I believe Uber is actually stealing our surge, and here is why!!!

I have been feeling the pinch lately working for uber and not getting any surge like I used to, I have noticed the same characteristics of the app showing a surge price area that doesn't offer anything but flat fares. I have also noticed that I'm driving to a surge area and I am in a flat fare bubble that is only in an area around me, as I drive toward the red zone it is actually fleeing from me, only to be where I am not.

So I took the time to read our contract and soomething very disturbing became apparent to me. In the uber driver contract it doesn't mention surge. The contract is only stating that they are obligated to pay us our fare and stipulates that the fare is our km rate plus the time rate plus the base fare. It very carefully tip toes around any mention of surge and from a legal point of view the surge is not stipulated in the contract as being the fare. It is therefore up to Uber and Raiser's discretion as to whether or not to pay us any or what part of the surge they are charging the riders.

A few days ago I had a customer and he said that he was paying ×2 surge for his ride, I didn't think much of it at the time but I was only offered × 1.8. I figured that he was just rounding up but I had a realisation later that perhaps he wasn't and that the deception may have been with uber whom has been doing shady stuff a lot lately.

So I read articles from the United States that drivers had discovered this already and had seen discrepencies between there invoices and the customers as the asked their customers to email them a copy of the invoice for the ride which is against the contract and they could have their access cut off for doing so.

The way we get paid according to the contract is that we the drivers are actually getting paid directly from the customers however the company Raiser collects the fare on our behalf and then keeps the service fee and then transfers the base+fare+time value into your acount. The amount for surge could be divided the same way into a percentage paid to you and then raiser would still take their service fee and a percentage that you the driver never see because that amount would be paid directly to Raiser who then onpays uber Amsterdam for the value of their service.

In this case you would not have the right to demand to see the unpaid surge that uber has concealed from you as it is a direct transaction to Raiser as it isn't your business and it isn't stated in the contract that you are entitled to it. Boom, we're screwed and theres not much we can do. I was really dissapointed that when as a country we allowed ridesharing to become legal but we did absolutely nothing to protect a new class of workers and businesses in the share economy which the companies that supply the contracts refuse to negotiate with the business' providing the service and without benefits of employment.

And this is the same way that prepaid fares can be charged and we are not entitled to the extra amount charged to the customers over the fare as it is calculated. Another idea would be to only work for companies that allow us to get paid directly and we can onpay the service fee ourself.

 

Hello Cardomon I find your post interesting enough and do believe that uber trying to control the surge not buy rider demand but instead just buy there programing . I also have encountered the same issues when traveling towards surges in my area only to have the diminish the closer i get to them . Until today I live in current hot zone on the gold coast and the problem i have been seeing now is that even when i am sitting inside a surge zone at the rate of 3x the fare i am still not getting any jobs for the whole time i have remained in the surge area at 3 x which built up from 2 x the fare . Then only to just disappear completely and not reduce its self at all from such a high level of surge at the time i find it hard to believe that the surge is being run purely on rider demand and that some thing is going on . I have tried to address the problem to uber and they seem to have just run and hidden themselves from answering my question . If you have encountered the same problem or similar with the surge prices when they appear . I urge you to screen shot them when they occur and if you would like to share them with me it would be great . As i am planning to collect the same issues when they happen and would like to arrange a full complaint with a higher authority about this issue . doing this myself is quiet a challenge so this is the reason why i am reaching out to you yourself and any other drivers that are encountering the same problems and would like to try bring it to ubers attention with the aid of legal Authority . I believe with enough drivers with the same complaint and with proof of this on all our behalf's can get a result from them .
Thank you and regards Glenn
bikehitcher@live.com