# Uber will now charge you extra if your driver has to travel longer to reach you



## QLDUberDriver (Jan 23, 2016)

*Uber will now charge you extra if your driver has to travel longer to reach you*

Uber is adding a bunch of new fees to sweeten the pot for drivers who may be reluctant to wait for slow passengers, drive longer distances for more out-of-the-way pickups, or get hit with trip cancellations at the last minute. That means some trips may become a little more expensive for passengers - especially those who live far away or take a little longer than usual to get in the car.

It's an acknowledgment that the job of driving begins long before the rider gets into the car, and that some trips, especially suburban ones, don't feel fair from an earnings perspective, said Aaron Schildkrout, head of driver product at Uber. These new surcharges are aimed "precisely at solving those pain points," he said.

Some drivers have told Uber's product team that long trips "can feel like a gamble," especially if that trip only lasts a few blocks, Schildkrout said. Starting today, drivers will now earn standard time and distance rates on the way to a long pickup, in addition to the standard fare. "So if it's a 40-minute pickup, which hopefully never happens and is extremely rare, it would be some segment of 40 minutes," he said.

Uber says the decision on when those charges will kick in depends on the market and the length of the pickup. But in general, drivers will start to earn standard time and distance rates after eight or 11 minutes of driving to pick up the rider, depending on the city. One example provided by Uber was an extra charge of $5.77 for a 4.2-mile pickup that took 11.2 minutes of driving. Riders will see long pickup fees as part of their upfront fare on trips, with an estimated long pickup fee showing in the fare breakdown. In other words, Uber's algorithm will guess how long it will take your driver to get to your location, and then charge you based on that guess.

Riders may balk at the pricier trips, but Schildkrout says it's aimed at solving a problem for them as well. "It's not always as easy to get a car in the suburbs as it is in the city," he said. "Even in the outskirts of a city people sometimes have this experience. So from a driver's perspective, it's easy to see why this makes sense: you're more likely to forgo trips with long ETAs... With this change, we hope to make those long trips more worth drivers' while. And for riders, we hope this means they'll able to get a ride reliably where ever they are."

Uber is also updating its cancellation policy to peg the fee to time and distance. Uber thinks this will advantage both riders and drivers. Riders who get matched with a driver who then refuses to move will end of paying less in cancellation fees, while drivers who travel long distances for a pickup only to get hit with a last-minute cancellation will earn more.

Riders will also be charged extra for making drivers wait longer than two minutes. This is an extension of a pilot that started last year in New York City, New Jersey, Phoenix, and Dallas. Those fees will also vary, but in an example provided by Uber, a wait time of three minutes and 45 seconds would cost a driver $0.86 in added costs.

The announcement is the latest in Uber's "180 days of change" effort aimed at improving relations with drivers, that kicked off with the inclusion of a tipping option for drivers in the app. Other new features include allowing drivers to message riders in the app, and additional layers of feedback for bad ratings.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/24/16533940/uber-long-pickups-late-cancellations-driver-earnings


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## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

QLDUberDriver said:


> It's an acknowledgment that the job of driving begins long before the rider gets into the car, and that some trips, especially suburban ones, don't feel fair from an earnings perspective, said Aaron Schildkrout, *head of driver product at Uber*. These new surcharges are aimed "precisely at solving those pain points," he said.


*...head of driver product.....formerly known as Medusa....*


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## AvengingxxAngel (Jan 5, 2017)

QLDUberDriver said:


> *Uber will now charge you extra if your driver has to travel longer to reach you*
> 
> Uber is adding a bunch of new fees to sweeten the pot for drivers who may be reluctant to wait for slow passengers, drive longer distances for more out-of-the-way pickups, or get hit with trip cancellations at the last minute. That means some trips may become a little more expensive for passengers - especially those who live far away or take a little longer than usual to get in the car.
> 
> ...


Does this apply to Australia?
I had a request the other day, for a pick up at a train/bus depot. Every time I pick up there a passenger is always on the opposite side of the station to the pin, there are 2 sides.
This day, I drove to the side people usually wait, no one there, so I text the passenger twice, once to say I'm there and once to say which side I'm on.
Knowing the other side of the depot was literally a 30 metre walk, I expected the passenger to say they'll walk over, instead I get a reply "well, I'm on the other side".
I was 10 mins away when I accepted this request, the passenger had already waited, then I'd have to drive around to pick up which would've been an extra 3-5mins, so I cancelled and did not charge the passenger, I should've though.
Had this person not given me a smart alec reply, I probably would've drove around. Also, I've dealt with passengers like this in the past and experience with passengers like this tells me they're highly likely to give a low rating for not meeting their expectations.


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## Grand (Feb 23, 2016)

AvengingxxAngel said:


> Does this apply to Australia?


Many of the '180 Days of Change' only apply to USA and some of the latest changes only apply to UberX and Pool.
You may want to do some Uber googling to get the full details.


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## UberDriverAU (Nov 4, 2015)

AvengingxxAngel said:


> I was 10 mins away when I accepted this request, the passenger had already waited, then I'd have to drive around to pick up which would've been an extra 3-5mins, so I cancelled and did not charge the passenger, I should've though.


I once had someone refuse to walk 10 meters to my car, they wanted me to illegally stop to pick them up where they stood. No skin off my nose, I waited until the 5 mins was up and collected a no show fee. The best way to teach people like this is to make them pay.


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## AvengingxxAngel (Jan 5, 2017)

UberDriverAU said:


> I once had someone refuse to walk 10 meters to my car, they wanted me to illegally stop to pick them up where they stood. No skin off my nose, I waited until the 5 mins was up and collected a no show fee. The best way to teach people like this is to make them pay.


I felt a bit mean doing that, but I hope the passenger learnt to be more respectful to Uber drivers after having to wait a long time at the station for the next Uber. 
The reason why I didn't charge was because I cancelled due to this person's slack attitude, and I didn't want to risk a low rating which probably sounds stupid but I value my ratings.


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## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

AvengingxxAngel said:


> Does this apply to Australia?


I don't believe it does (yet, if ever). 
I believe it was announced for the US market in the last 24 hours, so is probably 6 months a way from coming here, if at all.
.


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## george manousaridis (Jan 27, 2017)

AvengingxxAngel said:


> Does this apply to Australia?
> I had a request the other day, for a pick up at a train/bus depot. Every time I pick up there a passenger is always on the opposite side of the station to the pin, there are 2 sides.
> This day, I drove to the side people usually wait, no one there, so I text the passenger twice, once to say I'm there and once to say which side I'm on.
> Knowing the other side of the depot was literally a 30 metre walk, I expected the passenger to say they'll walk over, instead I get a reply "well, I'm on the other side".
> ...


Ya correct not worth it,is do same


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## Jordan23 (Aug 14, 2017)

UberDriverAU said:


> I once had someone refuse to walk 10 meters to my car, they wanted me to illegally stop to pick them up where they stood. No skin off my nose, I waited until the 5 mins was up and collected a no show fee. The best way to teach people like this is to make them pay.


That reminds me of my favorite cancelation fee. A low rated lady dropped the pin at a train station. I arrive park legally and await her. 
She calls me up says she can see me from the other side of the road and demands I make a uturn. Now the other side doesn't have a legal stopping spot. I pretend that I can't speak English and she hangs up in frustration. 
Still refuses to cross the road to meet me. I await the 5minute point collect the fee and drive off.


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## corsair (Oct 16, 2017)

It's taken some "Einstein" at Uber this long to devise some form of compensation for long pickups ?


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## RavBoz (Nov 3, 2017)

This needs to happen in Melbourne and soon. I have had experience of riders in the Mornington Peninsula who I drove 25 minutes to pick up who thanked me over and over for picking them up on a Saturday night / early Sunday morning because they had been trying for an hour to get an Uber and taxis don't come to their area at all any more. I felt good providing a well- needed service - but as the ride itself was less than ten minutes, it was a financial loss. Uber in Melbourne must look after its riders better - simple as that.


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## Jordan23 (Aug 14, 2017)

Yesterday I picked up a passenger at 1.9x. As soon as he gets in the car he asks me if I was at the train station. I said yeah he says that's where I'm going, sorry. 

So in a way I picked him up at base rate.


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## Hugh G (Sep 22, 2016)

RavBoz said:


> I drove 25 minutes to pick up


That was your first mistake



RavBoz said:


> I felt good providing a well- needed service


You're running a business, not a Benevolent Society. You can't pay your rent with Uber stickers and *****



RavBoz said:


> Uber in Melbourne must look after its riders better - simple as that.


It does look after it's rider's!

You wasted a lot of time, you lost money. The rider is happy, Uber is happy , you apparently are unhappy !

Welcome to Uber ... where driver's are the last to benefit.


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