# Uber rates - Taxi meters - how they differ in calculating totals



## Oscar Levant (Aug 15, 2014)

Uber rates also tack on ( not talkin' about the safe ride fee ) a timed rate. 


So, if the rate is a buck a mile and 20 cents a minute, if the ride is 3 minutes, and three miles,

it will be $3.60 plus the safe ride fee. 

Whereas, a taxi meter only charges the timed rate if the vehicle is going slower than 12 miles per hour. 

On long freeway ( I'm in CA ) runs the timer really adds to the overall fare much more than a taxi meter would have charged ( had it been the same rate and no traffic jams), so in other words, you are making more than your per mile rate, more than a taxi if the taxi rate is the same. 

though you may have already known this, I didn't --- I thought the Uber meter was modeled after a typical taxi meter, and it's not. 

Also, taxi meters have an "extras" button , so if you are charged a toll, the taxi driver can add it to the total by pushing the button enough times to match the charge. 

uber should allow for this, as well.


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## TeleSki (Dec 4, 2014)

I've never had a problem getting reimbursed for tolls ( not that I've used toll roads many times). I think the way Uber charges is fine. They just need to charge MORE. They're still much cheaper than a cab in my area, up until about a 2.0 surge.


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## Oscar Levant (Aug 15, 2014)

TeleSki said:


> I've never had a problem getting reimbursed for tolls ( not that I've used toll roads many times). I think the way Uber charges is fine. They just need to charge MORE. They're still much cheaper than a cab in my area, up until about a 2.0 surge.


Fala portugues ? ( your Icon suggests you are a brasileiro ? )


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## TeleSki (Dec 4, 2014)

Eu falo um pouco Português.Minha ex-mulher é brasileira.Eu ter sido a o brasil algumas vezes, mas esqueceu-se dos portugueses que aprendi muito.


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## Another Uber Driver (May 27, 2015)

^^^^I do not speak Portuguese, but I can read this. I can speak Italian and French, which might explain why I can read this. Is not Lusitano Portoghese markedly different from Brasiliere? ....or is it mostly pronounciation?

The UberX geospatial device is set at much lower rates than cabs, but your observation that it charges for time even at speeds above fifteen KpH is correct. This is why even though the mileage rates may be fifty to sixty per cent of cab mileage rates, it does not take the corresponding surge factor to get UberX rates at cab rates. _Business Insider_ states that when the surge hits 1,2 in Washington, the UberX rate is the same as a cab. That is a little low, 1,4 to 1,6 is more like it. The base UBerX mileage rate is about half of a D.C. taxi.


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## I works for no man (Apr 29, 2015)

I was told by CSR in my car that the app was not a meter, pax pays estimated time and distance regardless of what actually occurs, to be paid for multiple stops and route deviations we have to contact uber or the fare is not adjusted.


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## UBERxGc (Feb 8, 2015)

I works for no man said:


> I was told by CSR in my car that the app was not a meter, pax pays estimated time and distance regardless of what actually occurs, to be paid for multiple stops and route deviations we have to contact uber or the fare is not adjusted.


Wrong. It is a meter. Most CSR's don't know shit. 
You don't need to contact uber for fare adjustments unless you forget to start/end the trip or take a wrong route.


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## I works for no man (Apr 29, 2015)

Thank you for your reply this makes me feel better, I did not think she sounded like she knew what she was talking about. She was one of the Uber people giving out gas cards at Gas stations in Chicago to sign up drivers,apparently they brought here out from Phoenix, I thought having a meter made you a taxi?


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## Oscar Levant (Aug 15, 2014)

In San Diego, the rate was $1 per mile, which is what it was back in 1980 when I used to drive a taxi in L.A. Recently, at a buck a mile,
averaged about $125 - $150 per shift ( about $100 more on fri/sat ) which was never the case back in 1980, it was about $80 - $100 per shift ( $150 on fri/sat ), and I wondered why this is.

I figured out that there are three basic reasons why I was able to book more today on the average, than when the mileage taxi rate was the same, back in 1980

1. We couldn't do as many trips because, A. We had to log by hand on a trip sheet the trip pick up addy, destination, and fare, after every trip, B, we had to make change at the end of a trip. C, if we didn't know where the pick up addy was ( about half the time is was some new address in Hollywood Hills I never heard of ) we had to look it up in a thomas bros map book ( and this could easily suck up a lot of time, if the map book entailed following a path on multiple pages, trying to piece all the grid sections all back together in one's head while driving ). All of these things added to trip time, so we couldn't do as many trips. I figured out that this extra time accullumates equivalent of about an extra hour of dead time during a 10 hour shift, explaining why I averaged about 2 or 3 more trips with Uber than with a Taxi ( back in the days when we didn't have computer dispatch ). 

2. The timer it seems adds about 25 cents or so per mile and I think this is the bigger contributing factor.

3. About half the time calls were put out via two way radio where they took bids, ie., the dispatcher would say, "I need a cab Hollywood & Vine" and a bunch of drivers would punch in their microphones to try and get the call, and sometimes it took some real doing just to get a trip. The other times, when it was slow, we were in a queue in zones, and they just fed us calls based on position in a given zone. But, hollywood was always very busy, so most of the time the bid method was employed ( meaning there were no queued drivers in the zone of the call ) , so it was fustrating just to get a call ( especially when some cabbies figured out how to boost their transmission signal --- I wasn't too smart about such things --- and some dispatchers loved to feed their favorite drivers, etc. so a lot of politics. And, then, if the call was a hotel or a gas station, you know that the rider would hail the first cab that came by, so getting scooped was common. Uber drivers *****, but they do not know what it was like to drive a taxi back in the pre-computer dispatch days. And, on top of all this, the radio was a noisy annoying squawk box, that you had to listen all night long. 

One time I was going to train to be a dispatcher, so I sat and watched the dispatcher ( I tried it for one night, and quit, much rather drive ) and I noticed she didn't always give the good calls to the first rider she heard. I asked her why? She told me that the first guy was a prick. I.e., if the dispatcher didn't like you, you can expect never to get a good run, which is BS. Some drivers were tipping the dispatcher under the table ( though it was against the rules, it happened anyway ). 

You guys are spoiled ( or, as an UberSUV driver, I definitely am spoiled,  )


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## Oscar Levant (Aug 15, 2014)

TeleSki said:


> Eu falo um pouco Português.Minha ex-mulher é brasileira.Eu ter sido a o brasil algumas vezes, mas esqueceu-se dos portugueses que aprendi muito.


Uber é em São Paulo. Eu me pergunto se os taxistas dar-lhes problemas. Eu tenho estudado português por cerca de 7 anos, agora, e eu ainda não posso falar isso - Eu estava pensando em repatriar para o Brasil. (Eu uso o tradutor do Google para obter uma boa gramática, mas é um mau hábito).


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## TeleSki (Dec 4, 2014)

I used the translator, too. I wouldn't mind living down there for awhile, if I could find a decent job. Not a bad place to live if you have a little money. I took a few portuguese classes, but learned alot just typing and translating it while chatting online. Traveling there also helped. I can understand a lot of it, but whole different story when it comes to speaking it.


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## ElectroFuzz (Jun 10, 2014)

Oscar Levant said:


> 2. The timer it seems adds about 25 cents or so per mile and I think this is the bigger contributing factor.


UberX time rate in San-Diego is $0.20 per minute.

So if you are driving at 60 miles per hour you will get $0.20 per mile
If you drive faster you will get less.
If you drive slower you will get more.

But it all pales in comparison to the miles.
Idling pays $12 per hour (gross)
Going 75 mph on the freeway pays $96 per hour.


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## DriverX (Aug 5, 2015)

Oscar Levant said:


> In San Diego, the rate was $1 per mile, which is what it was back in 1980 when I used to drive a taxi in L.A. Recently, at a buck a mile,
> averaged about $125 - $150 per shift ( about $100 more on fri/sat ) which was never the case back in 1980, it was about $80 - $100 per shift ( $150 on fri/sat ), and I wondered why this is.
> 
> I figured out that there are three basic reasons why I was able to book more today on the average, than when the mileage taxi rate was the same, back in 1980
> ...


Great insights. So now with the digital dispatching is there any communication between the cab and the dispatch? Can they ask for trips going in a certain direction? or mileage preferences? Seems like uber could add a lot of customizing features to the app to help driver tune it to their particular strategy and style. Some drivers want high volume others want long runs. Depends on the game you wanna play that day.


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