Uber has introduced a waiting time fee. But what about the times that we had to wait for our Uber?
We often take private-hire car services for granted. With highly accessible public transport, a million taxi apps on our phones, and all these transport-sharing initiatives popping up in Singapore, it’s easy to overlook it. Now, Uber drivers have had enough of that and want you to listen. The world’s go-to car sharing app has just introduced new wait-time charges for passengers who make drivers wait over three minutes. You mad yet? And should you really be mad?
It’s 20 cents a minute.
According to Uber’s new policy, riders will be charged a minimum of 20 cents per minute, after the three-minute period we’re given to board the vehicle when it arrives. The charge varies across the uberX, uberXL, UberEXEC and EXECLarge.
The response from the Twitterverse:
Having to fork out extra money for anything would naturally annoy anyone, so it’s no wonder the new policy is has with some disagreement. While the Waiting Time Fee was put in place to encourage passengers to book their rides only when they are ready, people are having feelings about this. Some users are particularly fired up about how the policy would benefit the drivers over the users.
Facebook comments range from the angry (“I can’t believe I’ve received a message from Uber that we customers have to pay from now on “wait-time charges”– ridiculous!”) to petty (“So Uber, are you trying to chase away all your customers to Grab? If you are, I think you’re doing a great job by implementing this fantastic feature”).
But what about uberPOOL? And when our driver is dropping someone else off first?
There are some reasonable questions being raised – we’ve all been made to wait forever while our Uber driver drops someone off first. If we are supposed to book when we are ready, why can’t the same rule apply for drivers as well? Another criticism is the exemption of uberPOOL from the new policy. If anything, making the driver and a passenger wait would be more irresponsible, no?
Still, guys, let’s put things into perspective…
Being angry that the policy benefits drivers more is… petty. After all, Uber drivers are people too. Like most of us, they themselves have KPIs and targets to achieve. And really, making strangers wait for you to get ready – paid or not – isn’t very nice. If we can be impatient about them getting to us with minimal waiting time, we should also be on time when getting on for a ride. Of course, there are exceptions (I still stand with the rule being applied on uberPOOL), and flaws with the system. But if you take a look at Uber’s Facebook page, they’ve been painstakingly replying to comments one by one – you’ve got to give it to them for that.
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