NEW DELHI: A new “upfront destination” feature introduced by Uber allows cab drivers to decide if they want to accept a trip or not. The company said the new feature was aimed at addressing the biggest pain point of users — drivers cancelling trips at the last moment.
Not only the destination, drivers can now see the payment option, digital or cash, upfront too. Two other new features include a new “long pick-up” fees for drivers and daily digital payments. The ride-hailing company believes the four new features would address the concerns of drivers and, as a result, drastically reduce cancellations.
Nitish Bhushan, head of central operations, Uber India and South Asia, told TOI that of late, the “Uber experience” was not at the level where the company always wanted it to be. “Since the middle of last year, we have been in listening mode, especially from our driver partners to understand areas where we can do better. We have been listening to riders too,” he added.
Bhushan said the cancellation issue was there since mid-2021 and the app-based cab aggregator started testing new features to address the problem. It was now rolling out the four new features for drivers. The upfront destination feature would be available once a driver has reached a particular rate of trip acceptance threshold, which differs from city to city.
“We have seen in our experience that this not only reduces cancellation, but also drivers reaching out and asking the drop location,” he said. Asked if this might result in drivers avoiding some locations or preferring some areas over others, Bhushan said the feature would receive further fine tuning.
Bhushan said, “It is not a straightforward solution and, for this reason, it has taken us months of iteration. Fine tuning will mean that thresholds will keep changing and the granularity might change with the drivers being shown an entire area or a complete street, instead of the exact location. While cancellations have gone down, the feature has also led to ETAs going up for both users and drivers. This is because if one driver doesn’t accept the trip, it goes to the next one.”
During an Uber driver advisory council held recently, it was realised that with fuel prices going up, travelling longer distances for pick-ups was a problem. That is why a long pick-up fee was introduced as an additional payout for drivers, which Bhushan said also led to a dip in cancellations.
With fuel prices going up, Uber has already increased the base fare by 10-15% in most cities. Also, drivers receive digital payments by the end of the day and of the weekend on Mondays. Bhushan said along with the new features, this measure would also make the going easier for drivers, with “happy drivers translating into happy riders”.
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