Uber has quietly been testing a versatile pricing service in additional than a dozen cities in India, a transfer that would assist it broaden its shopper base within the South Asian nation and put strain on rival ride-hailing platforms, together with Ola and inDrive.
The versatile pricing service, referred to as Uber Flex, was began in India in October last year and has since expanded to greater than 12 cities, together with Aurangabad, Ajmer, Bareilly, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Gwalior, Indore, Jodhpur and Surat, amongst others, TechCrunch has solely discovered. Uber confirmed that the versatile pricing service has expanded.
“We are piloting this feature in some of the Tier 2 and 3 markets in India currently,” an Uber spokesperson mentioned in an emailed response to TechCrunch.
The service, which was initially rolled out for cabs and later expanded to auto-rickshaw rides, lets commuters bid a specific fare for his or her trip. That’s totally different from Uber’s customary dynamic pricing mannequin, which strikes up and down relying on provide and demand and site visitors in a specific area.
Uber Flex affords 9 pricing factors — with a default worth chosen — to let riders choose a fare of their alternative that can be shared with close by drivers. Primarily based on that fare, the drivers can settle for or reject the trip.
Uber’s competitor inDrive, which operates in numerous Indian cities, permits riders to haggle the fare by manually placing in a specific worth for his or her trip. Nonetheless, many inDrive drivers within the nation have complained about passengers providing them too low costs for his or her rides. inDrive has not but addressed the motive force concern over riders fiercely bargaining their fare and has as a substitute touted that its “unique approach ensures that drivers are fairly compensated while passengers enjoy an affordable yet high-quality ride-hailing experience.”
“By offering drivers the option to make counterbids to passengers’ prices, inDrive fosters an option for the driver to increase the price if he feels to do so,” inDrive APAC director Roman Ermoshin advised TechCrunch whereas answering how inDrive is addressing driver considerations of not being reasonably compensated.
“Drivers are often dissatisfied with the pricing in the ride-hailing platforms, as they yearn for fair compensation for their services. With a focus on fairness and transparency, inDrive showcases a recommended price in the app, which is usually slightly lower than in the other apps, and this is made possible by inDrive’s significantly lower fees for drivers (roughly twice as low as the competition, so the driver earns the same or more as with the higher prices in the other apps).”
Uber is attempting to resolve the too-low fare drawback confronted by some inDrive drivers by not permitting passengers to set a particular fare manually within the flex-pricing mode. It additionally locations a cap on the bottom fare.
Uber Flex permits riders to decide on a desired fare from the accessible choices. Picture Credit: Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch
The service is accessible for inexpensive Uber Go rides and Intercity cabs in some cities, whereas in some, it’s even provided for Premier cabs and auto-rickshaw rides. Commuters pays their fare in money or through digital cost. Furthermore, whereas Uber’s flex pricing mannequin is accessible for varied modes, the raid-hailing big shouldn’t be making use of it to all modes in a single metropolis.
Uber is testing Flex in different markets together with Lebanon, Kenya and Latin America. TechCrunch discovered that the corporate was additionally seeking to check the brand new service mannequin quickly in metro cities in India, together with Delhi and Mumbai.
Along with Uber Flex, the San Francisco-headquartered firm is testing totally different companies in India to cater to the native demand. These embody Uber Taxis in Mumbai, which affords conventional taxi drivers as an possibility within the metropolis, and a Wait & Save mannequin in cities together with Mumbai, Guwahati and Chandigarh to let riders overcome surge pricing and pre-book a taxi when accessible at a less expensive fare.
India’s app-based cab market has expanded not too long ago, with new gamers coming into its city transportation area in the previous couple of months. Firms together with BluSmart and Evera supply electrical taxis, whereas Ola, Uber and inDrive have onboarded a lot of gasoline cabs. Final yr, bike taxi startup Rapido additionally started offering its cab service within the nation to broaden its revenues and attain new clients.
Nonetheless, Indian cab drivers — no matter the platform they work on — battle as a consequence of relatively low compensation and lack of safety. There isn’t a readability for a lot of on whether or not they are going to stay within the enterprise as soon as their current automobiles grow to be out of date.
