Why you don’t get an Uber cab even if the app shows so many nearby!!
I was in an Uber cab the other day and about to reach to my destination when the Uber driver started getting next ride lead. He checked his mobile phone screen and ignored. Curiously, I asked him why didn’t he accept the next ride? His answer was – “waiting for a ride with surge price”.
What is a surge price? An economist will tell you that the fairest price for any product is the “equilibrium price” at which consumer demand matches the product’s available supply. If supply increases, the price should go down; but if buyer demand increases, the price should rise. A very natural law of economics.
The practice of surge pricing used by Uber is based on the same principle of fairness. The idea behind surge pricing is to adjust prices of rides to match driver supply to rider demand at any given time.
Now, see in real life, how surge price comes in effect. Like my Uber driver didn’t accept the ride lead, the same way, other drivers won’t accept the leads. And that suppresses the supply of cab and create a situation of ‘more demand, less supply’ artificially. The Uber app would observe this and automatically and immediately apply the ‘surge’ price. Now, this is UNFAIR to the consumer – why the consumer should pay more when there is an ample number of Uber cabs available in the nearby area, as seen in the app.
This is simply ‘market or price manipulation’ by the suppliers (Uber drivers). It is a deliberate attempt to interfere with the free and fair operations of the market and create an artificial, false or misleading demand-supply gap, impacting the price.
Uber needs to fix this glitch immediately. They should stop showing price status to the cab drivers –whether surge or normal, so that they can accept every ride notified to them.
https://www.uber.com/en-IN/drive/partner-app/how-surge-works/?state=mZkfhQ-7JnX-wiUAG_l38bA1DorlvwpY9iYMGh3RXZg%3D&_csid=AsOTj7oDMFGuleuN1JX5pQ#_
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