The membership offer, Uber Ride Pass, entitles subscribers to locked-in, discounted fares that are immune to surge pricing in exchange for a monthly fee. It debuted Tuesday in Denver, Miami, Orlando, Fla. and Austin, Texas, where it will cost $14.99 per month, and Los Angeles, where it will cost $24.99 per month.
Ride Pass was announced in a blog post Tuesday from company product manager Dan Bilen. A national roll-out will follow, Uber officials said, though no timeline has been given for that. Users can sign up through the company’s app. Subscriptions auto-renew and can be canceled anytime.
“One thing we hear a lot from riders is that changes in price — however small — can make it tough to plan their day with Uber,” Bilen wrote.
Denver was chosen as launch market in part because it has a strong rider base, officials say. It’s launch comes two weeks after Lyft made its available across the nation.
A different take on the subscription model, All-Access provides users who pay $299 every 30 days up to 30 rides of no more than $15. Riders pay the difference if a ride goes over $15 and pay market rates if they use more than 30 rides in one 30-day period. Subscribers are not immune from prime time pricing increases.
For certain Denver-area rides, such as a trip from Capitol Hill to Red Rocks or from the Central Business District to the airport, $15 won’t cut it and riders would have to spend extra.
Bilen’s blog post didn’t include examples of the discount pricing Ride Pass subscribers will get. Uber officials could not provide specifics outside of hypothetical situations but users will be able to track whatever money they save through the arrangement in the app. Drivers who provide rides to subscribers will be paid the same as they usually would be — including surge premiums and other promotions — with Uber covering the difference, officials say.
Ride Pass isn’t the only recent tweak to Uber’s services. On Oct. 15, the company told its drivers via a blog post that it was changing up its fare structure. The company increased its per-minute charges and decreased its per-mile charges. The aim, , was to even out driver earnings by putting more emphasis on time invested — including time spent sitting in traffic — over distance covered. The blog post did not include dollar amount changes to Denver fares, but some Denver drivers have complained the change will make long-distance highway trips — like those to Denver International Airport — less profitable.
Both Lyft and Uber have described their subscription models as options that stand to make ride-sharing a more affordable alternative to car use — or in Lyft’s case even car ownership. But University of Denver assistant marketing professor Ana Babic Rosario sees the new models as evidence the companies are getting farther away from the resource conservation goals that laid the groundwork for the so-called sharing economy.
“I’m fascinated by really the speed at which these sharing economy models are being monetized and marketed and their movement away from the original premise of sustainability to clear for-profit business models,” Babic Rosario said.
