What Happened After Uber Cut Fares in 48 Cities in 2015?
So hopefully many drivers already know about the fare cut in 80 cities two days ago and many are asking if these fare cuts are permanent. That is a hard question to answer. You can read up on last years fare cut in 48 cities here:
Below, you can see the my other posts on Uber fare cuts here.
It is both yes and and no. Uber did eventually raised up the fares in most cities, but they did not restore the pricing in many of those cities.
I have been tracking rates every week, and here is a summary of price increases of the original 48 cities that had a fare cut:
- You can see that only at a peak of 28 cities had a price increase.
- Price increase starts after March and ends in July with an average of 6 cities a month
- Three cities had their fare restored
- Even cities with the winter fare decrease had a few cities that were cut even further because of the summer slump (you can see a slight downtick between July and October)
The next chart is a bit harder to explain. I did a histogram of the fare cuts in the 48 cities in January, and what the net fare cut was in July when they raised the rates in about 30 cities. You can see that there were less cities with the huge fare cuts (40%+) but there were more of them less than 30%. You can see that almost all cities still had a fare cut.
Below is the average fare increase AFTER the fare cut in 2015:
Summary
So what do all these numbers mean?
- There is about a 62% chance that your city will get a fare increase after the fare cuts
- There is only a 6% chance that your city will have its fare cut reversed back to the original price
- The average fare increase after the fare cuts was 10%, with a one unfortunate city getting further cuts
- The average fare cut in January 2015 was 26%. The net fare cut as calculated in July was 20%, so the net increase from “winter pricing” was about 6% for all 48 cities.
Detailed Data
Here is also a month by month list of fare increases:
March:
- Corpus Christi
- Kansas City
- Modesto
- Oklahoma City
- Raleigh-Durham
- Spokane
- Toledo
- Tulsa
April:
- Charlotte
- Lexington
- Louisville
- Madison
- Milwaukee
- Modesto
- Nashville
- Providence
- San Diego
- Santa Barbara
May:
- Cincinnati
- Cleveland
- Columbus
- Dallas
- Denver
- Hampton Roads
- Indianapolis
- Salt Lake City
June
- Atlanta
- Inland Empire
July
- Lansing
- Lincoln
- Richmond
October: Sacramento
The Full Comparison Data
- First Column was the fare cut in January
- Second column was the net fare cut as calculated in July (from fares before the fare cut to July)
- Third Column: fare increase AFTER the fare cut. For example, if it is 0%, you did not get a fare increase after fare cut. If it is 5%, it is a 5% increase AFTER the fare cut.
[Update: Los Angeles, Memphis and Orange county was added to the list. They were not in the original list of 48 cities in early January, but they were cut in the weeks after and had a similar winter pricing strategy. Los Angeles and Orange County had removed base fares but the overall effect on the average fare was taken into account.
Also, Phoenix was added to the list. Price was cut after the Super Bowl.]
| Cities | Price Decrease in January | Price Decrease as of July | Increase After Fare Cut |
| Albuquerque | 27% | 27% | 0% |
| Atlanta | 11% | 6% | 5% |
| Austin | 28% | 28% | 0% |
| Baltimore | 16% | 16% | 0% |
| Baton Rouge | 25% | 25% | 0% |
| Charlotte | 37% | 28% | 9% |
| Cincinnati | 25% | 21% | 4% |
| Cleveland | 32% | 27% | 5% |
| Columbus | 15% | 11% | 4% |
| Connecticut | 21% | 21% | 0% |
| Corpus Christi | 45% | 35% | 10% |
| Dallas | 12% | 9% | 3% |
| Denver | 10% | 6% | 4% |
| Detroit | 28% | 28% | 0% |
| Fayetteville, NC | 23% | 23% | 0% |
| Fresno | 42% | 30% | 12% |
| Grand Rapids | 28% | 0% | 28% |
| Hampton Roads | 36% | 27% | 9% |
| Indianapolis | 20% | 16% | 4% |
| Inland Empire | 30% | 26% | 4% |
| Jacksonville | 26% | 26% | 0% |
| Kansas City | 35% | 16% | 19% |
| Lansing | 13% | 30% | -17% |
| Lexington | 55% | 45% | 10% |
| Lincoln | 24% | 16% | 8% |
| Los Angeles | 16% | 8% | 8% |
| Louisville | 29% | 19% | 10% |
| Madison | 29% | 25% | 4% |
| Memphis | 25% | 21% | 4% |
| Miami | 20% | 20% | 0% |
| Milwaukee | 25% | 13% | 12% |
| Minneapolis | 16% | 16% | 0% |
| Modesto | 47% | 28% | 19% |
| Nashville | 27% | 13% | 14% |
| Oklahoma City | 33% | 19% | 14% |
| Orange County | 16% | 7% | 9% |
| Orlando | 19% | 19% | 0% |
| Palm Springs | 10% | 10% | 0% |
| Phoenix | 32% | 16% | 16% |
| Portland, ME | 15% | 0% | 15% |
| Providence | 32% | 25% | 7% |
| Raleigh-Durham | 31% | 0% | 31% |
| Richmond | 11% | 11% | 0% |
| Sacramento | 29% | 29% | 0% |
| Salt Lake City | 18% | 12% | 6% |
| San Antonio | 25% | 25% | 0% |
| San Diego | 21% | 8% | 13% |
| Santa Barbara | 42% | 31% | 11% |
| Spokane | 49% | 20% | 29% |
| Toledo | 33% | 26% | 7% |
| Tucson | 18% | 18% | 0% |
| Tulsa | 27% | 19% | 8% |
| Wilmington, NC | 24% | 24% | 0% |
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