If you’ve ever taken an Uber during a busy time around a city and encountered surge pricing, you may have found your bill to be higher than normal. While this may upset you, we have some bad news: it’s here to stay. That’s according to the company’s CEO Travis Kalanick from an interview he gave to the Wall Street Journal earlier today.
Uber has been the recipient of much criticism over its surge pricing and some customers are not happy with its defense saying surge pricing is needed in order to have a healthy supply of drivers at any given time. This fare increase isn’t just with Uber either — Lyft recently enabled it on their platform, although with much less backlash than what Uber has experienced.
Kalanick attributes the outrage to the fact that users are still getting adjusted to the world of dynamic pricing in transportation:
If you’re going and buying a hotel room, you know that prices can change. You know that if you don’t buy it now, the price could go down or it could go up. You know that if you buy a flight on the day before Christmas, it’s probably 10 times more expensive than two weeks after Christmas. You’re OK with that and you understand it. But in ground transportation, there’s been fixed pricing for 100 years. Because of that, there’s an education process.
➤ Uber CEO: Surge Pricing Is Here To Stay (Wall Street Journal)
Photo credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images
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