Uber is rolling out guaranteed fares

Uber knows nobody likes surge pricing (except its drivers). The company plans to introduce upfront fares in rest of its markets in the near future.

Uber has been a long defendant of its surge pricing policy despite frequent backlashes from people and authorities alike. Instead, riders will soon get to know how much a ride on Uber will cost them.

Exactly, surge pricing allows rides to be available even during high demand. So far, the company says that riders find the pricing easier to understand and are more likely to return to using the service. Do you think there is any difference or is this just a case of changing the name to make consumers more comfortable paying the increased price for a ride? As of this week, Uber will show you the full price for rides, eliminating the need for guesswork.

Uber also said that the route taken by the driver will not matter anymore as the fare is fixed upfront.

Surge pricing mechanism has been a bone of contention between the government and cab aggregators like Uber and Ola, due to the absence of clear guidelines and a regulatory architecture.

It should be noted that UberPOOL, in which riders share the auto with others, is also cheaper than uberX.

To date, hundreds of thousands of riders have experienced upfront fares as part of this rollout.

This does not mean that the ride-sharing service is dropping the controversial surge pricing system though. The companies say that the surge kicks in when the demand is higher.

When there is surge pricing, you’ll be quoted that more expensive fare.

The upfront fares feature has been so far rolled out in selected cities in the United States and India since April, and more cities are set to follow. The fare of particular Uber rider will be calculated based on the predictable travel period, distance from the starting point to a destination, road traffic, surge, and tolls was valid. However, knowing the fare up front should help us make more economical decisions – and without the guilt of knowing our fares are being hiked up three times the amount of what they would normally be. There’s no complicated math and no surprises: “passengers can just sit back and enjoy the ride”, the blog post said.