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This hasn't been my experience at all. I have been using express pool basically every day to commute for months, and the price has always been between $5 and $8

by lhorie 9y ago

This hasn't been my experience at all. I have been using express pool basically every day to commute for months, and the price has always been between $5 and $8 for a 30-45 min ride (depending on traffic and how many people pool in the same car). Fare increases are pretty obviously correlated with how close to the peak rush hour window I request and things like rain (i.e. more demand) What I did notice though is that prices can fluctuate plus or minus a dollar in a matter of minutes, so sometimes I can get a cheaper fare by simply waiting a couple of minutes (though that tends to only work if I'm not approaching peak rush hour).

therideshareguy 9y ago
We didn't test this with Express Pool but Pool in general is a different animal since the prices are so cheap to begin with, there's not a lot of variability that can come into play and affect the pricing. Plus, Uber takes a huge loss on Pool and Express Pool especially when they first launch since they want to offer low prices to riders but they don't know the match % rates yet.
- lhorie 9y ago
  Thanks for the insight! Can you qualify what you mean by a frequent rider? How frequently are we talking about? I did experience lower prices when I first started using express pool (though not to commute to/from work), and at one time I got a $2.50 ride to go from downtown SF to Ocean beach (a 40-ish minute ride), which anyone with half a brain would suspect to be VC subsidies at play. Could it be that this is a similar case, where the original "cheap" price is just subsidies for new rider/some desirable target audience and the "ripoff" price is just the regular price if VC money/competitive race to the bottom weren't in the equation? Another theory I had was that congestion in pick up/drop-off areas would play a role in pricing (given that cheaper-than-expected rides happened to be nearer the freeway as opposed to, say, Market st)
Camillo 9y ago
Express Pool is almost another form of price discrimination, IMO. It's around the same price as I remember Pool being before, but they make you walk a couple of blocks to the pickup point. But in my experience, the pickup point is almost never better or easier or faster for pickup than the place you're calling from; in fact, sometimes it's much worse! (E.g. they try to pick up from a busy road where cars can't stop.) I think the point is not to shorten or speed up the driver's route, but instead to deliberately add inconvenience for the rider. So if you can afford it, you'll do traditional Pool (which now costs more) or UberX, while if you're truly price sensitive you'll deal with the indignity of Express Pool.

by lhorie 9y ago

therideshareguy 9y ago

We didn't test this with Express Pool but Pool in general is a different animal since the prices are so cheap to begin with, there's not a lot of variability that can come into play and affect the pricing. Plus, Uber takes a huge loss on Pool and Express Pool especially when they first launch since they want to offer low prices to riders but they don't know the match % rates yet.

lhorie 9y ago
Thanks for the insight! Can you qualify what you mean by a frequent rider? How frequently are we talking about? I did experience lower prices when I first started using express pool (though not to commute to/from work), and at one time I got a $2.50 ride to go from downtown SF to Ocean beach (a 40-ish minute ride), which anyone with half a brain would suspect to be VC subsidies at play. Could it be that this is a similar case, where the original "cheap" price is just subsidies for new rider/some desirable target audience and the "ripoff" price is just the regular price if VC money/competitive race to the bottom weren't in the equation? Another theory I had was that congestion in pick up/drop-off areas would play a role in pricing (given that cheaper-than-expected rides happened to be nearer the freeway as opposed to, say, Market st)

Camillo 9y ago

Express Pool is almost another form of price discrimination, IMO. It's around the same price as I remember Pool being before, but they make you walk a couple of blocks to the pickup point. But in my experience, the pickup point is almost never better or easier or faster for pickup than the place you're calling from; in fact, sometimes it's much worse! (E.g. they try to pick up from a busy road where cars can't stop.) I think the point is not to shorten or speed up the driver's route, but instead to deliberately add inconvenience for the rider. So if you can afford it, you'll do traditional Pool (which now costs more) or UberX, while if you're truly price sensitive you'll deal with the indignity of Express Pool.