I feel like this should have just been worked into the original price, instead of having it seem like this whole time it was unsafe.
It feels like a "whoops, we cut prices too far" move.
Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance
21–30 of 92 posts
Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance
#22What if I want to opt-out of paying the "Safe Rides Fee", does that mean a car with three wheels will show up piloted by an unsavory character? This is a really puzzling move by Uber. I would expect for their core brand promise to be safety, not an add-on fee.
Or, when you get a driver that makes you fear for your life because they are spending more time paying attention to their three GPS devices instead of traffic, do you get a $1 refund for the un"safe" ride?
I highly doubt they do refund that, but that brings up a very good point.
Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance
#23Why not just add it to the base price of the Uber ride? Still seems a little gimmicky to me. I take uberX a very short distance on almost a daily basis. $1 more represents a 12% or 15% price increase in each of my rides. I thought the cheap short rides, was one of the best features of UberX. This will make me consider continuing to use them for these short daily trips.
I would guess that this was an easier-to-market way to sell the user on an unfortunate price increase. I would imagine no one would disagree that they want a safe ride, and for Uber I am sure that indeed it will support newly discovered costs of doing business... so they might be right to sell it this way.
The fact that it was released on a Friday before an Easter Holiday weekend might support the theory that it's just simply a "bad news" price increase [1].
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/26/nyregion/in-announcing-unf...
Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance
#24This seems like a dumb move by Uber that I wonder if they will end up retracting here soon. This new fee seems very half-baked, and I imagine it will actually hurt their brand rather than do what they think it will do. It's like this is a band-aid fix for the news flack they have been receiving lately about safety with UberX.
They seem to have so much traction in this space with drivers that I don't get why they don't charge the driver to do a background check / insurance check (as someone else in this thread mentioned). Or heck, maybe they should just be paying for these safety checks out of their own pocket. It would just add to their brand as naturally being a safe-to-use product. If a store was charging you to be helped by "safe" employees vs sketchy ones, you'd be outraged.
Based on this, assuming it's a fee that is here to stay, they will end up making a fortune from customers compared to what it "really" costs to implement the idea of safety (the checks/balances). A simple background check is roughly less than $25. I can't imagine them taking much more steps than the bare minimum. Uber will probably make their money back in a few dozen rides, then can simple reap the benefits. Plus, who knows if they are even doing these checks/balances or what they are doing. They could add this fee on, and there would still be no transparency on what they are even doing with the money to help with your safety as a customer.
This just seems like a very short sighted idea by Uber (if they actually want to help the customers/employees). I'm losing more and more respect for this company everytime I see their name mentioned in press/articles. Everything from the poor taste in aggressive sales tactics [1] to things like this. I consider this a "panicking" move by Uber, as if the once solid floor is slowly slipping away from under them.
[1] http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/24/technology/social/uber-gett/
Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance
#25Jumping in on this without knowing anything about the business model, but why not just ask all of the drivers to pay $35 (for example) one time to do a bg check / insurance check?
Drivers aren't all going to pay a fee. Some will drive less or switch to a competitor.
Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. I'm a fan of "the price is the price," with all of the various overhead expenditures being factored into that price. There's not a line item for their app developers, nor a charge for their server hosting...
Agreed. Maybe I should offer a "free rides" app, but charge a gas fee, a driver fee, and an administrative fee. It's not even clear exactly what this fee is supposed to be covering
I think that was called Lyft.
Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance
#27"Minimum Expected Threshold of Due Diligence Fee"
Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance
#28I feel like this should have just been worked into the original price, instead of having it seem like this whole time it was unsafe.
Not to mention that they send out an email with their recent price cuts, but this is only shown in app. Seems like they are trying to slip it by.
Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance
#29Why not just add it to the base price of the Uber ride? Still seems a little gimmicky to me. I take uberX a very short distance on almost a daily basis. $1 more represents a 12% or 15% price increase in each of my rides. I thought the cheap short rides, was one of the best features of UberX. This will make me consider continuing to use them for these short daily trips.
[deleted]
Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance
#30I feel like this should have just been worked into the original price, instead of having it seem like this whole time it was unsafe.
It feels like a "whoops, we cut prices too far" move.
...or a more strategic "cut prices to lock people into our service, and then up the prices". Uber cuts the prices of UberX to attract traffic away from Lyft, Sidecar, etc, and then raises prices and relies on people not having the inertia to go back to other apps/suppliers and shop around.