Uber caps surge pricing in New York ahead of US #Blizzardof2015
Taxi-hailing app Uber has revealed it will not fully use its “surge pricing” system, which sees prices vastly inflated in response to consumer demand, during the blizzard set to hit New York.
In anticipation of what the US National Weather Service dubbed a “potentially historic blizzard” bracing the US East Coast, Uber has announced it will cap its prices, by limiting its “surge pricing” technology help stranded commuters.
The firm has negotiated a price cap with the New York attorney general to keep prices limited during disasters.
On US disasters such as the blizzard, the company said: “Uber’s pricing algorithms will be capped during disasters and relevant states of emergency. For each market, the state of emergency price will be set after excluding the three highest-priced, non-emergency days of the preceding two months.”
Uber will also donate 20 per cent of its fair income to the American Red Cross to help with the rebuilding process during extreme incidents.
This follows the firm coming under criticism last year during the Sydney hostage crisis when Uber prices dramatically surged to a minimum of $100 due to high consumer demand to escape the area.