Uber’s New Year’s Eve surge pricing outrages passengers worldwide

But, despite the protests on surge pricing, ride-sharing companies did roaring business ferrying the New Year revelers safely back home in many cities around the nation. Lindsay was then dropped off in the Castle Downs neighbourhood, before the Uber driver continued on to drop off two more people in St. Albert.

Things were no different on Friday, as the ride share users across the world posted screen grabs of the extra-ordinarily nightmare charges for the rides.

An Edmonton man stuck with a $1,114.71 cab fare is calling on Uber to place a cap on surge pricing especially on long distance rides.

Uber maintains it uses surge pricing to incentivize drivers out on the roads with more money The revenue strategy has created backlash before, the most notorious case being during an armed hostage situation in Sydney, Australia in December 2014.

Taxi owners and brokers opposed Uber’s entry into the market previous year, as well as Edmonton’s attempts to regulate it. Manhas said a better way the city can increase the number of vehicles available at busy times is by issuing more licences valid for weekends or the high season. But for those who did, “16 percent paid more than three times the company’s normal rates”. The peak volume of drop-offs reached 165 trips per second, up dramatically from 85 trips per second the year before.

Just as champagne and kisses at midnight are tied with New Year’s Eve, a newer year-end tradition has become complaining about sky-high Uber charges after the fog of the night before has worn off.

Twitter users and those dismayed by Uber’s price increases remarked and demonstrated that they experienced as much as 10x their standard fare expectation, with some users posting single journey fees as high as $500.

“Surge Pricing shouldn’t be a surprise”, it told riders. Let’s toast to you running a Fare Estimate in the app before you ride.

One customer was billed $173.58 for a 15 mile drive on New Year’s Eve, after Uber’s holiday surcharge went into effect, according to Darren Low, an Uber driver. She told ABC News that their trip to the festivities was only $10, but because of increasing surge fares on their way home, it ended up costing them $68.73. The company eventually refunded half of the fare.

Matthew Bonanti wasn’t so lucky.