We regularly monitor pricing throughout the year. We will look at several factors when doing this, looking at the city and specific areas, as well as looking at certain days and times of the week. The objective is to increase the number of trips happening on our platform, which means maximising the number of trips for drivers, keeping you as busy as possible and helping to improve your earnings.
Upfront prices are based on many factors, such as traffic patterns, distance and duration of the trip, rider demand in the area, how busy it is at the destination and the distance to get to the rider’s pick-up location.
It’s important to remind you of the information Uber provides to you, both about the trip itself and about your total rider fares across the week. You receive details of the trip upfront price, the pick up and drop off point, as well as whether or not the trip has multiple stops and the details of the rider. You always have the choice to choose if, when and where you complete trips on Uber.
There may be times when you think that your upfront price is lower than you expected for the trip, but there can be other times when you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Prices on Uber are designed to reflect the real-time conditions of your trip and to reflect the level of effort required.
There are some great tools and materials available to help you find the best times to drive on the road based on when prices are expected to be higher for trips. I have gone ahead and enclosed some tips that might help you out in the future:
Earnings Trends: The Earnings Trends feature shows you when and where you can make more money while driving based on where other drivers have been earning the most over the past 28 days. You can access Earnings Trends at any time by visiting the ‘Earnings’ section of the Driver app. We’ve recently introduced new features in the Driver app to provide tips on when and where to drive:
Live Earnings Trends: See earnings predictions for the current hour by tapping a specific area on the map, and view historical earnings trends for other hours.
Earnings Heatmap: Find areas with higher earning opportunities, including surge pricing. The heatmap uses real-time signals and refreshes approximately every 10 minutes. It’s available both online and offline.
Planning Alerts: If you’ve been offline for at least an hour and have a go-online preference set, you may receive these alerts (maximum 3 per week).
Earnings Alerts: Plan your day by getting notified about timeframes with expected high earnings. These alerts target drivers up to 2 hours in advance and up to 1 hour after their preferred Go Online times for that day of the week.
Earning Guidance: Outside the Driver app, we also share tips and advice through channels like the Weekly Driver newsletter and our driver-hosted podcast, Behind the Wheel, where drivers can ask Uber staff about important issues. The podcast will be back very soon after a short seasonal rest!
Read Communications: Stay informed about events with higher demand through Weekly driver updates.
Hot Spots: Consider key hotspots in your city and their peak hours, such cause airports, train stations, and nightlife areas.
Try New Products: Explore Uber Reserve, Uber Pet, Uber Exec XXL, and Uber Priority, because these options often offer higher earning opportunities per trip.
Opportunities Centre: This feature shows you when major events are happening in your city, and where we expect rider demand to be highest and when. Both Opportunities Centre and Earnings Trends are great tools for helping you plan ahead.
Products: If you have a vehicle that meets the eligibility criteria for other Rides options, such as Uber Pet, Uber Comfort, Uber Electric and more, we encourage you to visit the ‘Preferences’ section in the app and toggle or select these options to be on. This can help you to access more earnings opportunities from riders who have more specific trip needs.
Trip Radar: This feature gives you more visibility over earnings opportunities by sending you more trips via a list view. This provides you with transparency on the trips that are available near you by showing multiple offers at once, giving you more options to pick which trip you want to do based on your preferences. Try it out!
Uber Reserve: This feature allows riders to reserve trips in advance of 90 days and includes an additional reservation fee paid to the driver. This is aimed at connecting drivers with riders who want extra reassurance for a trip when they need it as well as offering more earnings opportunities for drivers and an ability to plan your schedule.
Can we help with anything else?