From June 23, 20 16, consumers will no longer see the floating price when using Uber service to take a taxi, but directly see the total price of the system budget. The so-called "floating price" means that at a certain moment, if the number of taxis exceeds the number of drivers, the taxi service price will be higher than the normal price at ordinary times.
Now, consumers can see the total price as long as they place orders. Consumers need to set the starting point and the ending point when placing an order through Uber application, and then Uber application will calculate the floating price and total price according to the distance between the two places, the time of placing an order, the traffic situation at that time and the supply and demand between taxi drivers. If the total price is higher than the usual normal price, Uber will remind consumers, but it will not explain how much the price has risen.
This change means that consumers must enter their destination in the Uber app before calling a car.
Uber said that showing the fee in advance can make Uber's service price easier for consumers to understand and accept. Only a total price is displayed, so consumers don't have to calculate how much they have paid more than usual. As soon as they get on the bus, they know what the total price is, and they won't be surprised that the total price exceeds their expectations as before when they get off the bus.
Since April, Uber has tested prepaid services in six cities in the United States and five cities in India. It said that so far, most consumers think this prepaid price is easier to understand, and they are likely to use Uber service next time.
Uber also enabled the prepaid price display service in the UberPool service.
After replacing the floating price with the prepaid total price, Uber no longer has to worry about the fluctuation of the real-time display service price. In the past, it often had disputes with consumers because of price fluctuations, because on special days such as New Year's Eve, fluctuating prices rose very high, and many consumers did not realize that this increase would greatly increase the total price of taxi services before deciding to take the bus.
Uber has been trying to eliminate consumers' unexpected feelings caused by price fluctuations, including requiring consumers to confirm the increase of fluctuating prices before riding, but despite this, consumers are often caught off guard by the total price. These problems should be better alleviated after the function of pre-paid total price quotation is enabled.