The unusual high gas prices that is occurring throughout US and Canada has led Uber to increase it service charge on rides and delivery, this was declared in a blog post on the company website.
This is not a surprise that gas prices goes up in the US, Canada and even in Africa countries like Nigeria. This happened due to rapid spike in crude oil and gas price due to Russia invasion of Ukraine.
According to Uber Technology, as we all know that the gas price has been going up across the economy, so we've decided to help drivers and courier without adding to much additionally burden on the costumers.
We’ll also continue to track gas price movements to determine if we need to make additional changes,” wrote Uber spokesperson Liza Winship on the company’s website.
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Uber's Gas Surcharge will vary by states and mile distance. For Uber rides, the surcharge will be around $0.45 to $0.55 per trip, and for the Uber Eats, the surcharge will be around $0.35 to $0.45per trip. The surcharge fees will be given to the Uber driver who is for mileage out of their own pockets. However, the policy will not be applicable to New York City drivers due to drivers have to pay floor and majority of drivers are on bikes.
According to The Verge, this might leads to adoption of hybrid or electric vehicles by the Uber driver making riders to opt-in for cheaper rides. But Uber has already sort out the issues itself by letting passenger pay additional $1 which go straight to the drivers.
The increase in gas price has led some Uber driver to work below minimum wages and some have decided not to work, especially in California where the average price of gallon of gas on Friday was $5.802, significantly higher than the national average price.
Additionally, the Uber's Gas Surcharge will go into effect on March 16th, 2022, after which, Uber will re-evaluate the policy.