# The Grinch who stole Christmas



## hanging in there (Oct 1, 2014)

I just had an epiphany. It is embarrassing to me that it took this long for me to "get it"...

We all know how good Uber is at spin. And clever gamesmanship. The devil is in the details, as they say, and this game played out in several stages over time with plenty of spin. It actually took me about half a year to actually put all the pieces together and see the end game for what it is.

First, Uber comes out with the "upfront pricing" model. Some of us noticed that Uber padded the pricing with a little extra fat, maybe 15% to 25%, for their pockets, not the driver, but of course (the Uber spin) is that it could be argued that every so often they have to eat a little profit due to traffic conditions, so it could go both ways. Regardless, we all know that on average, the house always wins, and the "house" is the house of Uber.

But... that is small, small potatoes for what was to come, this was not the end game, only the first building block. The extra fat at this stage was only a small bonus.

The big, significant "detail" at this point is that they created a disconnect from the driver and the passenger in terms of the passenger fare. We are no longer getting a set agreed-upon percentage of the fare that the passenger pays, as we were in the past. That enabled Uber to "move in for the kill" but, of course, they had to first set up a "smoke and mirrors" to divert attention away from their true end game. What was this diversion?

"180 days of change". This was all the news, the perfect diversion; for the most part too little too late, but none-the-less, something is always better than nothing. So we all gloated in our tiny success. Tipping would have been a great idea if they didn't already convince most of the riders that it wasn't necessary. Besides, it didn't cost Uber anything to finally put it in the app. When you think about it, most of the "180 days of changes" represent very little actual out-of pocket cost to Uber.

All the while, the major heist was being pulled on us right under our collective noses...

They started stealing our surges and pocketing it for themselves.

This is not a blind accusation, no tin-foil hats here, they freely admit it as reported in Bloomberg news etc.. The way they get away with it is by "spinning" it. They say they are charging people more based on popular pickup spots or destinations.

But, how does that affect us, the driver? Why should we care if they are "soaking the people who are willing to pay more", or "charging people more who are going to popular destinations"? Think about it, those are thinly disguised euphemisms for "what used to be surge rides for the driver but now are "hidden surge" rides for Uber only!!!!!

Sure, we still get some surge rides, surge hasn't gone away, but it seems like Uber has found a way to skim some or a lot of the cream off the top before throwing the drivers a "pity surge" here and there, depending on supply and demand of course.

It finally occurred to me what was going on. I kept scratching my head wondering why I wasn't seeing the expected surge levels or durations in the usual hotspots at the usual times. Yet I see frequent cases of rides given by myself or others where the passenger has paid Uber triple or more for the ride than what Uber is paying me or other drivers, to or from those same hotspots at zero or minimal surge for me.

They can do this because of the disconnect created by the updated service agreement with the drivers (that drivers had to click "agree" to if they wanted to keep driving) when they first introduced the upfront rider pricing.

All the while, they can entice the hoard of ants around the map with their mostly fake 3x surges that last all of 5 or 10 minutes, and then disappear, so the ant then takes the non-surge ride and Uber pockets the 2x or 3x or 4x surge for themselves.

As if that is bad enough, I'm sure this has a ripple effect on driver tips. I can see a scenario where, let's say, Joe Ant gives a non-surge ride to Ricky Rider and gets $15 from Uber, but Uber charges Ricky Rider $50. Ricky is probably thinking "Joe made GOOD MONEY on this ride, why should I tip him?"

They claim that (at least for now), this extra cash grab on their part only applies to X rides, not to Select, Black, SUV etc, and it only applies to cities that also have UberPool. So, I don't think I have to tell you what is probably going to happen when the other shoe drops, especially if they quietly get away with the first phase of this plan. I'm pretty sure that at some point it will become a universal generic cash-grab policy affecting all rides in all cities and all Uber service classes.

And now that they seem to be getting away with this little game, who knows what other little creative cash-grabs they have planned down the road? Once they created that total disconnect between what the rider pays and what the driver gets, all bets are off. And you know how creative Uber can get when it comes to money.

Lather, rinse and repeat...

P.S. Now that they can charge the customer whatever they think the traffic can bear at the moment but still just pay a set mileage and time to the driver without passing on any part of the extra premium, isn't the rider now by definition, Uber's customer, not our customer? How can Uber still claim that they are a "technology company"? Doesn't this direct connection to the customer create the very definition of Uber being a "transportation company"? I know about the EU ruling, but I would think that this direct connection would cement the issue in the US. Before, they could hide behind the idea that we are using Uber as a technology company to provide the needed services and paying them 20% to 28% for those services, plus the ride service fee. Now that idea has gone out the window.


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## Mista T (Aug 16, 2017)

You just now put the pieces of the puzzle together? Lol.

Here is the next piece for you: Uber changes the way surge is paid to the driver. Instead of drivers trying to win the surge lottery, Uber decides how much they will pay out and pays drivers a set $ amount, based on their proximity to the surge, payable on their next ride.

Example: surge at an arena, if you are there you are guaranteed $8 on your next ride, no matter how big or small that ride turns out to be. If you are 3 blocks away, your surge guarantee is $4.75. If you are 8 blocks away your surge guarantee is $2.50, and so on.
Upside: everyone in the area gets paid, just for being available during a busy time. No more chasing the surge and coming away empty handed.
Downsides: no more $100+ rides, ever. And if you log off, your surge guarantee goes away.

For more info check out the Charlotte threads, that is where it is being tested out as we speak.


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## hanging in there (Oct 1, 2014)

Mista T said:


> You just now put the pieces of the puzzle together? Lol.
> 
> Here is the next piece for you: Uber changes the way surge is paid to the driver. Instead of drivers trying to win the surge lottery, Uber decides how much they will pay out and pays drivers a set $ amount, based on their proximity to the surge, payable on their next ride.
> 
> ...


You are saying if there is a surge ride, the surge premium all goes to Uber except for a small flat bonus going to the driver for being close when the surge is displayed?


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## Mista T (Aug 16, 2017)

hanging in there said:


> You are saying if there is a surge ride, the surge premium all goes to Uber except for a small flat bonus going to the driver for being close when the surge is displayed?


Correct. Small flat bonus to all drivers who happen to be in the area at the right time.


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## DocT (Jul 16, 2015)

Mista T said:


> For more info check out the Charlotte threads, that is where it is being tested out as we speak.


https://uberpeople.net/threads/new-surge-process-what-do-you-think.217124/
https://uberpeople.net/threads/beware-new-surge-format-is-a-screw-you-to-drivers.217401/
https://uberpeople.net/threads/anyone-got-this-new-surge-bs.217172/


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