It is a Tuesday and the car still refuses to start. Wifey had called a mechanic but he did not turn up yesterday. Decided to try a cab aggregator service. Mostly influenced by a promotional offer that came my way after paying my broadband bill. Still wondering if that offer had anything to do the issue with my car. Far fetched by any stretch of imagination. A random co-incidence is all it is.
So downloaded the Uber app and registered my account. Booked a cab today morning. Hit with the ominous surge pricing. Was asked to confirm 1.9 - surge factor at 8:30 am. Surge factor can go up to 5X as I got to know while talking to the driver later.
Proceeded and got a cab within a minute.
Got talking with the driver on the way. Better understood the cab aggregator business model.
Driver owns the fuel and car maintenance costs (including insurance, regular maintenance etc.).
They get paid a fixed amount for every ride. Yes, fixed amount for a ride, irrespective of what customer pays for the ride. Driver pays Rs. 300/- per week as device charges for the mobile phone and SIM card that Uber offers. Money gets transferred to the driver bank account on a monthly basis (Ola apparently settles daily). The driver mentioned that he has to do 10-13 rides per day to make it work for him. That implies starting at 6am in the morning and going on till midnight.
No wonder these unicorns are growing like crazy.
Bill came to Rs. 498/-. Paid Rs. 0/- thanks to the promo code.
Uber just celebrated a billion rides. I have come late to this party.
Realization of the day - Cost of convenience matched by surge pricing.
No comments:
Post a Comment