Uber drivers in Florida noticed a big change to the surge pricing system: Surge dollar amounts are no longer visible on the map, and surges are no longer ‘sticky.’
No more $ amounts on the surge map!
Drivers also noticed that the exact surge amount isn’t displayed on the trip request screen, the Trip Radar screen, or the ride receipt.
Some drivers thought the changes were a glitch, but an in-app announcement from Uber confirmed that the changes were intentional.
“Today, we’re moving to make your experience with surge pricing a little simpler.”
Uber’s goal is to show one simple upfront payout number that doesn’t have a breakdown of every payment factor.
That means you won’t see the exact surge amount on the trip request, and it isn’t a separate line item on trip receipts.
So far, it looks like these changes will apply to Uber ridesharing, not Uber Eats.
All of the changes to surge
These changes to surge are live in some test markets:
- No more surge dollar amounts on the map
- No more surge dollar amount on the ride request
- No more surge dollar amount on the trip receipt
- Rides with surge still include a surge icon
- You or the passenger must be inside the surge zone to earn the surge
The old surge map vs the new surge map
Say goodbye to $ amounts and sticky surge!
Notice the lack of exact surge amounts on the new map.
Shaded areas still indicate that surge pricing is active—The darker the color, the higher the surge. But you won’t know exactly how much the surge will be.
No more ‘sticky’ surge — Now you or the customer must be inside the surge zone
Under the old sticky surge system, you could enter a surge zone to ‘pick up’ the surge. Then, the surge amount would apply to your next ride even if you left the surge zone.
Under the new surge system, you or your passenger must be inside the surge zone for the surge to apply.
That means you won’t be able to head over to a surge, pick it up, then leave to go to a new zone.
The full announcement from Uber
“Simplified’ surge = less information
This is (sort of) how surge used to work before sticky surge
These changes turn back the clock on surge, closer to how it used to work before sticky surge.
Before sticky surge, surge was a multiplier—not an exact dollar amount. The map showed a surge multiplier—like 1.5x, 2x, etc.
Ride requests showed the surge multiplier amount, and you only knew your exact surge earnings after a trip was over.
And before sticky surge, you or your customer had to be in the surge zone to earn a surge.
Is this change going nationwide?
So far, most other major markets still use the sticky surge system. Uber has not announced plans to roll out the new surge system to other cities, but these changes may appear soon in other cities.
Uber asked for feedback from drivers in the announcement, so they may tweak these changes or scrap them altogether.
Drivers react to the surge changes
“This is ridiculous now they’re hiding everything from us and not showing us anything”
“I use the surge amount on the map to position myself after a break. Do they NOT want drivers to go where they are needed?”
“Yes! I noticed this in my market too. It’s so bad here I switched to Lyft”
“Surge was always a joke anyway, this really changes nothing”
Drivers don’t like to lose information and flexibility. Exact surge amounts took the guesswork and surprise out of surge, and sticky surge gave you the flexibility to leave a surge zone and keep the bonus.
Both felt like perks for drivers, so most won’t be happy to lose them.
Brion Bell says
Uber – a creative (VERY creative) staff of people who seek to extract every possible dollar away from the drivers of their rideshare company. We see that they rolled this feature out and 100% of the driver responses were negative. So what do they do? They implement it anyway. This is why companies go broke. They don’t take care of the people providing the product or service that they offer, and then waste precious fiscal resources on nonsense. So now, surge is a total mystery! Why? So that they can further hide the greater amounts that they are taking away from the driver! Two years ago, I was receiving at least 60% of the rider’s fare. Today, I’m lucky to get 30%! Pretty soon, we’ll have to work 12-hour shifts just to pay for the gas. Uber is crushing their very source of revenue and it will cost them in a very big way. There are other companies emerging that have a much better handle on how this can work profitably for both driver and platform. Uber will fail; and SOON!
Me: I will go back to guitar teaching and other things. I loved doing this because I love people and driving. But lately, Uber has been so stressful and lacking in support, that I must soon stop. I think there are a great many drivers that feel this way, but Uber refuses to respond in any meaningful way. This will probably be my last response to anything Uber sends out or does to further my pain.