Not too long ago, Uber used to display rates and “surge” multipliers before you started your trip. This becomes a sore point for people using the app – most passengers hate surge pricing, and many will avoid using the app if they see a surge sign. Many politicians have also spoken out against it.
But then the company paused surge pricing and later introduced “upfront pay” to “make it easier” for customers to know how much they would be paying. Ticket prices will still increase when demand is high, but the amount of this change (surge multiplier) is not made clear to customers due to the new format.
This won’t matter for your regular commute – if you usually pay Rs. 100 and saw the ticket price at Rs. 300, you probably won’t take that taxi. But what do you do when you’re traveling to an unfamiliar location or city? If you see ticket prices, is that reasonable or the result of a crazy increase? How do you know? It turns out there’s a very simple way to find out. Here’s what you need to do:
- Open Google Maps and enter your destination.
- Click on the option on the far right to call a taxi.
Depending on your country, you’ll see a list of taxi options – for example, if you’re in India, you can choose from Uber and Ola – along with a surge factor displayed. We recently tested this and found that it works. As you can see in the screenshot below, Uber shows a ride estimate of Rs. 192. Google Maps (above) shows that prices have increased by 1.5 times, with fares estimated to be between Rs. 200 rupees. 240. Upon arrival at the destination, Uber (below) showed a 1.4x spike in receipts – very close to Google’s estimate.
It’s certainly not foolproof, but it’s a really helpful tip if you want to know if your ticket price is reasonable. Showing surge pricing upfront may be unpopular, but hiding it in this way is actually anti-consumer, and hopefully Uber will be more transparent with its pricing in the future.
