Uber has recently switched from its surge pricing method to a transparent upfront pricing method. In this way, customers will now exactly know the price that they will pay upfront with no more surprises.
This pricing method has already been introduced in UberPOOL in 2014. In April this year, the method was introduced in some cities in the US and more recently, in India.
Quartz reported that Uber will roll out its ‘upfront pricing’ to UberX customers in cities in the US such as Miami, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego and Seattle and in five markets in India. Within the next few months, the service will be extended to other markets of Uber.
Uber said in a statement: "Knowing how much a ride will cost in advance is clearly something riders appreciate: today uberPOOL accounts for over 20 percent of all rides globally.
"And we now want more riders globally to benefit from this feature."
Uber says that until now hundreds of thousands of users have experienced upfront fares as part of the rollout.
Upfront price calculation is done by taking into account the expected time, distance and local traffic and other riders going to the same destination and matching the prices of those rides. In this way, Uber gives out upfront prices to its customers before they book a ride.
Uber also says that from now on there will be no pop-ups or lightning bolts asking the customer to agree to 1.3X or some other pricing in the event of increased demand and increased price.
Instead, the exact ride fare will be shown before a customer completes booking the ride.
