All the way up: higher fees for Uber & Lyft?

1.1 min readBy Published On: January 8th, 2019Categories: News7 Comments on All the way up: higher fees for Uber & Lyft?

Looks like fees for ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft could be on the rise.  According to the Boston Globe, in an effort to help alleviate congestion on the city streets, Mayor Marty Walsh will be lobbying the idea with the state legislature to increase the fees.   Back in 2016, a state law was passed that that a  20-cent fee for each ride Uber and Lyft complete – a dime from each fee goes to the city or town where the ride originated and the rest is split between the state and a special fund to help the taxi industry. (Don’t get us started on the taxi industry.)  

Boston received around $3.5 million the first year the fees were dispersed in 2018. 

Currently, the City of Boston does not have an amount for the fee to increase.  The Globe goes on to report that other cities charge much higher fees – Chicago charges 67 cents a trip, and New York recently started a $2.75 fee for individual trips in part of the city. 

Some studies believe that ride-sharing is actually contributing to traffic in the city.  This reason is the main motivator for the proposal for higher fees.

As the Massachusetts law on ride-share service fees now reads, the companies pay the fees and bars Uber and Lyft from passing on the fees to its customers.

 

7 Comments

  1. Not so New to The Hood January 8, 2019 at 3:16 pm - Reply

    Regardless of what the law says, they find a way to pass it on. There’s always a work around and proving something like that is very difficult.

    I think what really should be done is to put a hard cap on the # of registered drivers allowed to pick riders up in the city. If you don’t drive for let’s say 3 months or something (or average less than maybe $50 worth of revenue per month), you lose your registration and you have to go on a wait list. This would just be limited to the city of boston. If you’re brought into the city as a driver for a drop off, you can go in, drop the rider off, but can’t accept a ride within city limits.

    • Not so New to The Hood January 8, 2019 at 3:18 pm - Reply

      What’s killing us is all of these speculative drivers coming from CT, RI, NH & other surrounding areas fishing for rides for the day.

      • (Other Steve) January 8, 2019 at 7:27 pm - Reply

        By “killing us” you mean having enough supply that we don’t have long wait times for rides?

        • Not so New to The Hood January 9, 2019 at 9:45 am - Reply

          Not all of us live in great barrington, pal. If you’ve ever been to Boston before, you’d notice that every fifth car is either an uber, lyft or taxi. You seem like the kind of guy that would watch fifteen cabs go bye and wait 20 mins for uber out of ignorance.

          • Hi January 11, 2019 at 1:25 pm

            It’s unreal. I’d be fascinated to see what traffic is like if you snapped your fingers and every Uber/Lyft was removed from the road.

  2. Maureen January 9, 2019 at 11:53 am - Reply

    I prefer taxies overseen by the BPD and dirvers fingerprinted.. unlike the online security check for UberLyft drivers.. not to mention that when I do drive in the city, it seems like they are the worst drivers ever… yes… worse than cabbies.!
    AND dont know where they are going.. Looking at a GPS while driving is not really a good idea.

    • mplo January 9, 2019 at 3:01 pm - Reply

      I guess it’s to each their own, but I’ve had very good experiences when I’ve used Lyft for rides to appointments, or if it’s really bad winter weather and I either need to or want to go somewhere. I also find Lyft way cheaper and more reliable than most ordinary taxi cabs, to be honest. I would not use Uber, because they don’t do thorough background checks of their drivers like Lyft does, plus I’ve heard some rather awful stores about Uber drivers overcharging their passengers and/or even worse.

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