Thunder Thumbz

      No an attorney would not. I suggest you look up cases that describe what contracts under “duress” are. Here, you have the option to reject the contract and work somewhere else.

  • Susan Vue

    Uber must keep borders open to keep cheap labor/drivers available and don’t forget the H1-B visa slaves for the data room. Like all socialist countries Uber has a few wealthy aye wholes at the top and the rest are lowly disposable serfs.

  • Mary Susan Fanara

    Quite simply, I think we should strike. Would they really want riders switching to Lyft if only for one day? That example from Harry would be ,85 cents per mile and .15 per minute here in Rockford, IL. Personally. I cannot wait to NOT drive for Uber.

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