Uber's $1-Per-Ride 'Safe Rides Fee' Had Nothing To Do With Safety (theverge.com) 51
Uber imposed a $1-per-ride surcharge it called a "Safe Rides Fee" in 2014, but it was a just a play for profit. From a report: The money collected by the company from the fee -- estimated at around $500 million -- was never earmarked specifically for safety and was "devised primarily to add $1 of pure margin to each trip," according to New York Times . At the time, Uber was facing rising costs from insurance and background checks, so the company came up with the idea of imposing a safety fee to help boost its margins. Meanwhile, its actual safety program consisted of little more than a short video course for drivers. It wasn't until years later that Uber began adding safety features to its app, such as an emergency button to call 911. Safe ride fees varied from market to market, but they generally amounted to a buck and some change. In San Francisco, riders were charged $1.35 per trip. Philadelphians paid $1.25, while riders in Los Angeles paid $1.65.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
frog in slowly rising temperature in pot of water...
Stupidest myth ever, stop repeating that please.
Just look shit like that up. When you're about to use a cliche metaphor, look it up and check if it is true, don't just spew whatever lame shit your stupid ignorant friends like to repeat.
Frogs know if the water is too hot for them. They're placed in pots they can't jump out of. If you put a frog in your hand, and hold it over hot water, it will jump away. Because it wants to live. If you put it in cold water, it didn't jump away from the heat, so you're more
Re: (Score:2)
Well you know what they say about that: a watched pot never boils!
Re: (Score:2)
I thought it was a watched boil never pops.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but if you boil your watch, it'll pop.
Re: (Score:2)
If you boil your pop, I'll watch.
Re: (Score:2)
If I know my pop, he'd refuse to get in the pan.
Re: (Score:2)
frog in slowly rising temperature in pot of water...
Stupidest myth ever, stop repeating that please.
So, you're saying that the Froggy Sauna I _just_ just opened up WON'T have an endless supply of pre-cooked frog legs for the buffet? Time to go hire a cook I guess.
What, NEXT you're going to tell me that I can't harvest sushi from a bonsai tree?
Re: (Score:2)
Bonsai literally means "planted in a container."
Sushi means "it is sour," or perhaps "sour rice," but conventionally it refers to basically anything that mixes rice, vinegar, and seaweed. A rice ball with seaweed flakes is literally a type of sushi.
If you want to grow sushi from bonsai, you're going to need at least two bonsai, and one of them will be inside a saltwater fish tank.
So you're wrong. I'm going to say you can harvest sushi from a bonsai tree, you'd just be baka for calling it that.
non-optional fees (Score:2)
I love it when I get to a hotel and they charge me an additional "resort fee" or "pool towel fee". I always ask if I can decline. It's never optional. But not listed on the price.
Really should be illegal to advertise a price if it's not the price when you arrive.
With hotels it's especially bad because one almost always books the hotel via a listing agency not the hotel so prior notification of these delightful surprises isn't available.
The College Playbook (Score:1)
In other news, the Association of Public and Private Colleges has sued Uber over its use of their patented "Method and Process for Nickel and Diming Customers to Death using Bogus and Contrived Fees."
But really, one good thing that came of this was the emergency button in the app to call 9-1-1. I have no idea how I might have gotten in touch with emergency services using my cell phone without that feature.
The Government Playbook (Score:2)
In other news, the Association of Public and Private Colleges....
They will be stuck in the queue behind every government that ever existed.
weird (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't get it.
They say that Uber was struggling with costs for "background checks" and "insurance". They added a fee for security.
What the hell are background checks *for*? Yes, safety! What is insurance for? A very similar thing! It sounds like the fee directly aligns with what it's supposed to do...
Re: weird (Score:2)
Re:weird (Score:4, Insightful)
Only if that is what they actually spent the money on.
That didn't seem like a hard one to me.
Re: (Score:1)
Only if that is what they actually spent the money on.
They already spent the money so anything gained offset that money spent already.
That didn't seem like a hard one to me.
Re: (Score:2)
That didn't seem like a hard one to me.
That's because you missed the underlying context where fraud is illegal, and what you describe is still fraud. Because if it is fraud or not depends on what you actually spent the money on.
Waving your hands about "offsets" doesn't help.
You're wrong like that a lot. Like, really wrong, clearly, objectively incorrect, and you still don't want to try harder.
It wasn't easy for you, we know because you failed. Try harder.
it takes an lot of $1's to pay out Sofia Liu (Score:3)
it takes an lot of $1's to pay out for the death of Sofia Liu
Re: (Score:2)
That's okay. According to the law frim Sofia Liu's medical expenses exceeded $500000, something that Uber can pay off within 45 minutes if it charges it's 15million daily customers $1.
Re: it takes an lot of $1's to pay out Sofia Liu (Score:2)
"if it charges it's 15million daily customers $1"
Uber still loses money on every customer...
Dumping FTW!
for a small extra fee... (Score:2)
On the bright side... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Using a regular credit card rewards program I can get 5% back from all transportation spending if I choose that as the top rewards category. Taxis included. Or 2% if I choose it as a secondary category.
Except it'll ruin your wallet (Score:2)
Cost from background checks and insurance (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
So long as the fee draws less income than the total cost of background checks etc, then yes.
Re: Cost from background checks and insurance (Score:2)
Background checks are about kicking the poor when they're down.
Insurance is about covering Uber's financial liability for inevitable crashes, and about compliance with state laws.
Neither of these measures does jack shit to improve passenger safety.
Get high on life (Score:2)
never is anyway (Score:3)
Dollars are fungible so those types of statements are meaningless anyway.
I mean, even if Uber's internal categorization of expenses and accounting had been rejiggered to correspond to the itemization of nominal expenses on the passenger receipt, then what difference would that have made? Absolutely none at all. All together, Uber has revenue coming in and expenses going out. Naming different segments of those quantities different things is just a labelling exersize, it does not actually alter the finances.
Fungibility means that if Uber could explicitly trace that fee through its bookkeeping to expenses tagged "safety", and that if you think that would be better than their actual bookkeeping, then you can be suckered by a labelling gimmick.
Re: never is anyway (Score:2)
"if Uber could explicitly trace that fee through its bookkeeping"
Pretty sure a competent accountant could and would do just that.
"if you think that would be better than their actual bookkeeping, then you can be suckered by a labelling gimmick."
So if I want to see honest accounting and non-fraudulent billing from our public companies, I'm a sucker? Shill harder!
Wasn't lying (Score:2)
Executives' megayachts are pretty safe rides.
Ummmmmm (Score:4, Insightful)
Ummm, shouldn't the part about the ride being "safe" be part of the service by default?
Charging a "safety fee" makes it sound a little ominous.
"Nice taxi ride from a random stranger ya got there...too bad if anything should happen to you. Maybe youse should buy some of our 'insurance', you know, just in case."
Re: (Score:2)
Capitalism (Score:2)
They do it because they can.
I remember during deeps of the recession in Chicago. Riding sharing wasn't a thing. Fuel was more expensive. The city authorized a 50 cent, then later a dollar fuel surcharge to every cab ride (flag pull). This lasted a few months but I remember checking whether it was still active or not. For several months well after it expired you would still see cabbies with the sign up in their cab.
I wouldn't say anything and if they tried to charge me that extra dollar I'd call them on it,
uber needs to go (Score:5, Informative)
ride hailing services actually ADD to traffic problems:
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/01... [npr.org]
https://www.theverge.com/2019/... [theverge.com]
and the slogan of "ride share" is a lie. Sharing a ride is like taking someone to work, or the old lady across the street to the grocery store with you. That's sharing. Taking people you don't know to a place you are not going - FOR MONEY - is the definition of a taxi. It's a scam like the rest of the "gig" economy. "Gig" is just the new term for "hustle". Nobody makes any money but the scam-sters trying to become billionaires from an IPO.
in summary: not good for the economy, not good the environment, not good for the drivers...
The best discription of Uber I've ever read (Score:2)
Safe Rides, Bonuses, and More (Score:1)
As a former driver for the Gig Economy, I can can repeat what most of you probably already know. These companies are focused on driving profits and pushing the limits of what's legal or what the government is not paying attention to. I knew way back that the so called "Safe Rides" fee, was nothing more than an running up profits much like a football team might do to make themselves look good. The rider and driver apps for Lyft and Uber have lacked severely in ease of use or contacting someone for help. Mayb
And yet ... (Score:2)
... they're still hemorrhaging money
Not convincing (Score:3)
Not earmarked for safety does not mean that it did not pay for safety.
Better proof would be to show that safety spending per year was less than the total collected by the fee.
Cute puppies and sweet little kittens fee (Score:1)
I'm going to have a charge added to Uber and Lyft rides in my city to cover this. It will be about 75 cents.
If you don't agree to the cute puppies and sweet little kittens fee, then you hate cute puppies and sweet little kittens. This makes you a monster and worse than Hitler.
The chickens are coming home to roost. (Score:2)
This ought to be fun. The early "contractors" who did this for pocket money back in college are now full time professionals in their own right, and some of them will be going into professions with a vested interest in carving off chunks of "market disruption" for themselves. Others are going into government -- I know one former Uber driver who is now an FBI field agent. His opinion of them has changed considerably since he left, and they might not be so happy to see him again.
Rising costs (Score:3)
Didn't read the full article, but background checks are for safety reasons, so...