Did you find yourself stranded in a flood-like situation in the tricity on Monday? Did you order a cab through your Uber or Ola accounts? Did it cost you more than the usual amount? Or did the driver cancel when you told him your pick-up spot? In case the answer to all of these was a ‘Yes’, know that you weren’t alone.
As it rained and streets got waterlogged resulting in traffic jams, surge pricing by cab aggregators, Uber and Ola, was the order of the day even as residents panicked. For 28-year-old Reno D’Souza, who was in Chandigarh for a day, Monday turned out to be a disaster. “I’ve spent half my money commuting by cabs. It cost me Rs 600 to get to the bus stand,” he said. While Reno took an Ola cab, those who took Uber cabs experienced the same.
Uber cabs were expensive, costing double the amount on usual days.
“I tried booking a cab between 8.15am and 9.30am, but no one came. I booked at least four cabs, but all of them denied duty,” said Sonia Thakur, a resident of Sector 27. “Usually it costs me around Rs 300 for the commute, but today they were charging at least Rs 500.”
A 43-year-old resident of Sector 36, Rani Singh, said “I usually take the car myself, but on such days when you want to order a cab, the price difference is a bit too much.” There was no respite on the highway either. For a 23-year-old woman who was on her way back to Chandigarh from Delhi, it cost her thrice the usual amount to order a cab near Zirakpur. “This was only after the drivers cancelled thrice, and then I managed to get one but it seemed as expensive as a Shatabdi ticket,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}A 43-year-old resident of Sector 36, Rani Singh, said “I usually take the car myself, but on such days when you want to order a cab, the price difference is a bit too much.” There was no respite on the highway either. For a 23-year-old woman who was on her way back to Chandigarh from Delhi, it cost her thrice the usual amount to order a cab near Zirakpur. “This was only after the drivers cancelled thrice, and then I managed to get one but it seemed as expensive as a Shatabdi ticket,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}‘It incentivises drivers to come out’
An Uber spokesperson said: “Upfront fares are calculated using an algorithm that takes into consideration the expected time and distance of the trip, local traffic patterns, demand and supply at a given location. We’re able to use past data to estimate the likely cost of the trip. When dynamic pricing kicks in due to high demand, it incentivises driver partners to get their cars out on the roads to address the demand.”
Ola Cabs reached out to all its customers in the afternoon, asking them to take a cab and reiterating that their cabs were available without ‘peak pricing’. However, the surge during the morning hours was inevitable. Ola officials said they looked at the surge as a remedy, rather than a problem. “The drivers need to be encouraged to step out and get customers on such a day and hence prices are increased,” said an Ola spokesperson.