Photo: skift
If you’re willing to wait a few minutes so that you can save time, this new pricing option that Uber is testing might be just the thing for you.
In a since-deleted tweet, Uber advised an Uber employee to wait for a few minutes and get a discount on their ride, Quartz reports. In a statement, the car-sharing company confirms the feature is now being tested locally.
The message informed the employee that the price for their Uber drive would be 25% less if they waited a few minutes for their ride. It also included two options: ask for the ride now or ask for the ride at a later time, and displayed the pricing options for each.
A spokeswoman for the company confirms to Quartz that the feature is currently being tested in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but she wouldn’t say when or if it might become available for customers, too.
“Affordability is a top reason riders choose shared rides, and we’re internally experimenting with a way to save money in exchange for a later pickup,” the spokeswoman says, confirming the story.
Uber is pricing rides based on supply and demand, which means that prices go up when demand is high in a particular area, at a particular time. Times like New Year’s or bad weather make prices surge, and occasionally stir a pot of controversy from riders.
Because of this, it would make sense for the company to try and shift some of that high demand to later in the future – and to do so by offering as incentive a discount. People looking to save money wouldn’t say no to waiting for a few minutes for their ride to arrive. For example, in the deleted tweeted, the offer was a 25% discount for 4 minutes’ worth of waiting, which isn’t a bad deal, if you think about it.
The message informed the employee that the price for their Uber drive would be 25% less if they waited a few minutes for their ride. It also included two options: ask for the ride now or ask for the ride at a later time, and displayed the pricing options for each.
A spokeswoman for the company confirms to Quartz that the feature is currently being tested in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but she wouldn’t say when or if it might become available for customers, too.
“Affordability is a top reason riders choose shared rides, and we’re internally experimenting with a way to save money in exchange for a later pickup,” the spokeswoman says, confirming the story.
Uber is pricing rides based on supply and demand, which means that prices go up when demand is high in a particular area, at a particular time. Times like New Year’s or bad weather make prices surge, and occasionally stir a pot of controversy from riders.
Because of this, it would make sense for the company to try and shift some of that high demand to later in the future – and to do so by offering as incentive a discount. People looking to save money wouldn’t say no to waiting for a few minutes for their ride to arrive. For example, in the deleted tweeted, the offer was a 25% discount for 4 minutes’ worth of waiting, which isn’t a bad deal, if you think about it.
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