Sudden stark price jumps after using a rideshare service frequently -- a known thing?

In My Humble Opinion
1

If someone uses a rideshare service to commute to work at the same time every day over an expended period of time (say, three weeks), does the price suddenly increase sharply after your first few rides?

Our one car went into the shop early last week for major repair work. We’ll be getting it back late next week, so we’ll be without it for roughly three weeks.

I’ve been calling an Uber for my wife to get to work in the mornings - a fifteen-minute commute on suburban surface streets. No bumper-to-bumper traffic, no city-center hassles. All last week, her rides to work have been $n. Today, the price jumped to about $2.5n.

I already knew that Uber employs surge pricing. But today’s hefty increase doesn’t seem to just be simple “surge pricing” alone, because it’s the same commute as last week. Holiday pricing for St. Patrick’s Day? Maybe, but at 7:00 a.m.? And well away from the location of any local St. Patty’s events? It was a little nippy outside this morning (47 degrees) where last week had mild mornings. Were more people who might have walked to work or to the bus stop suddenly calling an Uber to stay out of the cold?

Considering all of that: is it a known thing that ride-share algorithms bump up the rate once they “know” you have to get a ride every day? Some Googling on the topic suggests that Uber’s algorithm does exactly that. Some people switch between Uber and Lyft for this reason. Some people walk a block or two to change the pick-up/drop-off locations so that the algorithm doesn’t make the connection (curious about this one).

I do understand, also, that a lot of ride-share dynamics are local. We’re in the spread-out suburbs of a medium-sized city, not in a dense northeastern metro area. I’m sure our number of drivers per unit of area is a lot lower than in, say, suburban Long Island, Greater Philadelphia, Chicagoland, etc. That probably works to the customers’ advantage.

Anyway – do Dopers have any experience with anything this? Either as a driver or as a customer?

EDIT: A data point - I’ve just taken a look at the price to reserve an Uber ride tomorrow morning (via Uber Reserve). Right now, it’s $27. I understand that I almost certainly won’t get that price if I call for an on-demand ride tomorrow morning (right?).

2

I’ve never used any of those services, but that’s what I was wondering as well. That specific route now has more demand than it did before.
What happens if you use an address across the street or down the block for the pick up and/or destination?

3

Checking the price using Uber Reserve, entering a pickup across the street from our home and a dropoff at a house around the corner from my wife’s work (but >50 ft from their back entrance), the price drops from $27 to $24.

We have some limitations here - my wife is mobility-limited. Walking 5-10 minutes to get a pickup further from our home and “fool the algorithm” isn’t an option (this same thing nixes what little public transportation we have out here).

4

I was more curious if it made a difference. I’m guessing the $3 difference is more about the distance changing than anything else.

5

FWIW, the revised pickup/dropoff addresses I just entered amount to about a hundred feet shorter route, give or take. The original route is bit over five miles.

6

Another data point: Lyft is considerably more expensive, both for an on-demand ride and for reserving in advance.

Gah! I guess our rideshare-using info is out there, and everyone can see it!

7

My guess? They’re doing ‘basic’ price sensitivity testing … on you:

Under the Hood of Uber’s Experimentation Platform

Welcome to The Matrix.

8

I recently had the opposite happen. I regularly use Uber to go to and from DRU airport. When I started doing this the cost was usually in the $35-$45 range. In the last few months, the cost has suddenly dropped to $25-$30. Some of these trips were scheduled in advance, but the ones from the airport to home obviously weren’t but were not noticeably more expensive.

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Not always. I was returning to Connecticut from JFK Airport one day a couple of months ago. The Uber quote was high ($200-300) but Lyft was considerably cheaper (under $200). I recommend checking both along with any other options.

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No, I meant I had just checked Lyft, just now … and it was more expensive than Uber.

I will have to see how it is in the morning.

…

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far. I am trying to put some puzzle pieces together and your input is helping.

11

Around here Lyft is typically 20% cheaper than Uber. In other cities it’s the opposite.

As somebody who used to travel every week and use UberLyft all over the USA I’d always ask the drivers about which they prefer & why. Many drivers drive for both.

Their answer to which paid them better was different in different cities, but was usually consistent within the same city.

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BTW, Lyft offers a commute price lock service: Price Lock | Lyft

For a small monthly fee ($3), you can cap your max price against surge pricing in a 1-hour window. There’s a max you can save (up to $40 a mo) but it’s one buffer against algorithmic pricing.

Or just carpool with a colleague :slight_smile:

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We don’t have Lyft here so I cannot compare, but with Uber…

A trip to the airport is X.

A trip to somewhere near the airport is Y.

Where X > Y by a large amount. I guess I could learn to game the system for the cost of a longer walk but I don’t fly enough to do that.

Back before Uber, I could game the transport system, at the cost of a really long travel time.

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I wonder, is that possibly because of airport surcharges mandated by regulations (that taxis would also get charged, etc.)? Does it break down the charges for you in the app at all?

I generally get around that by taking public transit from the airport to my destination, at least 1 stop or however long I’m patient enough for. Then Uber/Lyft for the last mile. (Generally don’t do that to the airport though, for fear of missing my flight.)

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No. The app is easy to use, but opaque when questioning. I assume deliberately.

16

Airport surcharges are definitely listed on the Uber breakdown.

17

They charge you a small monthly fee, that you pay whether you use the feature or not, and then they cap how much you can save with it?

Rat bastards. That’s just greedy.

18

Yes. As far as I know the entire thing is a bubble and Lyft still isn’t profitable. They’re desperate to milk everyone from drivers to riders to please their shareholders. They have many discount programs and various upgrades and such, along with in-app ads. The enshittification must go on.

Edit: Actually, they just turned profitable for the first time in 2024. Still not making much though: Despite turning profitable, Lyft sees shares drop 10% on earnings miss and weak outlook - SiliconANGLE

These services don’t seem sustainable over the long term. Some cities have municipal or driver owned cooperative ridesharing apps that might be less exploitative, not sure.

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Well … FWIW, this morning, Uber offered the lowest price yet for that same ride to my wife’s work. I did change the dropoff point to be around the corner from my wife’s work (but adjacent to her work’s back entrance). Really at a loss as to what’s been going on, but I’ll take it.

Harebrained theory: Sunday the 16th, a lot of our local St. Patty’s Day events took place (including two major parades) AND a rescheduled Mardi Gras parade rolled. It’s possible that yesterday morning, a lot of usual weekday Uber drivers – not having to punch a clock – were sleeping in after a Sunday spent partying (or else a Sunday spent working double time shuttling drunk people around). There might simply have been fewer Uber drivers available yesterday morning vs this morning … and the increased fare offers were meant to shake some more drivers “out of bed”? I dunno.

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Or they are reading this thread and wanted to throw you off the trail…