More wet weather is set to hit the Auckland region. Video / MetService / Supplied
If you copped supersize Uber “surge” pricing while escaping Auckland’s CBD on Friday night, consider challenging it.
A city centre worker successfully disputed a $261.72 fare from Victoria St to Takapuna - a 9km journey that costs $20.32 at Uber’s normal rates.
The passenger got slapped with the giant faredespite an Uber policy introduced in 2014 - in the wake of Hurricane Sandy on the US east coast - to cap surge fares during wild weather events.
Uber spokeswoman Bonnie Ko told the Herald, “Uber’s pricing and surge policy in extreme weather and with formal states of civil emergencies - during unfortunate events like this - is that our teams pay attention to local authority announcements and place a cap on surge.”
The rideshare company suspended all services in Auckland at 10pm on Friday, Ko said. It was resumed at midday Saturday, with some restrictions.
Mayor Wayne Brown declared a state of emergency at 9.54pm - after being pressed for hours by councillors, and eventually even National leader Christopher Luxon, amid extreme weather and flooding.
Ko said a 1x surge cap - effectively wiping the surge fee - was put in place before Uber’s 10pm suspension of service, but she said an Uber policy meant she could not say at what time the 1x cap was implemented.
A 24/7 Uber team monitored emergency situations, and implemented the 1x cap “as soon as possible” in extreme weather situations, following discussions with local leadership.
The incident has echoes of the Lindt Cafe armed siege in 2014, when Uber charged people 4x surge prices to escape the Sydney’s CBD, leading to fares in the hundreds of dollars. After a storm of bad publicity, the rideshare giant said it was “truly sorry for any concern that our process may have added,” and issued refunds.
With public transport delays amid mounting weather chaos, the Victoria St to Takapuna passenger booked an Uber that arrived close to 7pm.
Traffic on the Harbour Bridge had ground to a standstill and Waka Kotahi NZTA was telling people to take alternative routes - so the man agreed to the long way around over Greenhithe Bridge (Auckland’s second harbour crossing), a route that ordinarily costs around $71. During the trip, the the app said it would cost $115, the man says.
When he got to Takapuna, he was surprised to see the final fare was actually $260.72 ($71.21, billed as the “normal fare’, an 8 cent wait fee, an 85c booking fee and a $189.57 “Surge 3.7″ surcharge).
The surge fee was not apparent when he booked the fare, the man told the Herald. He challenged the total, and Uber refunded the $189.57 surge fee.
(The man did not want to be named, but forwarded the Herald copies of his correspondence with Uber).
In 2014 - the same year as its Lindt Cafe PR debacle in Australia - Uber reached an agreement with the state of New York to cap surge pricing during emergencies and natural disasters. The move followed Uber copping flak for surge pricing during the Hurricane Sandy evaluation on the US east coast. The firm reached an agreement with New York’s Attorney-General, which was later expanded to cover other territories.
In the Auckland Friday night case, however, Uber issued a refund simply because of the confusion over the estimated fare. “Because this is your first surge experience, we’ve refunded the surge amount,” the firm said in a message to the passenger.
At 6.20pm on Friday, broadcaster Russell Brown tweeted that an Uber from Point Chevalier to Karangahape Rd - $14.16 ordinarily - was being quoted at $50 with surge pricing.
Flooding in Greenlane on Friday night, where ex-Auckland councillor Victoria Carter was directing traffic. Carter says she had to offer directions to the city to at least a dozen Uber drivers whose GPS systems had been rendered useless by the flooding. Photo / @vcarternz
Uber frames its surge pricing as a mechanism to get drivers to where they are needed, but by mid-evening wild weather had put paid to that. Former Auckland City councillor Victoria Carter said she was approached by at least a dozen Uber drivers as she directed traffic on Green Lane Rd - puts of which were under water. They wanted to know how to get to the city at a time when multiple road floodings had rendered their GPS directions unusable.
During the 2014 Lindt Cafe siege, Uber flipped tactics as the incident unfolded, dropping its 4x surge in favour of offering free rides out of the CBD.
In a blog post, the firm said surge pricing was a mechanism to attract drivers to where they were urgently needed, to help more people get out of the city.
But it also conceded that its 4x surge pricing had been “poorly communicated”.
“We didn’t stop surge pricing immediately. This was the wrong decision,” Uber said.
