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Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance

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Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance

#81

Post by baddox »

SilasX wrote: post #50
erichurkman wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

And when the driver demands that I guide his entire journey from my own smartphone, do I get a partial refund for my navigation consulting fee?

Where are you guys having these bad experiences? I don't use Uber much, but I have used Sidecar in SF about once a week for around two years without a single bad experience, and I would have thought Uber had an even higher standard.

Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance

#82

Post by baddox »

devindotcom wrote: post #34

Heh and then comes the gas surcharge and the waiting penalty and before long they have to put a sticker in the window with all these fees enumerated, and there will also be so many ubers that they'll have to put little signs on top so you can tell which one is taken and which isn't.

Even if that stuff eventually happens, there will still likely be genuine competition, making it almost certainly more efficient than the taxi system.

Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance

#83

Post by baddox »

anigbrowl wrote: post #38

How quickly (and disappointingly) the disruptors become the new rentiers .

I'm confused by your terminology. My impression of the word "renter" is that it refers to monopolies, but Uber has several very well-known competitors, at least in major cities.

Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance

#84

Post by bertil »

uptown wrote: post #66
bertil wrote: post #47

I don’t think Uber is trying to do this to pay for check: they are asking its users to contribute to safety. It's a branding move — confusing as many have pointed out, but fairly clear when you consider psychology/behavioural economics. The amount is minimal, and the motive too vaguely in the right direction not to be agreed with. You can’t even not select the option. The idea is the same as adding a ‘green’/ecoLabel…

Except all it takes is one bad incident with some negative publicity to spoil the perception that adding this fee ensures you'll be safe. People will ask - why were we paying this when it didn't seem to prevent "X" from happening.

Having Police patrol car around doesn’t prevent crime — but seeing them helps feel safe. Have a public message thanking tax payers for financing the cars for increased patrol also increase support for police in general.

I'm not saying it will work, either. I'm just saying Uber never split costs between User Support and DevOps — they have no reason to sort one service appart unless they was a reason to display that one in particular.

Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance

#85

Post by bertil »

tomkarlo wrote: post #49
bertil wrote: post #47

I don’t think Uber is trying to do this to pay for check: they are asking its users to contribute to safety. It's a branding move — confusing as many have pointed out, but fairly clear when you consider psychology/behavioural economics. The amount is minimal, and the motive too vaguely in the right direction not to be agreed with. You can’t even not select the option. The idea is the same as adding a ‘green’/ecoLabel…

The amount really isn't minimal when you consider it's a 8-12% surcharge on the typical UberX fare. Weren't they just doing a bunch of marketing about how they reduced their UberX fares 10% in SF?

That’s why they are not showing is as a part of a ride, but as an amount, making it something under a psychological limit (usually theorised as ‘a coffee’), like micro-payments.

Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance

#87

Post by cbsmith »

aetherson wrote: post #69
cbsmith wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding from talking to drivers is that when they announced the price change for UberX, they cut their commission from 20% to just 5%. So that means Uber now gets $1.60 and the driver gets $11.40 from a $13 fee. If this is a margin growing scheme, everyone at Uber needs to take remedial arithmetic.

They raised the commission back up to 20% at the same time they added the $1 "safety" fee. Here's a reference: http://www.geekwire.com/2014/uber-adds-1-safe-rides-fee-pass... My read is that they thought they could keep Lyft from taking their market-share by losing money on every ride and relying on their deep pockets, but then Lyft got a comparable amount of money to Uber, and Uber was like, "well, guess we won't be…

Ouch, that shift back to 20% is gonna hurt them bad with drivers, and the $1 adds insult to injury.

Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance

#88

Post by viraptor »

Someone wrote: post #76
viraptor wrote: post #72

This is pure speculation, but I think the fee could be a result of this scenario: By now they've got teams of lawyers going through all common and city specific laws regarding transportation. Those teams are supposed to flag anything that opponents can use to either stop or fine the service. As a result they found in some of the cities they operate in, that the service operator rather than the driver is supposed to e…

"they found in some of the cities they operate in, that the service operator rather than the driver is supposed to explicitly give money towards insurance and safety check of all vehicles they manage. They solved the potential future issue by adding a small charge that's explicitly labeled "for insurance, safety checks, etc."" Huh? Law says you need to spend money in _some_ cities, and you solve that by getting more…

There's compliance - "if you sue us we will spend time countering your claims showing all the documentation" and there's this action - "hey everyone, see how we comply with pretty much everything in these and similar rules? don't even bother questioning it"

Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance

#89

Post by tomkarlo »

bertil wrote: post #85
tomkarlo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount really isn't minimal when you consider it's a 8-12% surcharge on the typical UberX fare. Weren't they just doing a bunch of marketing about how they reduced their UberX fares 10% in SF?

That’s why they are not showing is as a part of a ride, but as an amount, making it something under a psychological limit (usually theorised as ‘a coffee’), like micro-payments.

Yeah, but it's still added into the charge, right? I don't really worry about the components of my cab fare (including the tip), just the total.

Re: Uber adds $1 “Safe Rides Fee” to UberX rides for background checks, insurance

#90

Post by tomkarlo »

r00fus wrote: post #64
tomkarlo wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last time I took an Uber to SFO, the driver stepped out of the Prius without pressing the "Park" button. Maybe I would have gotten my $1 back.

Did they have the parking brake on? Not a big deal if so, though inadvisable.

The fact that it started to roll through the terminal 2 drop-off (with me in the back) would indicate otherwise.
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