It can be stressful for a driver to wait on a busy street for an undetermined period of time, and it’s only fair that you should compensate them for their time. So you better have your shit together and be on your way downstairs as soon as you lock in that ride, because Uber is now charging the per-minute rate for NYC after two minutes.
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Passengers get a five minute window now. Cancel after 120 seconds have elapsed, and you’ll be charged the $10 NYC cancellation fee. We do know that they are only now testing out this new “feature” in Phoenix, Dallas, New Jersey, and NY. That part of the app’s update message is clear (previously the cancellation time limit was five minutes). But as per the new policy, drivers can charge a fee after two minutes of waiting time.
Uber is also charging a cancellation fee if a customer cancels a pickup two minutes after a request. Under the new policy, drivers start earning the per-minute rate for the city they’re in after 2 minutes of waiting.
The company said in a statement, “Drivers’ time is valuable, and while we expect riders to request a a ride only once they’re ready”. This means that making a driver wait will cost a bit more, but there will be no flat fee. The Uber app will sometimes show a driver four minutes away, but then it’ll arrive six minutes later-which then leaves the rider waiting and there are no penalties for drivers who take long or cancel on riders.
This also brings up the debate if whether the cab drivers or Uber should be fined for late arrivals to the Pick-up location. For now, it wants to monitor the changes in the customers’ riding pattern.
Two minutes is enough time to cancel a ride or leave a location and catch a ride.
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If you just can’t get your act together, Uber competitor Lyft still has a 5-minute wait-and-see policy and passengers may prefer to use that service instead.
