With New “Express Pool” Service, Uber Customers Will Get a Cheaper Ride
Everyone knows that carpooling is the cheapest and most environmentally-friendly way to get around town, but what if you don’t have an established carpool group with whom to commute? That’s the question that ride-sharing service Uber set out to answer with its new service, Express Pool, which is freshly available in the City of Brotherly Love.
Uber’s new service, Express Pool, will help ride-sharers get where they’re going in a cheaper and more environmentally-friendly way.
The new service matches up ride-sharers going in roughly the same direction and has them meet up at a common embarkation point, no more than a few blocks away. Express Pool represents an exciting development for Uber, as it is the first new service the company has introduced in three years. It was piloted in Boston and San Francisco in November 2017, and has now been rolled out in a handful of other cities including Los Angeles, Miami, San Diego, and Philadelphia.
Cost is the big benefit to Philly commuters when they use Express Pool. According to Uber, the new service can be up to 50 percent cheaper than Uber Pool, and 75 percent cheaper than Uber X. Ride-sharing has never been so affordable for city residents, and at very little cost of convenience.
According to the Daily Philadelphian: “Riders who select Express Pool may experience a slight delay while the app searches through hundreds of drivers, locations, and passengers to find their ideal matches. Then, after receiving a match, riders will be asked to walk a distance less than three blocks to their pickup location, where they will meet up with the other passengers. These riders should ideally all be headed towards the same direction, and will be dropped off within a few blocks of their original destination.”
In addition to putting ride-sharing on a cost level with other Philadelphia forms of transportation, like SEPTA, Express Pool is also better for the environment and has the potential to alleviate traffic congestion. It’s a winning situation for everyone involved.
