I disagree but it is part of the 'learning' process that life is not 'fair'.

A heads up on a $200+ fee for a normal $20 ride is just common courtesy.

Dealing w/the same thing at my Mom's nursing home. A $670 bill for therapy not covered by insurance. Got the insurance notice in December for a September service (not sure about Oct - Dec.).

A possible $1800 for something not critical that could have been stopped w/a notice.

Only difference is the cab did this on purpose.

A heads up on a $200+ fee for a normal $20 ride is just common courtesy.

You are always notified if surge pricing applies before you summon an Uber ride.

I don't go out on New Years Eve (or, Super Bowl Sunday. Have a cop in the family that's worked traffic those days, you probably wouldn't either...) but with non-essential services, I have no trouble with people charging what they want.

Uber keeps you from driving drunk. It doesn't keep drunks from driving into you.

Heck, if I get called in on New Year's Day it's double time.

As dee nile noted, you are always notified of surge pricing -- even when it's a small increase over the usual (non-surge) fare.

And this isn't with a bunch of small print. It's big numbers on your phone.

And momof4, we don't go out, either, and that's the main reason. Gregg made me dinner and we watched Fargo (the TV show, which is great).

Supply and demand. Increased demand raises prices on the supply.

This is if the supply is, more or less, fixed. If the supply is flexible/variable -- if, for example, Uber had a lot of drivers specifically available for crunch times like New Year's Eve -- then the price need not rise that much. But, of course, there's no need for Uber to do that. They can keep their supply of drivers relatively fixed and then just jack up the prices.

As for the people complaining about the jacked-up prices, they could have, as Amy said, always taken a taxi (although it's possible many Uber riders don't know what a taxi is.) They may have had to wait, but during a high-demand time like New Year's Eve, you're gonna pay one way: either with money or with time.

Or you could pay with time and your legs. You could always walk. The people in Amy's post paid $257.51 for a 15 minute ride home. Assuming the Uber driver was able to average 60 mph the entire way, then the distance to their home was 15 miles (it was probably less than that.) Assuming it was 15 miles, they could have walked that in about 7 hours. $257 / 7 = $36/hour (that's net pay/hour, not gross pay/hour) which isn't a terribly shabby rate to pay yourself (or two people)...especially since you'd be paying yourself for getting exercise.

I'm reminded of my mother (R.I.P.). Whenever she'd drive to either downtown St. Paul or Minneapolis, she'd always park on the outskirts of the downtown, where there weren't any parking meters, and then walk from there. "I don't have to pay for parking and I get exercise," she'd say. For her, having to walk farther wasn't a trade-off. It was a win-win.

As long as riders are aware of the price increase BEFORE agreeing to the Uber ride it is fine. And if the riders didn't notice and just assumed it would be the same price - well, that's just their own stupidity.

Yea, I get that folks aren't happy about the price being one thing normally and then 3 times the amount just because of the time difference; but, too bad, that's the way the free market works.

For example, I buy ALL my Christmas type stuff (e.g. wrapping paper, lights, greeting cards, etc.) AFTER Christmas because I don't want to pay full price. The stores are looking to clear their inventory rather than keep it in stock for a year. That's the free market at work; and I benefit from it. I have a 30-year old fake tree that I paid five bucks for!

As far as the Uber price surge, the only potential problem that I see is those who claimed that their rides kept being cancelled until the surge price took affect - that's just greedy and Uber needs to fix it if that is what happened.

Lastly, I'd be willing to bet that those who are complaining the loudest would expect more pay if their bosses asked them to work on New Year's Eve!

Are they aware that the dinner and dance they paid $100+ on NYE could probably be had tonight for $25 - $50 minus a party hat, a noisemaker and a glass of cheap champagne because lots of people want to go out on NYE?

A ticket to the Super Bowl costs many times the price of a regular season ticket because the demand is higher.

Gas is cheap now because the supply has increased.

Uber isn't doing anything unusual.

I'm an Uber driver. We drive only when we feel like it - Uber has NO control over us. I, personally, didn't go out New Year's Eve because it was already looking drunk out around 5:00pm.
Also I knew we had a large conference downtown that was ending at midnight so there would be a lot of people looking to go to the airport in the morning.

Instead of going out NYE, I went out in the morning and had a *very* busy morning since it seems most of the other drivers in my area had been out all night.

The driver's Uber app tells us where it's surging to encourage us to go there and help relieve the surge.

The purpose of the surge isn't to make more money (that's a benefit). The purpose is so the person who *really* needs to get a ride gets it and the others wait. If you don't want to pay, just wait.

I live near San Francisco. When my wife and I attended a function in SF, we opted to drive to the hotel at which friends were staying, park there as visitors, and cab it to the function with our friends.

We left early. Trying to hail a cab on a busy night proved impossible and we ended up taking the subway in full evening regalia.

The reason cabs were not plentiful on a busy night is most cab drivers in SF work during the daytime M-F carrying business people. Fewer cabs are willing to do nighttime runs as they've made their money on daytime runs. And on busy nights like that one, the shortage of cabs can leave a lot of people stranded as Yellow Cab continually promises them a cab in "fifteen minutes" that never arrives.

Cabs in most cities are, due to medallion costs and fleet requirements, fixed in number. If there is no incentive for them to work nights, they won't. And with no replacement cab supply, that means a shortage of cabs, sometimes when they're most needed as there's no incentive for the drivers to work the extra hours since the money they'd make working late hours is the same as the daytime money (rates are fixed no matter what). Tips are another matter, but dealing with drunks and potential crime can mitigate one's enthusiasm for the higher tips at night.

Uber has solved that problem by giving drivers an incentive to work on busy nights when they'd rather be at home watching television or putting the kids to bed.

The purpose of the surge isn't to make more money (that's a benefit). The purpose is so the person who *really* needs to get a ride gets it and the others wait. If you don't want to pay, just wait.

Not exactly. This isn't based on a rider's need. It's based on his/her willingness to pay.

It sounds like the purpose of surge-pricing is twofold: first, it is to make more money (that's what good capitalists do) and second, it's to -- as you noted -- induce more drivers to increase the supply of rides.

Personally I tend to budget stuff ahead of time, and if I have no way to know how much your service will cost until the day I need it, then I won't use it.

I usually stay in on NYE... if I'm on vacation I go to whatever dinner event my hotel is having and walk to whatever town square is nearest for the fireworks. If I'm in the 'burbs maybe I'll drive to a friends party or something.

But generally, not my favorite holiday, I like theme holidays/parties with specific rituals like lighting candles on a tree and opening gifts, or dance around a beribboned pole, or dress up as a monster and beg for candy. NYE feels kinda meh.

Yeah, go ahead and take a regulated taxi, so that it's muslim driver can kick you out once he smells alcohol on your breath.

I'd rather drunks be gouged by Uber than have them kill other people, too.

it's = its (geesh!)

And on busy nights like that one, the shortage of cabs can leave a lot of people stranded as Yellow Cab continually promises them a cab in "fifteen minutes" that never arrives.

Conan, people had to rely on cabs (for personal hired transport) on New Years Eve before the advent of Uber, right? Were a lot of people stranded back then due to a lack of taxis?

But generally, not my favorite holiday,

Same here, Nicole, but I have had a few very fun evenings. My most memorable was NYE 1999. I was with my then-girlfriend and about eight other close friends at our favorte bar/music venue, The Tractor, and my favorite local band, The Picketts were headlining. They usually opened with an instrumental version of "Sukiyaki" but this time they started with a smokin' hot version of Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy (Charlie Brown Theme Song)" and, from that, the night just got better and better.

That was also the NYE that the Mayor canceled celebrations at Seattle Center because police believed a terrorist was planning to blow up the Space Needle. (Two weeks earlier in Port Angeles, customs agents had arrested Ahmed Ressam crossing into the U.S. from Canada. Ressam was eventually sentenced to 22 years in prison for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport that same NYE.)

Conan, people had to rely on cabs (for personal hired transport) on New Years Eve before the advent of Uber, right? Were a lot of people stranded back then due to a lack of taxis? ~ Posted by: JD at January 2, 2016 12:55 PM

As neither Uber nor Lyft existed when that story happened, I'm guessing they were stranded or inconvenienced - just like we were.

so, how does uber hit this outta that park?

call in a reservation for the evening, maybe with an estimate of timing, some weeks before... and uber gives you and upfront price that is higher than normal, but lower than surge... rider gets a better deal, uber has some idea of what their baseload will be, and everybody is less unhappy with the situation.

I mean, uber can act a bit harsh like this, since they don't have a ton of competition in the space, but that won't last... make the customer experience outstanding, and that's in your favor.

I certainly appreciate the surge pricing... $20 to $250 feels like gouging to me. I would have to know more. I mean the taxi fare from downtown to the park-and-ride I sometimes use is about 15 minutes and the fare is nearly $100. (so you make sure not to miss the last mass transit.) If uber was undercutting that to $20 I don't think it is so bad.

I think it will work out in time. Like were I used to live people knew you couldn't depend on taxi's so few people used them.

I remember about 20 years ago some friends had to call one of their parents for a ride home on NYE. Public transit had shutdown for the night and the taxi's were way overloaded.

I have taken a taxi some where to the airport real early and there was a 50% surcharge during certain hours as part of the government set rate. The concierge told me when I asked about booking it.

Hmm...I guess my use of "gouging" is local as I don't find it in the dictionaries but similar to this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_gouging

Gouging is taking advantage of a situation to charge a lot more than ordinarily would be expected. An Example I am familiar with is a concert venue that banned any outside food or drink and really did enforce that. Then inside prices were very high....like $3 for $.50 bottle of water.

This feels to me like charging $20 to get there but then $200 to get back home is putting the riders in a tough spot by misleading them. If the rider had known it would be 220 round trip they might have opted to drive or made some other arrangement.

At those prices, I'll bet there will be a lot more Uber drivers on New Year's Eve next year. The free market generally corrects itself.

Uber saved my bacon in London on Christmas morning. I flew in early to Heathrow on Christmas morning. The English take their Christmas serious and all buses and trains were closed. I was able to pool an uber ride and it only ended up costing me 45 dollars to get to London. A mini-cab would have cost more than twice that amount.