Uber has announced a new pricing model after months and months of arguments between it and its drivers. The new model will see a 29% increase which will affect both UberX and UberChapChap riders in Kenya.
In addition to the new charges, Uber has done away with Uber Select, which has been the company’s premium option. The category, which had been introduced in 2017 involved having high rated drives with pre-selected vehicles that are guaranteed to offer a great experience to its users. With the new model, Uber will now only offer UberX, which will take over as the premium category enlisting cars with an engine capacity of above 1300cc while UberChapChap will include all cars below 1300cc.
According to the multinational transportation network company, the base fares for both UberX and UberChapChap will remain at Sh85 and Sh80 respectively, but the minimum amount of money you’ll pay for an UberX ride will now be Sh200, and Sh150 for a UberChapChap.
Additionally, UberChapChap vehicles will also now pay 25% commission on their first 15 weekly trips, and thereafter 3% on the remaining trips. On the other hand, trips on UberChapChap will cost Sh4 per minute, but this will rise to Sh12 per minute after the trip exceeds eleven kilometres.
The new pricing model will see drivers’ earnings rise significantly after a long period of pushing for fare increases, citing high operating costs. Uber Kenya says that drivers on UberX will earn around 26% more while those on UberChapChap will earn around 13% more per trip. However, despite this win, the new Uber model also disables the driver’s ability to switch between categories, taking away the freedom that they previously enjoyed especially during low demand timelines when most switched to the budget option to get more trips.
Uber is not the only one to take this turn. Earlier, its competitor, Bolt (Taxify) also made changes. The taxi-hailing app did away with TaxifyGO, which was their UberChapChap equivalent, and bumped up their pricing across all other ride options by 30%.
