On June 9, Uber will introduce a new booking fee and increase the price of minimum fares in all mainland state capitals. In some cities, the fare for certain trips will rise by a whopping 40 per cent. Here’s how much more you will need to pay in each Australian city.
Minimum fare price hike
The minimum fare for an Uber ride is set to rise in each state capital on June 9. Here are the new prices in each city:
Adelaide: Minimum fares will rise from $5 to $7 (an increase of 40 per cent.)
Perth: Minimum fares will rise from $5 to $7 (an increase of 40 per cent.)
Brisbane: Minimum fares will rise from $6 to $7.50 (an increase of 25 per cent hike.)
Melbourne : Minimum fares will rise from $6 to $7.50 (an increase of 25 per cent hike.)
Gold Coast: Minimum fares will rise from $6 to $7.50 (an increase of 25 per cent hike.)
Sydney: Minimum fares will rise from $8 to $9 (an increase of 25 per cent hike.)
The minimum fare increase is designed to benefit drivers. “We heard that an important improvement Uber could make to the driving experience would be increasing the minimum fare,” an Uber spokesperson explained.
New Uber booking fees
In addition to the new minimum fare hikes, a 55 cent booking fee will be added to all fares from June 9. Unlike the minimum fare increase, the booking fee is mainly for Uber’s benefit. Fifty cents will go directly to the company to pay for “operational costs” with the remaining five cents earmarked for the Australian Taxation Office as GST.
55 cents might not seem like much – especially compared to the average taxi booking fee of $2.50 – but when combined with surge pricing it all starts to add up. What do you guys think? Will the above price hikes send you back to flagging taxis, or do you think it’s a reasonable premium for an underpaid workforce? Share your thoughts in the comments.
[Via Business Insider]
Comments
8 responses to “Uber Price Hike: Here’s How Much More You’ll Pay In Each Australian City”
I’m in Adelaide, and used an UberX in Adelaide for the first time last night, for a journey I’d used a cab for in the past. Uber was about half the price at $17.
Even with the price hike, I’ll keep using Uber from now on during periods of ordinary pricing. Most journeys are going to be longer than the $7 minimum, and where they aren’t, legging it is always an option.
Does this apply to UberEats? I swear the team in my office is keeping that service afloat of their own accord.
What do I think? Looks like the latest Australian duopoly is reaching equilibrium. Prices will remain amazingly similar and real competition ceases to exist. That’s now the default definition of competition in Australia thanks to the ACCC…
Wait, what? You’re blaming the ACCC for ruining competition and consumer choice in Australia?
Do you have some facts and logical arguments to support this position? I simply don’t see how they’re at fault.
My boneheaded logic (also known as boneheadenomics) suggests there is collusion in just about every sector of retail in Australia in the guise of quasi-competition and that the watchdog is complicit in accepting that this is good enough.
Fuel, groceries, airfares, voice/data, private health, insurance, banking to name a few. Mostly concentrated industries with a handful of players that amazingly have very similar prices regardless of how differently they run their businesses.
If you’re comfortable that competition then great but it doesn’t surprise me that Uber has now established itself in the market (that is unlikely to accept further entrants based on past history) and is now all of a sudden able to raise its prices to meet the “competition”.
What’s next? Uber lobbying State governments to have taxi fares raised???
I think the percentage increase for Sydney is 12.5%, not 25%. #cutandpasteerror
Speaking of Sydney, which I will be visiting in July, are there similar services in the area? Like to know what the options are.
Hmmm, let me think about that, Noooope.
Still falls back on why started using them in first place, wasn’t price but convenience. Load the app, choose the location, see the price, book the driver, see where driver is on map, get into car with driver, have awesome chat with driver, arrive at destination, say goodbye and rate driver. Payment sorted out automatically.
While the taxi’s do have a similiar service now, still isn’t up to scratch with uber.
However it’s not all happy days with them, over the last couple months have been testing with them. How they have been treating their drivers, their own employees, the company as a whole with it’s weekly scandals has put a damper on how i feel about using them but hoping it improves.
They could become more expensive than taxis and I’d still use Uber in Melbourne.
I tried to call a taxi for my mum on mother’s day. I was waiting on the phone in the cold for about 2 minutes before I got sick of being told my call was important, and I hung up.
I opened the uber app, and had a ride for her in less than two minutes. The driver got out of the car, opened the door for her, and did the same when he dropped her off.
But I will use them less frequently for short trips, and rely on trams / trains / cycling instead.
In the UK they have this Hackney Carriage taxi licensing system. Hackney Carriage licensed cars all have a distinct look (unique to each council, in London it’s the traditional black cab), so they can easily be identified. You can flag these down for a ride in the street. Then you have the private hire taxi firms, these are not licensed to pick people up from the street, and these are the ones you book if you call a cab firm.
While this system is less than perfect, you at least do in fact know that if you’ve called up to book a cab it will in fact, at some point, turn up. Compare this to Sydney, where when complaining about the unreliability of bookings I’ve been told by a taxi driver that if he gets flagged down in the street by someone on the way to a booking, he will pick them up. The person who has made the booking doesn’t even get notified. But f#ck them, because they’ll just flag down a random taxi if they see one before he gets there anyway.
While I’m not attributing blame to either side, it’s clear that this is a broken system. Uber has similar problems; drivers cancel rides and don’t get penalised for it, yet passengers incur a $10 fee. Even if (for example) they see the ride has been picked up by a driver they have previously rated 1 star. In any case, the system is still significantly more reliable than the broken taxi booking system. In fact, therein lies the distinction: has problems vs. broken.
So no, a mild price increase will not drive customers back into the arms of the broken taxi system, with it’s extortionate and coercive Cabcharge system. With it’s fares that a re made up on the spot by drivers and rarely correspond to what’s on the meter. Yes, Uber has problems. And yes, price increases hurt. But jeez, if you’re that entitled that you think a price should never change, irrespective of changing market forces around it, maybe you could do with the walk just to clear your head.
/rant
Price hike does not make any changes to most driver earning , it’s just to increases uber share from 27.5% to 35%
Your article is incorrect.
In Melbourne the minimum fare is rising from $6 to $6.95 not $7.50.
You have to add the new booking fee of 55c to get to your $7.50.
The driver only gets an increase in minimum fares, not all fares.
The driver has to pay Uber 20% or 25% (depending on which rate he/ her is on) of the 95c increase and 10% GST on the whole 95c.
Uber takes all of the booking fee.
Uber drivers are disgusted.