Uber is proud to announce a national partnership with the American Red Cross to help cities and citizens during disasters. The partnership took effect last week as this season’s first tropical storm, Arthur, developed.

Uber is partnering with the American Red Cross1 to help communities’ disaster relief efforts.

  • During disasters and relevant states of emergency, Uber is committing to donate its commissions on surge trips to the American Red Cross.
  • That means that for trips with elevated pricing, 20% of the total fare will be donated to the American Red Cross’ disaster relief efforts.
  • Uber will also support ongoing community events like blood drives and donation drives with safe, affordable and reliable transportation options for American Red Cross’ volunteers and participating community members.
“The American Red Cross is grateful for Uber’s support. This innovative new partnership will enable the Red Cross to deliver additional disaster relief services to those in need.”
—Neal Litvack, Chief Development Officer, American Red Cross

Uber has also instituted a national policy on surge pricing for U.S. cities, as follows:

  • 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 3 highest-priced, non-emergency days of the preceding 2 months.
“This policy intends to strike the careful balance between the goal of transportation availability with community expectations of affordability during disasters. Our collaborative solution with Attorney General Schneiderman is a model for technology companies and regulators in local, state and federal government.”
—Travis Kalanick, Co-Founder & CEO, Uber

Uber is embedded in the fabric of the cities in which we operate – our employees and partners are also passionate members of the community. As we aim to find this delicate balance, we’ll continue to look to our riders, partners and city leaders for guidance in our commitment to serve cities. We take that responsibility seriously, and are taking this step so that Uber is there for the riders, drivers and the cities we serve.

1The American Red Cross name, emblems and copyrighted materials are used with its permission, which in no way constitutes an endorsement, express or implied, of any product, service, company, opinion or political position. The American Red Cross logo is a registered trademark owned by the American Red Cross. For more information about the American Red Cross, please visit redcross.org