UberPool Relaunching Soon in NYC As 'UberX Share'. Why Drivers May Not Be Thrilled?
UberPool, rebranded as UberX Share, set to relaunch in NYC after nearly two year pandemic hiatus
AutoMarketplace NYC Newsletter is written by Dawood Mian, Founder of AutoMarketplace (launching soon). He covers the NYC for-hire transportation industry and related news.
Check out AutoMarketplace on YouTube ▶️
Uber Senior Vice President (SVP) of Mobility Andrew Macdonald announced, via Twitter, the relaunch of UberPool, rebranded to UberX Share, in Miami yesterday. In a reply to his Tweet, Macdonald also seemed to confirm that the service would be live in NYC within the next few months. Notably, the service initially will be limited to pooling two passengers together, according to the FAQ section on Uber’s website. As previously reported by AutoMarketplace, the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) lifted the pandemic-related shared ride restriction on June 24th.
So what does this mean for NYC TLC drivers and how could this impact trip volumes, driver earnings and overall driver morale?
💸 Sharing to Save Money
It’s been a minute since UberPool was available in NYC , so you might have forgotten why it was widely used by many New Yorkers?
It’s cheaper.
Although I was not a user of shared ride services pre-pandemic it was common to see UberPool fares on the Uber App approaching the cost of a Subway 🚇 ticket! In fact, at one point it was blamed for creating more congestion by converting customers that would have otherwise taken public transport or biked. Now as publicly-listed companies, focused on profitability and required to abide by NYC minimum pay standards, it’s unlikely Uber / Lyft riders will see those rock bottom prices again. However, prices will likely be cheaper than UberX ‘standalone’, so the service should still attract many customers looking to save money and who are now also less fearful of catching COVID.
With reports, along with data, of increasingly expensive Ubers (& Lyfts), the relaunch of shared ridehailing services will likely see demand not only shift away from yellow cabs back to the Apps, but also convince a certain contingent to opt to take a for-hire trip vs. public transport (Note: probably not at the same volume as when trips were unrealistically subsidized by investors pre-pandemic).
With driver shortage fears now subsiding in NYC and TLC drivers returning to the road, more trips will undoubtedly be welcome, but to an extent. Many drivers, and I’m generalizing, have a well known dislike for doing shared trips for several reasons.
👎 Drivers Aren’t Fans of Shared Rides
As the Rideshare Guy video above and blog post from 2017 overviews, there are some common reasons Uber & Lyft drivers don’t like doing shared trips (responses below are edited for conciseness, please refer to Rideshare Guy blog post for full answers).
😑 Passengers Aren’t Appreciative
“When you’ve veered off course to pickup passenger #2 and #3, the previous passengers are surprised and upset. Sometimes they forget (or intentionally) don’t let Uber know they’ve got a friend with them and they can’t all fit in the car. You all know this scene: Um, how did we end up with 5 passengers? Honking cars, and now the app is frozen. Pax #3 wants a charging cable, and oh someone is requesting a music change. Need I say more?”
😓 More Work, Less Money
“Very few POOL passengers realize they’re getting a service at well below market rates, and the driver isn’t compensated at market rates (unless they’re getting the bonus at the end of the week). The rates of pay for POOL and Line are usually cheaper. The pickups, especially in downtown areas, are the most work for you because they’re often messy.”
📉 Lower Ratings
“With POOL, it’s difficult if not impossible, to be polite to passengers much less carry on a conversation. To me, the most compelling reason (beyond income) to be a driver is the passenger interaction – and it’s what leads to high ratings. But it’s very difficult to be present with a passenger with constant shifts in navigation. The whole experience is truncated. The atmosphere inside your car is often tense. The whole experience is nerve-racking for driver and passenger. By the time it’s over, you’re stressed out. But wait, it’s not over: Uber just added another passenger to your ride. By the end of the night, your ratings have taken a hit.”
😡 Arguments Between Passengers
“I once picked up this guy on an UberPOOL who was virulently anti-tech. Turns out the other passenger and his girlfriend in the back seat worked for Google. It got really nasty really fast, and guess what? Every driver knows the experience. You just got dinged by a passenger for for something you didn’t do. Arguments between passengers, it’s a driver’s fault.”
⚠️ Dangerous
“You’re in the right hand lane because that’s where Waze is telling you to go to drop off passenger #1. But wait, suddenly the Uber app adds a second passenger. You glance at the app (again taking your eye off the road). There’s no place to pull over because you’re on city streets.
You quickly figure out that you now need to be in the left hand lane. You have 30 yards to cut across two lanes with a big bus to your left. If you don’t make it you’ll have to take a long detour because the next street is one way the wrong way. Traffic ahead is stopped.
Do you cut across two lanes? It’s a risky maneuver, but you chance it. The three people in the car are all watching you and getting antsy. They’re in a hurry. One is late for an appointment. Tell me that’s not dangerous.”
😞 Stress
“Since you’re going to be under pressure to quickly pickup and drop off more people in a fast manner, you will inevitably be forced to park or wait in strange areas that are prone to accidents and tickets. You know the scene: you’re double parked backing up traffic. The guy in the car behind you is now a honking up a storm. You tell passenger #3 she needs to cancel and request another Uber. She gets mad and starts fighting you tooth and nail over a possible $5 cancelation fee. By now everybody in the car is pissed off. Okay, you relent and bite the bullet by canceling for her, but that counts against your cancelation rate. It’s a lose – lose situation.”
The Return of Shared Rides
To contextualize, pre-pandemic shared rides made up 12% of all trips in NYC, excluding yellow cabs. Via, as we’ve mentioned before, should particularly benefit from the return of pooled rides as the majority of its pre-pandemic business related to shared trips in their signature Mercedes Metris Vans (Mercedes parent Daimler is an investor in Via). In addition, Lyft (25% of all trips were pooled) had an outsized share of the shared NYC trip market vs. Uber (7% of all trips were pooled).
That all being said, the shape of the shared trip recovery is something to track closely to better understand how the for-hire industry may fully recover from the pandemic.
UberBlack & Yellow Cabs
Before concluding this piece I had two final thoughts related to the return of shared rides in NYC:
Drivers may try to switch to vehicles that qualify for UberXL, Uber Comfort or UberBlack, which allow them to get trips from outside of UberX Share (formerly known as UberPool). For example, if your vehicle only was qualified for UberX, a driver maybe forced to do more UberX Share than they would like.
If Yellow Cabs are added to an app, Uber or otherwise, would they consider offering shared rides? Offering shared trips via hand hails would be extremely complex (i.e., pick up passenger and then have to ask them if they are open to a shared trip and then indicate to other “street hailers” that that the yellow cab will be shared). You never know, if it’s cheaper maybe people would be fairly open to such a system!
Are you looking forward to the return of shared rides? Why or why not?
AutoMarketplace NYC covers the for-hire transportation industry and automotive news. Check out AutoMarketplace on YouTube ▶️