Taxi Driver Online

had an email them off them the other day. I certainly wouldn't but I can see some trying it

How to make more money for your drivers, keep your drivers loyal and OFF Uber with Dynamic Pricing

Better known in the taxi industry as surge pricing or price surcharging, dynamic pricing is prevalent in every part of society these days from flights to hotel rooms to taxi rides.

Even Happy Hour at clubs and pubs is a form of dynamic pricing.

So, what exactly is dynamic pricing?

According to Wikipedia…

'Dynamic pricing, also referred to as surge pricing, demand pricing, or time-based pricing is a pricing strategy in which businesses set flexible prices for products or service based on current market demands.'

Wikipedia has more to say about dynamic pricing in the taxi industry…

'Dynamic pricing is also practised by on-demand transportation network companies such as Uber, Lyft, and Sprig.

Uber's system for "dynamically adjusting prices for service" measures supply (Uber drivers) and demand (passengers hailing rides by use of smartphones), and prices fares accordingly.'

Of course, Uber has famously hit some spectacular own-goals with its early
dynamic pricing attempts.

They took a lot of flak in 2013 when they increased prices eight fold during storms in New York.

And Uber had to apologise after surge pricing kicked in during the December 2014 hostage crisis in Sydney, Australia.

They followed that apology by offering free rides to people who were evacuated from the area and their drivers still received payment at the higher prices.

But despite this bad press, dynamic or surge pricing in the taxi industry is here to stay and if used wisely, can give you a very powerful tool for attracting and retaining drivers, for keeping them loyal and importantly, for keeping them off Uber.

Dynamic Pricing – Making it Work for Your Drivers

One thing that apps like Uber have done is to introduce the idea of surge pricing or pricing surcharges during peak times.

This opens the door to local taxi businesses like yours to increase income and earnings for your drivers at busy (and often unsociable) times.

Naturally, we suggest that you do this in a much more passenger friendly way than more than trebling the fare as Uber sometimes do!

But having the ability to introduce a modest surcharge at peak times that you can share with your drivers is easy with a modern booking and dispatch system such as iCabbi.

For example, you could add a small surcharge of a pound or two to your bookings on a Saturday night between 6pm and 2am.

Assuming you apply just a very modest £1 surcharge to each booking, one of your drivers working that 8-hour shift and doing 3 jobs per hour will earn an extra £24! If your surcharge is £2 per booking, that's an extra £48!

That could be an extra £100 or even £200 per month for your drivers!

This extra income goes a long way in helping to make your drivers happy and to keeping them loyal to your firm.

You may even find that they start recruiting other drivers for you as they tell their mates about the extra money they make working for you.

Dynamic Pricing – Making it Work for Your Customers

Price surcharges have bad press because of the dramatic multipliers that Uber is known to implement – as high as 3.5 times the base rate at peak times.

But because of the widespread use of dynamic pricing with businesses such as airlines and hotels (and now taxis), customers have become used to this way of buying products or services.

In fact, research shows that passengers rarely complain about small fare surcharges on a Saturday evening or at other peak times like Christmas and New Year.

Dynamic Pricing – Making it Work for You

With a modern cloud dispatch system like iCabbi, it's easy to test different surcharges and times.

We suggest that you experiment with this idea as a great way to delight your drivers. You will quickly discover how much your customers will accept, at what times and around what occasions (such as big concerts and sports events).

If you have questions about dynamic pricing for your business or about iCabbi, please contact our friendly team of expert advisers any time by calling 01623 44 22 11 or emailing enquiries@iCabbiUK.co.uk.

For more great articles visit our Blog.

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Dream on

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

I would like iCABBIE to inform me and the rest of the professional TAXI drivers of the Licensing Districts within England and Wales who are allowed to operate a dynamic pricing system in contravention to the Licensing Authority fixed table of fares.
If we do not get a response with examples of where this is happening from iCABBIE we will know they tell porkies and are full of s***

I actually think a sort of surge pricing is ok, although the doubling or tripling that Uber use is crazy.

If a firm has a shortage of drivers out at a certain time when demand is high then have a 33% or 50% surge to get drivers out.

Now that increase might suppress demand by punters going elsewhere, but that's a business decision a firm can make for themselves.

Clearly within a licensing district those fares wouldn't apply to hackneys, but no reason why they couldn't apply to the larger part of the licensed fleet.

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IDFIMH

Hacks ARE the larger part of the fleet here

roughly hacks/PH 95/5

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

The problem is with advance bookings. If you book a job a week in advance the operator may not know how busy they will be when the job is due. If on the day there is a sudden rish and surge pricing comes in. Does the pre booked customer get charged more or does one unlucky driver get less money? What if the unlucky driver then returns the cheaper job knowing that he will get another one at the surge price?

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Grandad,

but why are IT firms and taxi firms happy to mirror UBER when UBER is so damn evil?

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

EXACTLY ! To be able to rip off the drivers more and especially the unsuspecting passengers,

Grandad your sentiments are correct,booking is made and accepted by operator prior to the required time,that is a contract under law,price at the time of the booking is the price the passenger pays on completion of that booking.Cannot be asked to pay a greater price.

Well maybe it's because Uber isn't all bad IMO.

TBH if they didn't promote cars licensing in one area working elsewhere I wouldn't really have that much of an issue with them, as really they are just another operator, albeit a rather big one.

The booking system was groundbreaking and that's why it is being copied, but now Uber's system is no better than many others IMO.

I also like they way they allow drivers to do their own work or work with other operators, rather than the traditional mill owner approach loved by so many other operators.

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IDFIMH

assuming a price is agreed

if its an ASAP booking then who knows

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

If you read my post it states a booking made a week in advance.

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Grandad,

still ...

was a price agreed when booked?

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Probably 90 percent or more advance booking s are quoted round my way is that not the case Mansfield and Sutton?

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

I would think a high percentage of advance bookings are regular customers doing regular runs who will know what the fare should be better than anyone.

Not if the price surges.

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Grandad,