Uber and Ola have rolled out surge pricing, but under new garbs

Surge pricing is back! This time it’s has new aliases. Days after global taxi aggregator Uber rolled out its ‘upfront fares’ tariff, Ola has not been left wanting either. The Bengaluru-based online transport app has introduced ‘low peak pricing’.

Have things changed? Well, yes and no. The earlier version of the app would display the surge pricing tariff as ‘1.5x’ or ‘1.8x’, now a customer gets to see the actual rate per kilometer applicable at the time of booking. Ola claims this lets one know beforehand how much his/her ride will cost.

That’s all fine. However, this is not the death of surge pricing as the tariff is still based on the demand, traffic and other factors. As for Uber, its ‘upfront fares’ is a clear indication that surge pricing is here to stay.

This comes after the two online taxi aggregators were directed by several state governments to end surge pricing based on a barrage of protests and complaints from customers and taxi unions. Uber had rolled back its surge model in Delhi last month, agreeing to charge a per-kilometer fare and not exceed the government-prescribed rate. The Karnataka government has even threatened to ban Uber in the state if it doesn’t say goodbye to surge pricing.

On Monday, Ola filed in the Karnataka High Court saying that it has complied with all requirements to continue operating. This was to counter to a petition by rival Uber India which challenged the Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregator Rules, 2016.

Both Ola and Uber have been fighting a bloody price war. Both firms have been offering discounts to customers to gain more market share.

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