A Reliable Ride on a Rainy Day

This morning there was a perfect storm of sorts – with some pretty bad rain hitting Toronto at the same time that the TTC suffered a system wide shut-down. As such, thousands of Torontonians took to their Uber app as an alternative, and surge pricing started to apply to a portion of trips.

When we heard of the transit shut-down, we immediately sent out communications to our driver partners to help meet the unexpectedly heavy morning demand.

Importantly, surge pricing was also triggered by demand exceeding supply. Without our dynamic pricing model, our experience and data demonstrate that you wouldn’t have been able to find an available ride via the Uber platform. But as a result of our pricing system, we were able to bring out 77% more drivers this morning compared to average Mondays in May – meaning thousands more people could get to where they needed to go. 

We’d like to point out that the average TAXI fare this morning via Uber (remember TAXI does not have dynamic pricing) was $20.10. The average uberX fare (with dynamic pricing) this morning was $16.50. So, while dynamic pricing was active, most Torontonians were still getting around for less than what they would pay for a traditional cab, with a pickup time of less than 5 minutes – despite the situation.

At Uber, we’re committed to ensuring reliability. While we can appreciate that paying more for your ride isn’t ideal, we believe that it’s important to offer options to Torontonians. And, as always, the uberTAXI option which connects you with a traditional taxi was untouched by surge pricing.

For those who rode Uber this morning – we’re glad we were able to help you get from point A to point B during a messy travel situation. As always, our team is working extremely hard to bring more drivers onto the Uber platform to meet the ever-growing demand for Uber in Toronto.

For more information on our dynamic pricing, please check out this video.