Uber India announces plan to tackle ride cancellations - All you need to know

Just recently, cab hailing company Uber announced a number of changes to the policy revolving around the user and driver experience in India. In a blog post, Uber highlighted a number of critical issues like ride cancellations, drivers not turning on the air conditioning during rides and refusal to accept online payments. Uber India says that drivers have shared concerns about earnings in the wake of higher fuel prices, long distance pick ups and payment schedules. At the same time, riders have complained about drivers cancelling trips or not wanting to switch on the AC. These are some of the steps the company plans to take to address these issues. A hike in fuel prices means more expensive cab rides The hike in fuel prices has impacted everyone, especially ridesharing drivers who have felt the pinch of rising fuel costs. In March this year, the first ever Uber Driver Advisory Council convened. The driver members on the council raised this as a key issue. Over the past few weeks, Uber has raised fares to cushion drivers from the impact of rising fuel prices across many cities in India. Drivers will now be able to see trip destinations beforehand To remove frustration for riders and drivers alike, Uber will be showing trip destinations to drivers before they decide to accept the ride. In the company’s attempt to incentivise the right platform behaviour - drivers who meet a predefined trip acceptance threshold will be eligible to get the destination information so that they can make an informed choice. The upfront destination feature is already live across 20 cities and will be expanded to all others. Long distance pick-ups Uber feels that drivers understandably don’t like having to drive out of their way to pick up passengers. To fix this, the US-based company have introduced additional earnings for drivers in case they have to travel a long distance to pick up riders. This will give drivers the comfort to accept more trips and will benefit riders as trip reliability goes up. Drivers will be able to see the earnings for long pick-ups, separately displayed on the fare receipt. When drivers are few, and demand is high, this will help ensure that one can get a ride when needed. Payments the way drivers want them Drivers at the Uber advisory council meeting told the brand they would like more flexibility around payments. Uber will now show drivers the mode of payment (cash or online) before the trip starts. This enables the driver to choose a cash-only ride if that’s what they need. Going a step further to make the cash or online decision irrelevant, Uber has also introduced a daily pay process for drivers. This will ensure that trip earnings from Monday to Thursday, are credited to drivers the next day, while earnings from Friday to Sunday, are credited on Monday. Service quality essentials for riders The company believes that happy drivers make happy riders. With these changes, Uber is also reinforcing service quality expectations with drivers, especially in areas like cancellations and ensuring AC rides. In addition to driver notifications and training, repeated complaints from riders on these service quality essentials could lead to penalties and even restricted app access.