So last week saw Uber customers in Singapore waking up to a new pricing system that promised to ensure better peace of mind. In what they call ‘Upfront Fares’, the ride-sharing tech giant does away with estimated fees and replaces them with the actual fare before rides are requested.
Gone are the in-your-face alerts and pop-ups about surge pricing — the multiplied increase in normal prices at zones of excessive demand. Don’t get us wrong; surge pricing is still very much alive for Uber rides. The only difference is that it’s now nearly invisible, and users will only be confronted presented with the fixed price they’ll be paying for the ride.
“There’s no complicated math and no surprises,” Uber Singapore declared in a cheerful press release, optimistic that users would gladly welcome the new arrangement and keep throwing money at them.
The reasons why they’ve done away with the old surge pricing system are just. Many customers actually hate it due to its volatile fluctuations in prices and the feeling of getting severely ripped off during times when they need rides the most.
Take, for example, the case of last year’s major MRT breakdown. Thousands were stranded outside stations after both the North-South line and East-West line broke down, prompting folks to utilise Uber. But surge pricing algorithm kicked in hard due to the overwhelming demand, and someone even got charged $124 for a ride — five times what she would have paid normally.
Add in the fact that the company’s carpooling service UberPOOL has been enjoying popularity due to cheaper fares and upfront prices — Uber seems to have liked it enough to push the feature to its other services.
From Grab to Uber and back again
Turns out, the people who apparently hate the new feature are the very ones Uber wanted to please. Though many Uber drivers would solemnly swear and deny (trust us, we’ve tried asking), it seems like upfront pricing was a sneaky way to raise the prices by a couple of dollars. Daily Uber commuters are noticing that their usual fares have distinctly increased in familiar routes.
Uber itself has officially responded to media queries that it did not change the UberX fare structure. That didn’t change the minds of its beloved customers though. What it did achieve with upfront pricing and the allegedly surreptitious fare increase was push them to its ride-sharing rivals Grab.
