The person was trying to book a cab home in the pouring rain
The exorbitant fare charged by ride-hailing company Uber for ferrying a passenger stunned a Mumbai resident recently. The person was trying to book a cab home in the pouring rain and was astonished to see the fare running into thousands.
Now, you might be wondering now could Uber have charged. Well, fares for the 50-kilometre trip were well over Rs 3,000.
The Mumbai resident, Shravankumar Suvarna, posted about his ordeal on Twitter. He even shared screenshots of the Uber app that displayed the prices. UberGo had a fare of Rs 3,041, Premier had a fare of Rs 4,081, and XL had a fare of Rs 5,159.
Mr Suvarna tweeted, “Flight to goa is cheaper than my ride home.” He even added the hashtag, “peak Mumbai rains”.
Mr Suvarna's tweet prompted a range of replies on Twitter.
One user made a few calculations and arrived at the fare Uber should have charged. The user wrote, “Is diesel/petrol that costly. As per pic it looks maximum 50 km. Even with 10km mileage, it will cost around 500 rupees. They're taking 2.5 k extra for what. 1200 rupees should be enough for this ride.”
To this, Mr Suvarna replied that he usually paid between Rs 800 and Rs 1,000 without surge.
Another user joked that with the fare Uber XL was charging, Mr Suvarna could easily get a 1-BHK flat on the outskirts of Nashik.
Terming it “exploitation”, one user felt that “Uber must relook its algorithm”.
One user said that it was the same story everywhere, and went on to narrate what happened in Bangalore. “We stand in queue for 30-40 mins. I was told by a driver that Uber/Ola cabs are always there in the parking. Just before the flight lands or if it rains, they surge the price, hold the cabs & wait for the right time to release them from parking to pick up,” wrote the user.
Slightly increased cab fares during rush hour and in the rain are doable. But when the fares soar into thousands, people will inevitably be compelled to search for alternate modes of transport.