On Friday, ride hailing and food delivery company Uber said that it would be adding a temporary surcharge on fares as well as for food deliveries through Uber Eats. The hike in fare in both the U.S. and Canada was due to the rise in gas prices. The additional fee will go to drivers who have to pay for the gas they use. The San Francisco based company’s move is expected to provide some relief to drivers who have been seeing lower earnings due to higher gas prices.
The company announced the following temporary measures that would be in place for the next two months:
Those who take Uber trips will pay a fee ranging from $0.45 to $0.55 per trip.
Those who use the Uber Eats delivery service will pay $0.35 to $0.45 as surcharge.
Uber announced that the surcharges would change depending on factors such as the distance of the trip and the gas price in a particular state as prices vary across the nation. Uber drivers in New York City will not receive the surcharge as they have already got a pay rise of 5.3 percent on March 1, due to increase in gas costs.
In a press release, Liza Winship, head of driver operations for U.S. and Canada, also said that they were helping drivers without placing too much extra charges on consumers. They were helping drivers to move to Uber’s Green Future Program by negotiating better discounts for electric vehicles for Uber drivers.
Gas prices were slowly rising during the pandemic and now the Russia-Ukraine conflict has led to a further increase in price. According to data provided by the American Automobile Association (AAA), a gallon of gas costed $4.009 on average, on Sunday. This is the highest increase in rate since 2008. However, on Friday, gas prices rose further to $4.33 per gallon, which is the highest rate on record according to the AAA
On Tuesday, during his annual State of the State address California’s Governor Gavin Newsom said he would propose new legislation that would decrease gas prices in the Golden State. He had earlier proposed a suspension of a July gas tax increase. Now, he says that further steps have to be taken “to put money back in the pockets of Californians” but has not proposed what these steps would be, as yet.
(Photo: BigTunaOnline)
