Tech

Uber Charged Riders Surge Rates, But Drivers Didn't Get Paid Due to Glitch

Uber drivers expressed outrage on social media after a glitch prevented them from receiving surge pay. The company says it will compensate drivers.
Uber Charged Riders Surge Rates, But Drivers Didn't Get Paid Due to Glitch
Image: EVA MARIE UZCATEGUI / Contributor via Getty Images

Uber drivers on Reddit reported receiving an email this weekend telling them that on Saturday, the company had accidentally failed to show drivers a “heatmap” indicating where surge pricing was in effect. The result was that drivers did not receive extra pay for driving passengers while surge pricing was in effect, despite the fact that customers had paid the surge upcharge. Uber confirmed the incident to Motherboard and said it would compensate drivers.

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An email posted to Reddit said, “A technical issue may have prevented you from seeing the Driver Surge Heatmap yesterday. The issue is fixed and you can now continue to check the Driver Surge Heatmap for areas of high demand. We are sorry for any inconvenience.”

In the Reddit thread, drivers commiserated over the company’s failure, with many fearing that Uber was going to skip out of their obligation to pay them. 

“Uber pocketed millions of dollars from surge that was supposed to go to the driver and claiming it was a technical issue, fuck that,” one driver said. Another responded, “Yet when they accidentally paid everyone extra for a few hours they clawed it back,” a reference to an incident on April 1 where the company says it accidentally double-paid drivers and then removed the funds from their account.

“Get some better software developers with all the money you’re stealing,” one driver wrote.

An Uber spokesperson told Motherboard that the error occurred between Saturday, 6 pm EST until 3:30 am on Sunday. Uber confirmed to Motherboard that the company will compensate drivers who drove in areas with surge pricing, saying, “We apologize for this error and we want to make it right. Drivers will be compensated for the trips they took that should have been priced higher due to surge pricing.” When asked when drivers would be compensated, the spokesperson said “ASAP.”

One driver on Reddit suggested compensating every driver for the glitch, regardless of whether they drove on Saturday. “They should send every driver some sort of credit.. there are those who didn’t work because they didn’t see a heat map.. so those skipped hitting the road to prevent driver over saturation,” they wrote.