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Your Uber ride now costs less.
Fifteen percent less, the ride-hailing company announced in an email to users Friday morning, when reduced prices for UberX and UberXL services went into effect at 7 a.m.
The price drop, first reported by the New York Post and later confirmed by Uber, means the base fare in the city will decrease from $3 to $2.55. The per-mile rate will go from $2.15 to $1.75, the per-minute rate from 40 cents to 35 cents, sources told the Post.
Uber is reducing the minimum fare from $8 to $7.
With lower rates, Uber and its drivers will earn less per ride, but ridership should rise and drivers should waste less time on the road without passengers, the company said.
We’re not exactly surprised it’s making this kind of strategic sacrifice: Uber’s competitors in the Big Apple are willing to try anything and it has to keep up. Prices for the app’s services have already been slashed, by as much as 20 percent, in other cities across the U.S..
Some drivers told the Post they’re happy with the new pricing.
But other cabbies are planning to protest the “wage cut” at noon Friday outside Uber’s headquarters at 27-55 Jackson Ave. in Long Island City.
“Uber wants to monopolize taxi service and destroy drivers in the process,” says a flier for the rally organized by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. “Protest the Wage Cuts! IN THE RACE TO THE BOTTOM, NO DRIVER WINS!”
Correction: This article originally contained the wrong location of Uber’s Queens headquarters. It is in Long Island City, not Jackson Heights.
