[Shubhendra]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

No, there is a misunderstanding. We cannot use our cars on private plates with Uber here in India unlike in the US and all. Yes, that policy sucks!

Even UberPool option is for sharing the cab that a rider is on.

Finally, you got the interpretation correct.
its only to share ride in an Uber TAXI.

[quickdraw]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

No, there is a misunderstanding. We cannot use our cars on private plates with Uber here in India unlike in the US and all. Yes, that policy sucks!

Even UberPool option is for sharing the cab that a rider is on.

This is exactly what we were discussing, they have opened it up for private cars and drivers. My profile has been approved and account has been activated. I will be ferrying someone on the way back home from work today

Read this for more details - https://newsroom.uber.com/new-delhi/poolpro/

[slicvic]

Uber is now in Mangalore

https://newsroom.uber.com/india/uberin26/

[Aditya]

Uber is in the process of setting up an engineering centre in Bengaluru, which will enable it to provide customized solutions for India. This will be the company’s first such centre in the country.

Link to Team-BHP News Article

[hserus]

Uber surge pricing - what's the maximum you've seen it go here? I've only seen a bit short of 3x. In Montreal on New Year's Eve - 9.9x surge, leading to people getting bills of $600 - $1000 for a ride home. OK, Canadian Dollars, but still, phew. Cheaper to book into a hotel than anything else.

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/price-gou...gers-1.2721323

[searchingheaven]

Originally Posted by hserus

Uber surge pricing - what's the maximum you've seen it go here? I've only seen a bit short of 3x. In Montreal on New Year's Eve - 9.9x surge, leading to people getting bills of $600 - $1000 for a ride home. OK, Canadian Dollars, but still, phew. Cheaper to book into a hotel than anything else.

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/price-gou...gers-1.2721323

Been there, done that.

31st Dec, 2015. Location: ISRO Layout, Bangalore.

Dad called me at 7 PM and asked me to take the next flight out to Kolkata ASAP. I book a 5 AM Indigo 6E 713 probably. Fire up the Uber app at 2 30 AM. No uber go or X available. Slide over to UberBlack. One available. Surge Pricing in effect 5.8x.

I waited for 20-25 mins , and seeing no change, finally booked it.

Fare: Rs. 988 * 5.8 = Rs. 5730.

PS: No OlA, or TFS available. Even when they are available, they make a variety of excuses when I tell them I have to go to the airport.

[hserus]

Sheesh. This is one reason why I just call a known cabbie and have him drop me at the railway station / airport for an early morning trip. Might cost double what the regular ola costs, but what to do, it'd cost me more to miss my train or plane.

Ola and others have been known to stand me up and just not turn up when I make such an early morning booking and a cab gets allotted. So I just don't risk it.

[creative420]

Exactly for this reason I have been using Mega Cabs for airport drops. Cost only Rs. 705 from anywhere in Bangalore and I have usually got booking even 4 hours in advance. Once Uber and Ola desserted me when I had to catch an international flight, poor wifey had to drop me off at 2am at night and I just made it seconds before the counters were closing. And while coming back, there are multiple options, so no sweat there.

Uber was good about 3 months ago. Couple of colleagues from Frazer Town use to pool it to work, ITPL, but then the surge price started and now we are back to square one- pooling in our cars.

On another note, we curse local taxi and rickshaw people when they ask for extra monies, but when uber does it, people justify it by saying 'Hey it is fair, this is how their algorithm works'. :P

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by searchingheaven

Been there, done that.

31st Dec, 2015. Location: ISRO Layout, Bangalore.

Dad called me at 7 PM and asked me to take the next flight out to Kolkata ASAP. I book a 5 AM Indigo 6E 713 probably. Fire up the Uber app at 2 30 AM. No uber go or X available. Slide over to UberBlack. One available. Surge Pricing in effect 5.8x.

I waited for 20-25 mins , and seeing no change, finally booked it.

Fare: Rs. 988 * 5.8 = Rs. 5730.

PS: No OlA, or TFS available. Even when they are available, they make a variety of excuses when I tell them I have to go to the airport.

Might have been cheaper to leave car in airport parking or take Uber to Mekhri circle and then catch an airport bus

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by ajmat

Might have been cheaper to leave car in airport parking or take Uber to Mekhri circle and then catch an airport bus

Exactly what I thought

The thing about cabs is that, if you do not find an Uber, it would be pretty tough to find anyone else at short notice. Unless of-course you know a local cabbie.

If there is a problem as such with Uber (and I pretty much only use Uber) always drive yourself and park it at the Airport - believe the charges are around Rs. 300 per day.

[searchingheaven]

Originally Posted by pratyush6

The thing about cabs is that, if you do not find an Uber, it would be pretty tough to find anyone else at short notice. Unless of-course you know a local cabbie.

Yes, that is absolutely correct. At that time and on that day, it would have been really tough. Hence the decision. Also, my car was at the service center.

Originally Posted by ajmat

Might have been cheaper to leave car in airport parking or take Uber to Mekhri circle and then catch an airport bus

Yes, but you need to pay in cash when travelling in a bus. And that I did not have. My dad's credit card was on file with Uber, hence I took it.

Originally Posted by hserus

Sheesh. This is one reason why I just call a known cabbie.

Absolutely. And in my case, it would have cost me lesser to cancel the flight. The ticket was approx Rs. 6000, after using my Yatra miles.

Originally Posted by creative420

Once Uber and Ola desserted me when I had to catch an international flight, poor wifey had to drop me off at 2am at night and I just made it seconds before the counters were closing. And while coming back, there are multiple options, so no sweat there.

Must have been a really sour experience.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by searchingheaven

PS: No OlA, or TFS available. Even when they are available, they make a variety of excuses when I tell them I have to go to the airport.

Market forces and all that. They will just see which provider offers the max surge pricing, switch on only that app.

Or they have their known clients and will prioritize taking them to the airport for early morning trips, cancelling their booking even if ola etc pre assigns them to you.

[greenhorn]

I stick to fastrack for airport drops in chennai. Peace of mind is worth the premium, plus i can get it reimbursed anyway.

On another note, i was shocked with the uber pricing in tvm. With their rates in chennai, you still end up getting high bills because of the distance, but i was shocked to get an uber from the city bus stand to the front of my house for the princely sum of 150 Rupees. Autos used to charge 200 and they would go only halfway till the approach road citing bad roads & the steep inclines. I was so shocked I gave the driver a 100 Rs Tip

I went on to use uber for a lot of city hopping in tvm city, and strangely most of the drivers, though mallus, had no idea about the roads & were relying on gps. Turned out that a lot of them were gulf returnees who found uber a good deal and decided to come back!

When a Company can create jobs inside kerala - and desirables ones at that - now that's an achievement!

[shifu]

I experienced a new scam by Uber drivers, not Uber itself.

I had to get to the airport to catch a flight. I started looking for a Uber cab with 30 mins buffer. It was 6am in the morning, and I found a cab immediately. Once I confirmed the ride, the drama started.

The driver kept calling me asking for directions to reach my hotel. I could see on the Uber app that he is about 1km away from the hotel and it appeared he was trying to find his way to the hotel. Since I din't know the area well, I gave my phone to the receptionist at the front desk and that guy gave him clear instructions in Kannada. Even then, this guy took about 25 mins to reach the hotel.

Finally, he reached the hotel by 6:30am, 30 mins after I started looking for Uber. My buffer time was lost, but I was still on track to reach the airport just in time. After I sat in the cab, he said that his Uber app has some problem. I can't use his cab . I am free to cancel this cab and make another booking. Or, he added, he can drop me to the airport for a flat fee which was about twice the actual cost it would take! I had no option but to accept his demand. And while he was driving me to the airport, I could still see his cab on my Uber app, which means his Uber app was actually working.

So basically the cheat used Ubers infrastructure/technology to get a customer and then cheated the customer to pay twice the actual fare. I shot an email to Uber and they quickly refunded me the extra amount I paid. But I don't think I'll use Uber for airport runs anymore. I would prefer to pay Meru extra for their reliability in time critical rides.

[hserus]

Or so I thought. Fasttrack canceled on me at least twice so far for a 4:30 AM trip to chennai central for the shatabdi - and then once I'd boarded an auto at Rs.300 from adyar to central and was nearly pulling into central, a different fasttrack taxi driver calls and says "Sir, I am near Little Mount, where is your house? I'll be there in ten minutes"