Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

thenextweb.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 92 posts

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

#71

Post by lsc »

anigbrowl wrote: post #38

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

It's interesting. Obviously, it's in your best interest to depend only on commodity products, both as a business and as a consumer. If you depend on a differentiated service, one that is expensive to move to another vendor, a rational, profit-maximizing vendor is going to take advantage of that.

But, when you want to run a business? If you ever want advice from a business person, If you say that your market is at all commodity, they tell you to quit straight-out.

It bothers me, because I have a really hard time honestly selling another person a differentiated product. Obviously, it's not in your best interest to depend on a product or service you can only get from one place, so obviously, if I am trying to sell you such a product, I am asking you to act against your own best interest, and that is not easy for me.

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

#72

Post by viraptor »

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 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." With all the legal issues they run against right now, preventing potential future trouble seems to make more sense than ignoring the environment.

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

#73

Post by tzier »

tzier wrote: post #59

Article leaves out important point: they raised their commission from 5% back to 20% at the same time as the implementation of the $1 safe fee [1]. (They had dropped their commission to 5% in January with the price drop [2].) This is a pretty big bet on their part that they've locked drivers into the Uber platform through enough volume/earnings. [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2014/04/18/did-uber... [2]…

Update: Lyft is apparently already doing this through a "Trust and Safety" fee [1], but doesn't seem to be catching much flack for it.

[1] http://www.lyft.me/help?article=1263247

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

#74

Post by pmorici »

Uber announced this change to all their drivers earlier this week in an email. What this article doesn't mention is that in that same email they also announced a new "Data Plan" fee for drivers. They are going to start charging Uber drivers $10 per week for use of the iPhone Uber provides you and you are required to use to be a driver for Uber.

In other words their lowering of rates was probably just a ploy and now to put them right back where they were again they stick in these extra fees on drivers and passengers. Kind of a crappy situation for all parties. Uber already takes 20% of every fare.

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

#75

Post by pmorici »

cbsmith wrote: post #65
awwstn wrote: post #36

Here's what I think led to this: UberX was priced appropriately for the market, but Uber wanted a larger cut of revenue. (Say average ride was $12, Uber gets $2.40.) In January, Uber announced a 20% decrease [1] in UberX prices. (Continuing hypothetical, average price could be $9.60, and Uber gets $1.92) This week, Uber adds the $1 safety fee, of which drivers get none. Now, continuing my hypothetical averages, the a…

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.

No, in Baltimore at least Uber has _always_ taken a 20% cut. What they don't mention in the article is Uber also started charging drivers a $10 per week "Data" fee for use of the Uber phone you have to have to get fares. So they are recouping more than just $1 per trip.

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

#76

Post by Someone »

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 money from _all_ your customers?

I would think you solve that issue by spending money, and ensuring they have the paperwork that proves that they did spend money on safety checks and insurance.

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

#77

Post by rhizome »

mikeash wrote: post #19
thechut wrote: post #10

Why 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.

Indeed, this sort of gimmick "fee" seems antithetical to Uber. The whole point of Uber is to avoid the BS associated with taxis, of which unclear pricing is one example. If they continue in this direction, why use Uber over a regular taxi?

Because in SF, taxis never come.

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

#78

Post by sliverstorm »

awwstn wrote: post #36

Here's what I think led to this: UberX was priced appropriately for the market, but Uber wanted a larger cut of revenue. (Say average ride was $12, Uber gets $2.40.) In January, Uber announced a 20% decrease [1] in UberX prices. (Continuing hypothetical, average price could be $9.60, and Uber gets $1.92) This week, Uber adds the $1 safety fee, of which drivers get none. Now, continuing my hypothetical averages, the a…

Supposedly this is developing into a theme. Uber doesn't want to take a cut in revenue, and higher prices drive away customers- so the drivers usually get the shaft.

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

#79

Post by astrange »

mikeash wrote: post #19
thechut wrote: post #10

Why 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.

Indeed, this sort of gimmick "fee" seems antithetical to Uber. The whole point of Uber is to avoid the BS associated with taxis, of which unclear pricing is one example. If they continue in this direction, why use Uber over a regular taxi?

Uber actually picks you up. Yellow Taxi in CA regularly fails to come (once left me stranded in East Palo Alto) or the taxi dispatcher will yell at you for calling the Burlingame number instead of the San Mateo number.

There is Taxi Magic, but that app is just not as good.

Post reply on HN