Uber users in KL rejoice…before 1st February, that is.

The car sharing service previously offered their users a free ride, of a value up to RM20, if they referred a friend, and then that friend would receive the same benefit.

However, starting 1st February, this free ride will only be worth RM10, and though it is valid for all Uber rides, it’s only valid for three months. This change was implemented to reflect the reduced uberX fares for KL customers this week. 

As an example on their website, the estimated fare for a journey from KL Sentral to Mid Valley has been reduced from RM8 to RM4 and the estimated fare from 1Utama to TTDI is down to RM3 from RM5 previously.

Uber explains that the reduction in fares will encourage more people to use Uber, therefore increasing the number of rides that their drivers, referred to as ‘partners’, can take – which then increases the earning of a partner.

The fare is summed up as the Base Fare of RM0.95 plus either RM0.25/minute or RM0.60/km, whichever is the more expensive. This is broken down in the simple infographic below:

Previously, the base fare for an uberX was at RM2 while the ride fare was RM0.35 per minute and RM0.70 per kilometre.

To assuage fears of reduced earnings for their partners in KL, Uber has showcased their research on Uber prices in New York over four years which shows a 30% increase in the number of partners and an increase in average earnings even though fares were reduced by 30%.

With that, Uber expects more people to sign up as Uber partners and they specified that partners will spend less time waiting and more time driving, thus increasing their earnings.

As for users, Uber mentions that the increased supply of partners means that users will not have to wait long for their Uber to arrive, thus saving them time as well as money.

So this fare reduction looks like good news for both users and partners – but we’ll have to wait until February to know for sure.