In the past few weeks Uber has been in the news a couple of times, most recently after one of their VP’s suggested hiring a million dollar team to dig up dirt on hostile journalists and their families but that is a whole different story and not something this post is about. Today I am going to talk about how the price for Uber cabs fluctuates and why you should check the cost before clicking on the Book button. BTW, this is based on an off the fly method of data collection and for Uber in India (Bangalore to be specific). Other places might have a different experience.
First, lets start with a bit of background. I had gone out with my team for an office outing and while we were figuring out the transportation back to the office I looked at the Uber costing to see if it made sense to just get uber instead of waiting for other options. (We didn’t take uber that day but that is a different story). The next day at work I was talking to a team member and I mentioned that the cost for uber would have been Rs 200 min, and about Rs 18/km after that which is quite of for that time at night. She was skeptical so I opened the app to show her the prices and imagine my surprise that the numbers were quite different: Min Rs 250 with Rs 30/km. This started me thinking, and I was curious so I kept a log of the costing for both UberX and Uber Black for the next few days at various times in the day.Basically whenever I remembered to look, which is why this is not a scientific study.
The numbers are as follows:
| Date/Time | Service | Minimum Cost | Cost per KM |
| 12th Nov 11:20pm | Uberx | 125 Min | 15/km |
| 12th Nov 11:20pm | UberBlack | 200 Min | 18/km |
| 13th Nov 12:32pm | Uberx | 250 Min | 30/km |
| 13th Nov 12:32pm | UberBlack | 200 Min | 18/km |
| 13th Nov 7:20pm | Uberx | 250 Min | 30/km |
| 13th Nov 7:20pm | UberBlack | 400 Min | 36/km |
| 14th Nov 5:00pm | Uberx | 162.5 Min | 19.5/km |
| 14th Nov 5:00pm | UberBlack | 240 Min | 21.6/km |
| 15th Nov 1:31am | Uberx | 125 Min | 15/km |
| 15th Nov 1:31am | UberBlack | 200 Min | 18/km |
| 19th Nov 7:20pm | Uberx | 250 Min | 30/km |
| 19th Nov 7:20pm | UberBlack | 200 Min | 18/km |
so as per the numbers above the best time to take uber would be around 11:30pm. Worst time is early evening around 7:30pm.
So if you take an uber cab late night one day and pay X then take it again the next day morning to go back to the same place you will actually end up paying quite a lot more than what you were expecting based on the previous fare. Which is why you should check the pricing before you click the book, else you might be in for a rude surprise.
Well this is all for now. Will post more later.
– Suramya