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View Poll Results: Do you find Ola to be more expensive than Uber?
Yes 319 90.37%
No 34 9.63%
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Old 11th September 2019, 20:43   #46
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

I use cabs when my office transport fails. I stay far from office and the distance is about 35kms. In the last 2 months I have paid around 490-530 /- to Uber . When the check the same in Ola it will be more than 800/-.

However other issue which I have notice is they do not prefer ola money / paytm etc. If we pay by cash they are very happy.
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Old 11th September 2019, 20:46   #47
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

I have almost never found Ola to be costlier. Moreover, Ola drivers tend to cancel after you having waited for 20 mins.
I personally only use Ola now as a last resort.
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Old 12th September 2019, 00:43   #48
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

Whatever said and done, I'm an Uber customer when I don't have a car. I cross check the rates only about half-the time if the per km rate is too much. When I was in India in Jan, I found that Ola was consistently 5-25% more expensive than Uber.

I don't know about others, but I've had a fantastic experience with Uber. I get good quality cars and drivers rarely even called me to double-check the location or ask for my destination. Ola drivers are a hit or miss.
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Old 12th September 2019, 10:00   #49
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

Ola is about 20-25% higher in Bangalore from my experience, but only about 10% more in Chennai.

Uber is also heavily subsidizing rides in new markets (India still counts as new). At some point, a price correction has to come and Uber will raise prices to be similar to Olas. There's only so long Uber can keep burning through their cash

https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/8/20...t-traffic-2019
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Old 12th September 2019, 10:44   #50
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

As most of you have indicated, even I felt that Ola has been more expensive than Uber in Blr in cabs and I more often ended up with Uber. However Ola auto has been good with availability and on par with Uber on pricing in whatever cases I have observed till the below case happened.

Once I booked an Ola auto which showed 90rs as the fare for the distance and after riding halfway, I realized that I have left my keys at home and asked him to take me back home. He asked me to end the trip and pay him 1.5 times the meter for the rest of the ride as it was after 10PM in the night. So we closed the Ola trip for 50rs and he took me back to my home and then back to my destination on meter. I was shocked to find that even after paying 1.5 times the meter cost, I ended up paying only 70rs on meter for 1.5 times the original distance for which Ola was charging 90rs.

Then I started noticing a little bit more and this is what I realized. In core city areas of Blr, earlier atleast 50-60% of autos used to come on meter without any discussion. But now with the advent of app based rides, there are very few, if any, who are even willing to entertain customers on meter. Every auto I see has a mobile attached and waiting for rides from the app. So much for progress...
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Old 12th September 2019, 11:58   #51
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

Ola has always been more expensive in my experience. Day before I was comparing Ola and Uber prices from JJ Hospital, where i was at the time, to Mira Road. Ubers price was Rs. 530 while Ola was showing Rs. 770 for the same trip.

I have noticed this disparity several times between the two.
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Old 12th September 2019, 18:30   #52
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

In Delhi & Mumbai Uber is cheaper whereas in Bangalore, Ola is cheaper and I have observed it almost every time.

Is there a city specific algorithm?
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Old 13th September 2019, 13:35   #53
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

Since the day I started using Ola and Uber, found that Ola has always been more expensive than Uber.

But still whenever I am not around and my mother asks me to book a cab, I prefer Ola over Uber for the ease of identification(green bumpers & mostly Grand i10's) and the OTP feature.

For my own use, I don't have any preferences, it doesn't matter to me if it's Ola, Uber, or Rapido, if it's a share-ride, auto, or bike I use anything that is available at the given time.

Last edited by wheelguy : 13th September 2019 at 13:38.
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Old 14th September 2019, 08:11   #54
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

Same is the case in Hyderabad as well.
Ola is always priced higher compared to Uber.
However, I have corporate account with Ola. So there is no dynamic fare/surcharge/peak fare for me. And I find Ola best for the airport pickup/drops, again with corporate booking only.
Once I try through personal booking, the fare jumps up by 30-40%.
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Old 14th September 2019, 08:15   #55
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

Quote:
Originally Posted by i74js View Post
In Delhi & Mumbai Uber is cheaper .
Is there a city specific algorithm?
You can add Hyderabad also to the list.
I guess yes, the pricing is based on algorithm for each city.

Mods: Please merge above post with this.
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Old 14th September 2019, 13:49   #56
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

Quote:
Originally Posted by sagar.narasimha View Post
I use cabs when my office transport fails. I stay far from office and the distance is about 35kms. In the last 2 months I have paid around 490-530 /- to Uber . When the check the same in Ola it will be more than 800/-.

However other issue which I have notice is they do not prefer ola money / paytm etc. If we pay by cash they are very happy.

The reason behind this is the Rs. 5,000/- security deposit which the driver has to maintain with the company at all times. In case there is any shortfall in this amount (don't ask me how it occurs though ) the company withholds the transfer of any money to the driver's account till the balance is restored.


I once traveled in an Ola wherein the driver was mighty cross with me for not paying in cash and he's the one who explained the above scenario to me. I was duly chastised! He said the drivers would even be happy to accept PayTM/GPay/UPI payments to their personal accounts if carrying cash is a hindrance for the customers, "lekin inn choron ko paise mat do saheb" (don't give money to these thieves, sir).
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Old 15th September 2019, 17:13   #57
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

I'm in Hyderabad for the month and have been using the two apps to get around quite a bit. A few things I've noticed are

1. Ola just doesn't seems to have any micro or mini cabs around, in any part of the city, any day, any time. The app shows only the prime sedan/SUVs which is quite expensive if you're travelling on a regular basis.

2. I check google maps for the prices before booking and have noticed the significant difference in prices even for the share/pool options they have, Ola being more expensive in most cases.

3. I end up using Ola bikes which is 2 minutes away all the time(which is wonderful), they don't complain about online payments(not one complaint in about 10 rides so far), Uber doesn't have bikes or autos on its list in Hyderabad I guess.

On a slightly different note
Since I'm travelling around a lot, I decided to rent a scooter on Vogo and found the process to be exceptionally simple and easy. Prices too were reasonable and comparable to what I'd pay to travel by metro up and down plus the last mile cab/bike. It was slightly on the higher side by about Rs 50 tops, which is not bad considering the fact that you'd not have to wait every time you wanted to get around, or having to call and explain your location to the drivers.
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Old 24th September 2019, 21:11   #58
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

Uber has gotten ridiculously cheap in Mumbai. I have been using Uber twice a day during peak hours, almost every work day for the past five weeks and I've noticed fares go down drastically since last week. From ~300, down to 160-170. The drivers are naturally very annoyed.

Wonder what's cooking with Uber. This is clearly not profitable, nor sustainable.
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Old 25th September 2019, 01:15   #59
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

Today was an off day. In the midst of a torrential downpour here in Pune tonight, Uber was asking for ₹330 for the 8km ride from my office to home in an UberGo.

Ola on the other hand was offering a Prime Play for ₹240.

The usual fare is ₹110 on Uber, ₹140 on Ola. The caveat here was that Ola had just that one class of carbs available (Prime Play), that too, the nearest ones ~20 min away. By comparison, Uber had the full variety with average waiting time of 6-8 minutes. This was in the middle of the city (Karve Road) and not the outskirts where Ola would struggle with the availability.
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Old 25th September 2019, 08:12   #60
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Re: Why is Ola suddenly more expensive than Uber?

Ola is more expensive now because they are looking to be profitable on every single ride. This is a key metric for them to show investors that they are indeed profitable (kind of like ARPU for telecom companies - average revenue per user).

The driving factor? Ola will go public next year.
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