Taxi Driver Online

Edinburgh mum fumes after daughter forks out £70 for nine mile Uber journey



An Edinburgh mum was left fuming after her daughter had to fork out a whopping £70 for a short Uber journey home.

Sharon Fairley described the fee as "worrying" after a similar journey cost just £18 the night before.

After her post was shared hundreds of times on social media, Sharon told Edinburgh Live she would write to the licence department.

Writing on Facebook, she raged: "We did nearly the exact same journey on Friday evening and it cost us £18!!!

"I can understand a premium charge for early hours but not nearly £70 and £102 for large .... nine mile journey!

"Luckily my daughter was with friends and shared the cost, but very worrying if she or anyone else had been on their own."

There were over 81 comments on the original post of people sharing their own issues with the taxi giants. One Facebook user wrote: "Stay away from Uber folks! Black Cabs all the time, they are safer and cheaper."

Another user said: "Never use Uber!! It’s called price surge, they can charge what they want. Always use a black cab. Don’t know why everyone thinks black cabs are expensive."

Others chimed in, with one saying: "I’ve had bad experiences with Uber drivers simply not knowing the routes. I don’t use them know, stick with the main black cab companies and use their apps so everything is tracked."

Speaking to Edinburgh Live, Sharon said: "It is very worrying and I am going to write to the licensing department.

"She also thinks black cabs were quoting an extremely high price, which she is trying to confirm with her friends."

According to the official Uber website, price surging is "When prices are surging, a multiplier to standard rates, an additional surge amount or an upfront fare estimate including the surge amount will be shown on your offer card.

"This will vary depending on your city. Uber’s service fee percentage does not change during surge pricing.

Because rates are updated based on the demand in real time, surge can change quickly.

"Surge pricing is also specific to different areas in a city, so some neighbourhoods may have surge pricing at the same time that other neighbourhoods do not."

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IDFIMH

So they knew the price before they booked.

They then booked it.

They then paid it.

Now mum's got the hump.

Maybe she should have gone out and picked them up, or told them to book a local PH firm or wait at a rank.

Moaning now makes no sense.

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IDFIMH

So I wonder what the hacks were quoting? A nine mile trip, thus presumably out-of-area, so potentially the hacks could charge whatever they can agree with punter.

So if they were asking hacks for quotes why did they book an Uber at 4x surge, or whatever?

But if Uber getting away with fares like that, then presumably it exerts upward pressure on HC fares, at least if it's an out-of-area job?

(Tried looking for the source on Facebook to work out the precise distance and whether it was an out-of-area run for the HCs, or to see if there was perhaps some factor that wasn't disclosed (such as the comparison being between a straight run and a multi-drop job), but couldn't find anything.)

she knew what the price was going to be she could have rejected it ! Silly Moo

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

Don't buy an Omelette if you don't like Eggs.