Your Uber pulls up. The driver waits for you to grab your pocketbook. Oops…you forgot your ID. Oops…you forgot your gift. Oops…your friend is taking his/her sweet time coming out. You kept the driver waiting over five minutes. You might want to stop that.
Uber is testing a new pay system. This system will have drivers charge you extra if you make them wait more than two minutes after the driver pulls up. But wait…there’s more! This new tests include a two minute cancellation limit. Let’s say you change your mind, change your plans, or a friend volunteers to pick you up. Under this new system, if you don’t cancel within two minutes, you’ll be charged with a fee. Until then, you still have five minutes to cancel before you get slapped with this fee. We don’t know how much these fees will be. We don’t even know when, or if, these changes will go into effect. The only cities that are testing this is greater New York City/Northern New Jersey, Dallas, and Phoenix.
From the company and drivers point of view, I can see some logic behind this. For the driver to take five, six, eight, ten minutes waiting for the passenger, that’s taking time and money from the driver. But two minutes is a bit much. It can take two minutes to load items in the trunk, if that’s what needed. Is Uber going to charge a fee for that? The two minute cancellation rule is also a bit much. I can understand charging someone who no-shows without letting the driver at all. That’s cost the driver time and money, and tangles up passengers after you. But anything could happen in two minutes. So if you’re in New York, New Jersey, Dallas and Phoenix, take heed. If not, just hope these new fees don’t come to you. Are these new fees really about the improved well being of drivers and passengers? Or are they just schemes to fatten the pockets of Uber CEOs and other top Uber leaders?