41–50 of 93 posts
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> It’s jacking up prices and pocketing the difference. Obviously the way to make profit is to charge more than you spend. Literally the definition.
Hotter take: Pocketing the excess value of someone else's labor and capital is theft.
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Isn't (at least part of) the point of surge pricing to bring more drivers out onto the road? Or was that just a lie.
Would you drive someone 4.5 hours from DC to NYC for $250? The drive back would be $0, so $250 / 9, minus gas and mileage. It's very little. Meanwhile Uber got $650. I wouldn't do it.
On the other hand, $250 cash in hand, now, without having to run around or idle for customers could be a lot of money for someone. People who drive these things don't work for fangs...
But this was always the plan, wasn't it? Uber has been losing money since it started, subsiding our travel with VC money, I thought clearly always with the plan of "once we get market dominance we can jack up the prices and make all that money back". I don't think they were ever shy about this plan. So now we're at that point. Either we put up with the new prices, or move on to another app, or find another transport…
That part is understandable. What doesn’t make sense is the ratio. Driver pays for the car, gas and their time. And Uber pockets 50% of the fare? I’ve heard this from at least a few vocal drivers. Apple App Store’s 30% cut as a software service provider seems like a bargain.
Last year, I traveled from DC to NY overnight, and it was 2.5x surge pricing. When i got to my destination, I stuck around in the car to see what the driver app was saying. I paid close to $900, driver took ~$250, the entire surge pricing difference went to Uber. I was thinking, that's an crazy markup over their AWS bill but really it's just a robbery.
Isn't (at least part of) the point of surge pricing to bring more drivers out onto the road? Or was that just a lie.
I get that people don't like it when the price of things go up. But surely people can see that the Uber pricing was unsustainable? The VC money was subsidising our transport (yay) but clearly that couldn't last. So, as prictable to everyone , prices go up, drivers get less, and Uber are hoping riders will have grown so used to the convenience so as not to care. Expect a flood of stories along these lines in the comin…
Why is it WhatsApp can serve most of the fucking world with something like 100 people but Uber needs a huge staff?
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Greyhound nyc to dc is like $20 and has a dozen buses a day. Plus you have Amtrak. Why take an Uber?
Is that really the cost or figurative? Because I would take the bus from NYC into PA and it was like $70 twenty years ago.
Last year, I traveled from DC to NY overnight, and it was 2.5x surge pricing. When i got to my destination, I stuck around in the car to see what the driver app was saying. I paid close to $900, driver took ~$250, the entire surge pricing difference went to Uber. I was thinking, that's an crazy markup over their AWS bill but really it's just a robbery.
Yeah, it is a crazy markup and it's why they were able to increase their ARR by 58% this last year. I think the more frustrating thing is lack of serious competition in the space to keep them from jacking up the prices down so much. Lyft should be drastically undercutting Uber in order to force them to lower prices or out of the market but they aren't, instead they are on average charging more. Need better startups i…
Drastically undercutting the competition means you leave money on the table. Let's just assume a 5% discount isn't enough to win riders but 15% is, should the cut fares but anything over 15% just to screw Uber? And does this risk setting a low enough market cap on Lyft that they could be compelled to take an acquisition offer simply because they so drastically under cut their potential revenue?
Startups' job isn't to fix a broken market, it's to either become self sufficientquickly or to 10x investor capital depending on the funding model. The only business model that can really justify cutting fares drastically would be a non-profit, maybe some kind of collective run by the drivers themselves.
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No amount of the surge pricing should go to Uber. They're already earning more due to the increased number of rides. It's almost akin to taking the tips.
I don't understand why people think this. Uber isn't a charity. Of course they are going to try to take advantage of demand shortages. If drivers want to take in the profit from things like this, they should form a co-op, not be contractors.