In New York post-Sandy, the lack of subways can be just as troubling as the lack of electricity. New Yorkers, who typically live in cramped apartments, rely on the subway system to jump between their homes and offices, and to connect with friends and family elsewhere.
So how do you get around? I live in Brooklyn and spent about 90 minutes on Wednesday trying to request a car over and over through Uber, the car-service-summoning smartphone app, with no luck. I eventually got through to a local car service on the phone, and it took a bit less than an hour to get across the bridge into Midtown Manhattan.
Plenty of other people in New York are turning to car services this week. But Uber, a San Francisco-based start-up with operations in most major cities in the United States, said it was struggling to get enough cars on the road to meet demand. On Wednesday morning, it imposed a special “surge†fee - a rate of at least double the normal fare.
Several New Yorkers didn't take the price hike lightly. They complained on Twitter that Uber was using a natural disaster to price-gouge. In response, Uber turned off the surge fee after just 45 minutes.
Travis Kalanick, Uber's chief executive, said in an interview that the higher fee was necessary to give more drivers an incentive to get onto storm-ravaged roads and squeeze through traffic to pick up people for rides. He noted that many of these drivers were affected by the storm themselves, so getting them into their cars was a challenge.
“A lot of drivers, they have homes that are flooded,†Mr. Kalanick said. “They have to get their lives together as well. Everything New Yorkers are dealing with, generally drivers are also dealing with.â€
As a temporary remedy for the situation, Uber is taking at least $100,000 out of its own pocket to pay the surge fees to the drivers and not passing them on to the riders, Mr. Kalanick said. He added that for the time being , Uber would also not be taking a cut of each ride in the storm-affected areas, so the full fare will go to the driver. However, he said this solution would not last long because it could cost the company too much money, and Uber may have to turn surge fees back on for passengers later.
“We're trying to maximize the number of cars on the road without breaking the bank,†he said.
