# Finally killed the surge.



## heycupcake

Pittsburgh got the new honeycomb map yesterday. A city that always has surges at least in one area, has gone cold. I watched all day yesterday, almost nothing surged all day. Today, same thing. I was becoming a surge only driver and it was really working well for me and now I need to go back to 3 dollar rides. 

Did this happen to anyone else after uber updated your map to the honeycomb?


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## WhiteWalker

Yes, that has been my experience in Columbus as well. I think Uber just eliminated surge without telling us.


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## elelegido

This is not related to the map change. It"s simply because Uber is quietly phasing out surge pricing.

At SFO airport, for example, they turned off surge. To get drivers to drive there now at peak times, they charge pax 1x but temporarily pay drivers 1.5x. They'll do this until they've hired enough new drivers who have never known the higher surge rates/fares.


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## Fireguy50

elelegido said:


> This is not related to the map change. It"s simply because Uber is quietly phasing out surge pricing.
> 
> At SFO airport, for example, they turned off surge. To get drivers to drive there now at peak times, they charge pax 1x but temporarily pay drivers 1.5x. They'll do this until they've hired enough new drivers who have never known the higher surge rates/fares.


Sad that people are stupid enough to drive at a loss


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## Kalee

heycupcake said:


> Pittsburgh got the new honeycomb map yesterday. A city that always has surges at least in one area, has gone cold. I watched all day yesterday, almost nothing surged all day. Today, same thing. I was becoming a surge only driver and it was really working well for me and now I need to go back to 3 dollar rides.
> 
> Did this happen to anyone else after uber updated your map to the honeycomb?


You're actually going to accept non surge ride requests?
Wow!


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## Kalee

WhiteWalker said:


> Yes, that has been my experience in Columbus as well. I think Uber just eliminated surge without telling us.


Uber shouldn't need to tell you they're phasing out surge. It has been in the news quite a bit lately.


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## ScrapMTL

But why right before Memorial Day weekend?
Bastads!


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## Angellm

heycupcake said:


> Pittsburgh got the new honeycomb map yesterday. A city that always has surges at least in one area, has gone cold. I watched all day yesterday, almost nothing surged all day. Today, same thing. I was becoming a surge only driver and it was really working well for me and now I need to go back to 3 dollar rides.
> 
> Did this happen to anyone else after uber updated your map to the honeycomb?


****YES! I'm pissed off about this! I was a storm chaser too. They ruined the entire business model. I sent them an email stating I will NOT pic up any rides except airport. I will NOT go downtown and deal with all the drunks at 2am unless its surging and I can see the amount of surge. I told them I would not accept and calls period except for airport rides!


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## uberisti

yes surges have substantially declined. I have not seen my local airport surge in over a month and it used to all the time. Areas that were consistantly surging are now sporadic and end quickly.


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## Uber10k

Uber is a master of mind games, when in reality all they do is fill their pockets and laugh at the drivers who play this foolish game.


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## I_Like_Spam

All "surge" means is that there is a shortage of drivers in an area at a particular point time. Since Uber is advertising for new drivers 24/7, you'd expect surging to be on the decline


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## Angellm

Im emailing Uber and they keep asking why I cant see the surge!?!? They are treating me like IM THE IDIOT here, they are not taking any blame for the money they are taking out of our pockets. I tried to sign up with Lyft but they are not in my city...yet. Uber keeps saying I must be having technical issues. Telling me to update my phone... I have a brand new iphone 6! WTF?


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## Angellm

Uber10k said:


> Uber is a master of mind games, when in reality all they do is fill their pockets and laugh at the drivers who play this foolish game.


AGREED!!!!!!!


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## Kalee

Angellm said:


> Im emailing Uber and they keep asking why I cant see the surge!?!? They are treating me like IM THE IDIOT here, they are not taking any blame for the money they are taking out of our pockets. I tried to sign up with Lyft but they are not in my city...yet. Uber keeps saying I must be having technical issues. Telling me to update my phone... I have a brand new iphone 6! WTF?


LMAO. These are the word games Uber has been playing for years. I fired Uber 6 months ago. I see they have not learned a lesson and are still playing the same games.


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## Atlwarrior

Yes Atlanta is gone. What use to be 3.9 gets up to 1.2 or 1.3.


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## Atlwarrior

I_Like_Spam said:


> All "surge" means is that there is a shortage of drivers in an area at a particular point time. Since Uber is advertising for new drivers 24/7, you'd expect surging to be on the decline


When it doesn't get a high surge after concerts, baseball games, club crowd your driver theory is wrong.


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## I_Like_Spam

Atlwarrior said:


> When it doesn't get a high surge after concerts, baseball games, club crowd your driver theory is wrong.


Not if there is a large increase in the number of drivers out on the road at those times to meet the demand.

If the end of a stadium concert with 50,000 fans creates demand for 500 users- but attracts 500 uber drivers to come out and run the trips, there isn't a shortage of drivers, so theoretically there shouldn't be surge at all.


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## saucy05

I_Like_Spam said:


> All "surge" means is that there is a shortage of drivers in an area at a particular point time. Since Uber is advertising for new drivers 24/7, you'd expect surging to be on the decline


True but eventually people will figure out that driving without surge is working below minimum wage. Then hopefully they will stop driving which will decrease supply. Unless fares go up surge is inevitable.


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## Flarpy

Unless Uber finally found out how to get drivers on the road and to specific areas without paying them more.


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## Uber Soul

heycupcake said:


> Pittsburgh got the new honeycomb map yesterday. A city that always has surges at least in one area, has gone cold. I watched all day yesterday, almost nothing surged all day. Today, same thing. I was becoming a surge only driver and it was really working well for me and now I need to go back to 3 dollar rides.
> 
> Did this happen to anyone else after uber updated your map to the honeycomb?


I got this answer from support and it worked for me:

Restart your app.
Then, retry logging in and logging out on your app. Make sure you are using the most recent version of the app.
If that didn't work, restart your phone.
Make sure that your Bluetooth is always turned off because it can interfere with signal.
Toggle Air-plane Mode on/off. (make sure it is turned off)
Toggle off your cellular data for 3-5 seconds (go to Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data)
Uninstall and then reinstall your app


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## galileo5

Uber Soul said:


> I got this answer from support and it worked for me:
> 
> Restart your app.
> Then, retry logging in and logging out on your app. Make sure you are using the most recent version of the app.
> If that didn't work, restart your phone.
> Make sure that your Bluetooth is always turned off because it can interfere with signal.
> Toggle Air-plane Mode on/off. (make sure it is turned off)
> Toggle off your cellular data for 3-5 seconds (go to Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data)
> Uninstall and then reinstall your app


Your first post to the forum is to copy/paste the unhelpful uninstall/reinstall instructions from CSR?


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## Uber Soul

Worked for me - thought it may work for someone else too - Sorry if its not working for you - this is obviously not the site for me! Take care.


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## I_Like_Spam

Flarpy said:


> Unless Uber finally found out how to get drivers on the road and to specific areas without paying them more.


Uber is running ads 24/7 on the radio recruiting more and more drivers. They have apparently reached the point where there really isn't any shortages, so there isn't a need for surges


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## Flarpy

Yes, but there will reach a "tipping point" where there will be enough people who have driven for Uber/Lyft that the word will get around it's a terrible job. At that point their potential driver pool will begin to shrink and then will evaporate very quickly no matter how much money they put into advertising it. 

This tends to happen very suddenly. It is actually an interesting socioeconomic phenomenon and was on fine display when MySpace went from "cool" to "uncool" almost overnight. Remember MySpace?

Uber better hope it gets those driverless cars up to speed before that tipping point happens. Or a lot of investors are going to be all kinds of pissed.


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## heycupcake

I kept a look out for a surge this Friday. I figured if I didn't see a surge on a Friday (it always surged multiple times on Friday prior to the new map), I'd know for sure uber screwed me with the updated map.

The only surge was /around/ 1:40 am.

I picked up 3 pax for 2.5 surge. Sweet, they're going a decent distance. I drive a block and the guy in the back asks the girl if they are going to the bowling alley. She says yes. So he says to me "if we are going there I want to get out of this car." So the girl says sorry and they all get out of my car. They basically screwed me because these surges don't even last long.

End trip, I get a ping at 3.1... I accept the trip and the rider cancels instantly.

Another ping a minute later. 3.1 surge.

I drive a block I picked up a wasted male pax. He was only going 5 minutes away. Ugh. He kept asking me if I liked my ass licked and if I've ever had it done. I'm a female driver. That was after he started making racist comments about black people. By the time I was back the surge was gone.

I was just thinking to myself... just get through this. We are almost there.

Totally worth the 10 dollars I earned on the first 3.1 surge of the week. Harassment for 10 dollars...


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## Activist1

I think Uber just makes surges when they feel like it. I was sitting outside of a concert last night and there was no surge yet every car was taken!


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## I_Like_Spam

Activist1 said:


> I think Uber just makes surges when they feel like it. I was sitting outside of a concert last night and there was no surge yet every car was taken!


Every car you saw was taken, doesn't mean there weren't others outside the field of your vision, perhaps sitting at home with the driver watching Wheel of Fortune with a a bowl of popcorn waiting to be pinged.


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## MikesUber

heycupcake said:


> Pittsburgh got the new honeycomb map yesterday. A city that always has surges at least in one area, has gone cold. I watched all day yesterday, almost nothing surged all day. Today, same thing. I was becoming a surge only driver and it was really working well for me and now I need to go back to 3 dollar rides.
> 
> Did this happen to anyone else after uber updated your map to the honeycomb?


 Exactly, I only drive surge and have become an expect at doing so in the last 8 months of driving. The last two nights, basically zero surge. Then I'll be taking zero rides for Uber. When they cut Pittsburgh rates there was pronounced No UberX available in the city and I started seeing that again. Glad drivers aren't stupid for the most part here. Complete garbage there isn't any surge and when there is it's much much less and only for 1-2 minutes which is ludicrous.


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## 80sDude

Same here Peps.. No Surge.. No drive..


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## m1a1mg

I_Like_Spam said:


> Every car you saw was taken, doesn't mean there weren't others outside the field of your vision, perhaps sitting at home with the driver watching Wheel of Fortune with a a bowl of popcorn waiting to be pinged.


Like most drivers, I'm smart enough to run the rider app. The other cars just aren't there. At 8:30 this morning, there was one available Uber in the metro. Here in Charleston, the pax are getting pissed. I tell the pax to contact Uber if they aren't happy. Hopefully they are doing so.


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## Ubersucka

Atlwarrior said:


> Yes Atlanta is gone. What use to be 3.9 gets up to 1.2 or 1.3.


Same over here in providence!!!sucks


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## vaybar

In NJ at Newark Airport, Uber turned off the surge for one week. During game that time they blasted a bright red surge to areas around during the airport. Areas without any demand surged at 3.0 drawing driving school close to the airport. The airport itself stayed cold the entire week. Drivers that took the bait were rewarded with riders at the airport at regular rate despite high demand. Uber then calculated how many drivers they could bring in at regular rate to service the airport. We have a large contingent of full time drivers here who refused airport jobs altogether. In NJ airport trips are one way because of state crossingso into NY and high toll. Often an airport trip will cost a driver 12 to 20 dollars in tolls for .85 cents per mile. Add to that time in court and tickets on your license. The elites are doing great quite well with this arrangement.


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## renbutler

We had pretty reliable surges with the old boxes.

The new hexes showed up a couple weeks ago, and I could see a somewhat diminished number of surges.

Then the surges seemed to disappear altogether, except for mega-events like the Indy 500.

Now it seems to have settled back in to the intermediate range -- no more frequent surges, but not gone altogether.

Oddly, sometimes the hex format goes away and the old surge boxes show up.


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## Greguzzi

If you've seen the Hunger Games movies, you know what surge really is: Some gamesters in The Capital lighting it up here and lighting it up there to get all the drivers to scurry to where Uber wants them to be.


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## Gung-Ho

I'm lazy. If the surge don't come to me I don't bother. No one turns me into a rat chasing a hunk of cheese.


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## grams777

Uber10k said:


> Uber is a master of mind games, when in reality all they do is fill their pockets and laugh at the drivers who play this foolish game.


The force of Uber mind tricks is powerful against the weak minded:


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## Rat

I_Like_Spam said:


> Not if there is a large increase in the number of drivers out on the road at those times to meet the demand.
> 
> If the end of a stadium concert with 50,000 fans creates demand for 500 users- but attracts 500 uber drivers to come out and run the trips, there isn't a shortage of drivers, so theoretically there shouldn't be surge at all.


Not going to fight stadium traffic without surge


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## UberPissed

I would have to think that after enough of this, many will leave the playing field, and Uber will have to bring it back, or change the incentive. They do a guaranteed boost zone now in Chicago, and still have the surge. The boost zone has worked well for evening out supply and demand, as it hardly surges now. I personally think the way to go is increasing the rate to eliminating the surge altogether so it can provide consistency on both sides.

Many say that eliminating the surge is stupid. It's not, for Uber. Remember they are getting $1-$2 safe ride fee for every fare. If they can triple outputs by eliminating surge pricing, they can still make money.


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## uberdriverfornow

elelegido said:


> This is not related to the map change. It"s simply because Uber is quietly phasing out surge pricing.
> 
> At SFO airport, for example, they turned off surge. To get drivers to drive there now at peak times, they charge pax 1x but temporarily pay drivers 1.5x. They'll do this until they've hired enough new drivers who have never known the higher surge rates/fares.


Atleast 100 pickups at SFO and the same at SJX and it has never surged. Apparently the rule is no surges at airports or have you managed to rig the system to allow you to get surges ?


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## uberist

uberdriverfornow said:


> Atleast 100 pickups at SFO and the same at SJX and it has never surged. Apparently the rule is no surges at airports or have you managed to rig the system to allow you to get surges ?


LAX surges but I've never seen it more the 1.9


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## uberist

In LA OC area the Pax app no longer shows the surge Icon but still shows a higher min fare during a surge it also requires you to add a destination, pax can no longer request a pickup without a destination entered.
they now get an estimated cost of the fare.

I like that they are forced to enter a destination now,
but I bet I get less long range surge trips


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## uberdriverfornow

uberist said:


> LAX surges but I've never seen it more the 1.9
> View attachment 50257


yes it surges around the airport if its busy but ive never seen an actual airport pickup on a surge


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## uberist

If you look at the image it shows what it looks like when LAX is Auctualy surging I have caught a grand total of 1 ping there under surge, I was doing a drop off, as soon as I left the terminal onto century I got pinged I accepted but it was only 1.2, the airport was jammed so I csncelled


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## uberist

Friday night in the Beach cities and no surge, a thousand drivers in the area sweeping up crumbs, I was looking forward to heading to my favorite surge spot now that they have corrected the feedback issue, I hadn't been driving because of that.

Now not worth it, maybe it will come back, after all it is the weekend before the 1st, pax not going out, drivers trying to make rent?.

It's been slow at my regular job too, I'll stay in tonight no sense in me going out to fight for crumbs others may need more then me.


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## James Mac

When are these idiots going to raise the rates and operate in the real world. We can't keep putting loads of miles on our cars and make 8 to 10 dollars an hour.
thousands of drivers are going to quit..if they don't then they are the IDIOTS


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## renbutler

James Mac said:


> When are these idiots going to raise the rates and operate in the real world. We can't keep putting loads of miles on our cars and make 8 to 10 dollars an hour.
> thousands of drivers are going to quit..*if they don't* then they are the IDIOTS


You just answered your own question.

Why lower the rates when they have enough drivers?

Should a football team lower ticket prices if they sell out every game?

Should Starbucks start charging a sane price for their coffee-flavored desserts when there's a line 15 deep at the drive thru?

Should other employers raise their wages/salaries when 100 people apply for a single opening?


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## KMANDERSON

Kalee said:


> Uber shouldn't need to tell you they're phasing out surge. It has been in the news quite a bit lately.


They can only phase out surge because there drivers taking non surge rides,drivers are there worse enemy.


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## Hippy Matt

Angellm said:


> Im emailing Uber and they keep asking why I cant see the surge!?!? They are treating me like IM THE IDIOT here, they are not taking any blame for the money they are taking out of our pockets. I tried to sign up with Lyft but they are not in my city...yet. Uber keeps saying I must be having technical issues. Telling me to update my phone... I have a brand new iphone 6! WTF?


Because you are the idiot... we all are for still driving.


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## ChesterCountyUber

I'm in the Philly area and surge is almost non-existent the last few weeks. There are way too many drivers now, a lot of them have been bamboozled by the leasing program. The lease they offer is a huge scam, it's way more expensive. You're better off buying a well-kept used car with some miles on it as opposed to buying/leasing new. Without any surge pricing it's really hard to make this worthwhile.


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## renbutler

I wouldn't be surprised if it's a bad deal for most people, but is it really a scam? Are they explicitly promising something they don't deliver? Or are they just saying that people can lease a car to drive Uber if they don't have one, or don't want to use their own, but the capacity to generate a profit is up to the lessee?

I'm really asking, because I don't know.


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## ChesterCountyUber

Caveat Emptor applies here, but many will not look beyond the shiny paint of the deal and will soon regret their decision. Not a scam, just not a good deal for most.


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## renbutler

Cool, thanks for the clarification.


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## Hippy Matt

ChesterCountyUber said:


> I'm in the Philly area and surge is almost non-existent the last few weeks. There are way too many drivers now, a lot of them have been bamboozled by the leasing program. The lease they offer is a huge scam, it's way more expensive. You're better off buying a well-kept used car with some miles on it as opposed to buying/leasing new. Without any surge pricing it's really hard to make this worthwhile.


I have not seen about a 1.3 for the past month, til last night. My only ride was at 2.9!


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## Ms.Doe

renbutler said:


> . . . Starbucks . . . their coffee-flavored desserts . . .




That was a good one!


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## renbutler

Ms.Doe said:


> That was a good one!


It's true. People won't like to admit it, but it's reality -- most of the beverages they buy at Starbucks are barely more healthful than ice cream.

And then some of them top it off with a "bran muffin" -- which is basically sugar-encrusted sweet bread.


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## Hippy Matt

renbutler said:


> It's true. People won't like to admit it, but it's reality -- most of the beverages they buy at Starbucks are barely more healthful than ice cream.
> 
> And then some of them top it off with a "bran muffin" -- which is basically sugar-encrusted sweet bread.


I go for a trenta cold brew black. 5 calories and it tastes great if you like strong coffee


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