UberX Hikes Minimum Fee in Philadelphia

According to the Philadelphia Business Journal, UberX has increased its minimum fare for passengers. Formerly, the minimum was $5.25. Now it is $5.75. Also part of the Journal’s scoop: UberPOOL passengers will pay the same fares as before, but a bigger cut of the fares will be going to the drivers instead of back to Uber. Therefore, UberPOOL drivers will bring home a little more money. UberPOOL has been in Philadelphia since February, when it was rolled out as a cheaper alternative to UberX or UberBlack.

UberX has slightly raised its minimum fare; UberPOOL will stay the same for now.

Uber, the massive San Francisco-based firm, has vowed to expand Uber services in the City of Brotherly Love. Rolling out UberPOOL was part of that. The expansions, current and future, come at a time when UberX is operating illegally, in full defiance of the city’s laws governing taxis and cabs. UberX is not under the governance of the Philadelphia Parking Authority the way taxis are, and, accordingly, the PPA has called on multiple occasions for UberX to cease operations. The company’s limo service, UberBlack, falls under PPA guidelines and so is not part of the brouhaha.

For its part, UberBlack says that, if the city continues with sting operations on UberX, it will boycott the Democratic National Convention this summer. Both UberX and local cab companies do steady business driving people to and from the Philadelphia International Airport.

It seemed like a compromise was in sight, but things took a sharp left-hand turn this week. A bill legalizing ridesharing services is “making its way through Harrisburg,” the Journal reports, but a controversial aspect involves where the money generated by ridesharing would go. It was always meant to be shared between the PPA and state schools, but in the latest wording of the bill the PPA would receive $2 million before the schools got any money at all. That has obviously ignited a firestorm of criticism of the PPA.

It remains to be seen what will be the final outcome of the heated battle between Uber and the City of Philadelphia.