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Rates for Uber and Lyft services have risen sharply and operating profit has been positive in what could be called the post-pandemic. One of the reasons for the price hike is the lack of drivers, but this does not seem to bother users and they continue to use the platforms, more and more.
In this sense, Bryan Roberts, Lyft’s CFO emphasized that “there is more pricing power than anyone imagined existed in the industry.” While Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber spoke of “gigantic pricing experiment.”
You will probably continue to see the profit as you open more cities to their regular operation. It is estimated that in the United States the average charges per mile, in the third quarter of this 2021, increased almost by 25%, if compared to 2019. According to YipitData, an application that tracks billing.
However, the profit situation is not the same for the drivers who work for these Applications. On several occasions, Uber drivers, in different cities in the United States, have told us that “they do not receive any more profit from that price increase.”
“This trip from Miami airport to the city of Coral Gables shouldn’t cost you more than $ 20 at this time, however, I see that the application is charging you almost $ 40. And I continue to receive the same rate ”, said an Uber driver when we asked him, which means that the increase is almost of 50%.
In general, the statistics indicate that Uber drivers and food delivery people were the most benefited during the pandemic, we are talking about $ 8, 600 million dollars in profit. A 60% more than the previous year. According to Uber figures.
For this post-pandemic, Uber hopes to reactivate hiring drivers and without having to resort to offering large additional incentives. While Lyft points out that if necessary “they will give incentives especially in the busiest times to come.”
An expert analyst emphasized to Yahoo Finance that we will probably “see high prices for some time, especially given the inflationary environment that we are experiencing now.” Michael Erstad assures M Science.
On the other hand, Uber Eats, a business that also grew in a pandemic, reported in its quarterly earnings that Despite the resumption of many activities, the demand in this area remains “stable.”
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