Is Surge Being Manipulated?

Is there any ON / OFF switch for surge?

For those uber drivers who have drove for quite sometimes, probably already knew that the surge can be turned ON or OFF by UBER.

This was experienced by most drivers when there was a SMRT disruption happened weeks ago.

As many passengers were left being stranded, Uber quickly turned off the surge "button" and offer drivers a 1.5x fare for those drivers who's able to pick up passengers along north-south line.

Is uber drivers being manipulated by the surge?

Some people argued that surge are being controlled as he had experienced it personally by driving into surge zone but not getting any surge request.

"How could that be?" you might wonder.

Or "Yes! I experienced it too!" you might proclaim.

So what's the truth?

Well, till now, from the horse's mouth, surge is not real time and surge is depended on the demand at the location when the rider requested the ride.

Should I go for the surge then?

As we have already discussed about surge or boost in the previous posting, the answer is pretty obvious!

One uber driver, Jenny (fake name) mentioned that "I still find it weird that people think Uber purposely reduce surge to make sure drivers don't earn surge fee. Unless they believe drivers earn no surge and passenger pay surge fare, then it make no sense."

She also mentioned that "if uber spike up surge to catch "Whale", then that I'll agree it happens sometime. However, such spikes is very short lived and ends very quickly when the "Whale" booked the vehicle"

As for the whole island becomes "red" due to surge, Jenny said that till now she has no clue how can that happen.

Conclusion?

To summarise everything, don't depends on the surge (be it 1.1x or 3.0x) that you see in your uber driver's app.

When the request comes in, just make sure there are "surge component" (be it 1.1x or 3.0x), as it will be displayed on your mobile phone's screen.

Because sometimes when you highlight your issues after you ended your trip using the in-app help, uber customer service officer will usually give you a standard reply:

"Please note that surge pricing for a trip depends on the rider's pickup location at the time of request"