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...it's 2:15 AM on a Friday night, and Brampton is surging harder than downtown
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You know Uber is over when...
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I didn't drive yesterday evening , sick and tired , don't know what stored for us on Saturday night
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Brampton surges?! WTF!!! Was it because of the snow?
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X3 surge in Brampton, would never touch it.
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There is a fake surge in Waterdown outside of Burlington every single night.
I noticed this so I thought I'd chill out there and use it to my advantage for a couple of nights.
No other cars on the map within 5km. I'd get no pings for an hour. I'd finally give up and move and the minute I left the area it would surge.
This happened about 3-4 times until I realized there is no real surge in Waterdown on a Wednesday at 7:30pm.
Just a lure to have a driver there/online so someone was available.
No surge due to demand, just a surge because an absence of drivers.
I noticed this so I thought I'd chill out there and use it to my advantage for a couple of nights.
No other cars on the map within 5km. I'd get no pings for an hour. I'd finally give up and move and the minute I left the area it would surge.
This happened about 3-4 times until I realized there is no real surge in Waterdown on a Wednesday at 7:30pm.
Just a lure to have a driver there/online so someone was available.
No surge due to demand, just a surge because an absence of drivers.
I think Brampton had some lake effect snow blow in last night.... so in this case that might be the reason. I was watching it on the radar map on The Weather Network app.
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2,198 Posts
Happens everywhere. The surge MAY be real if the area is stripped of cars where there usually should be some. People in the burbs are catching on. They are sick of the b.s. and just call local car service as they did the last century. Uber needs a steady flow of new accounts. Thr new accounts eventually grow to hate uber and use them as a last resort while ubet still keeps these accounts as active to show investors
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I feel like most surges are fake. I am always waiting for pings when all of Oshawa is glowing red 2.5-3 X surge.
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Fake surges???
The optimist in me thinks it's just pax refusing to take higher fares.
uber's lack of ethics make me think they are just luring and redistributing drivers.
There was also a surge in Richmond Hill that was out of character even with the little dusting of snow last night.
Checking the rider app last night it looked like there were more drivers outside Toronto than downtown Toronto.
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Sorry to hear that. Hope you feel better soon
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With Uber offering selected drivers promotions for downtown. I believe it's redistributed Uber's from the burbs to the center of the city. Hence surge in the burbs.
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What kind of promotions are you talking about?
There were more cars in the burbs last night than downtown though...
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Uber was offering promotions for downtown between 1 and 4 am. X1.4. Half the drivers got it and half didn't.
I'm assuming they offered it to drivers who are not usually in the core during post bar rush.
Was Polson surging till 3 am last night like it has for the past month?
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I don't know, i wasn't downtown last night and i didn't notice much surge.
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455 Posts
Same here. Went out today and it has actually been okay so far.
Maybe all the Brampton drivers went downtown for that sweet sweet boost, and there was nobody left back home. Would be a little ironic
That's not a "fake" surge per say, but actually the entire purpose of surge. To get more drivers to where the computer algorithm decides there isn't enough. It's based on both driver supply and rider demand. Unless you're saying there are people at Uber manually overriding this and putting excess cars into an area beyond what the computer system decides is required?
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I know what the 'purpose' of surge is supposed to be.Same here. Went out today and it has actually been okay so far.
Maybe all the Brampton drivers went downtown for that sweet sweet boost, and there was nobody left back home. Would be a little ironic
That's not a "fake" surge per say, but actually the entire purpose of surge. To get more drivers to where the computer algorithm decides there isn't enough. It's based on both driver supply and rider demand. Unless you're saying there are people at Uber manually overriding this and putting excess cars into an area beyond what the computer system decides is required?
I'm saying what would stop uber from creating fake surges and deceiving drivers to redistribute availability?
Certainly not ethics or morals.
Seems quite likely that uber would do that actually, by reason how the company is actually run.
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455 Posts
But what makes that "fake"? Surge is supposed to redistribute drivers.
Uber openly creates fake surge. It's called Boost.
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'Fake' surge=meaning there are NO REAL PAX wanting rides, just uber fooling drivers.
'Real' surge = meaning there are actually REAL pax wanting and requesting rides.
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455 Posts
Fooling them? What for... fun?
What would be the economic motive in this theory?
While none of us know the secret sauce inside the surge algorithm, it is suffice to say it considers both supply and demand, and that it must be predictive in nature. Imagine if Billy Bob Pax and Jenny Jane Pax request a ride, and there are only 2 drivers nearby. There needs to be a surge to attract a third driver in case Sally Surgette makes a request too. But Sally may decide to walk instead. Or maybe she goes to take a poop. You show up and sit there but you get no ping.
Surge never means there is a waiting request with no one to take it. Think about it, if the surge happens after someone makes a request, then how is the person charged for it? It means the number of drivers is getting low relative to the rate requests are coming in. It has to guess ahead and apply to theoretical future riders (who may or may not materialize). Demand for Uber is unfortunately very elastic. A small change in price can cause demand to drop off substantially. I also think the resulting sharp drop in demand and sharp increase in supply overshoot the economic equilibrium. The price floor (the high surge) must settle back down before the market begins to function again. This article might help shed some light on what I'm saying if economics isn't your jive: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_floor
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