My first Uber experience and Rs 300 off your first ride with Uber

I know this is a points and miles blog, but I thought I'd also write about some additional stuff, seeing as it is that getting to the airport is also part of the entire travel experience!

Uber launched their chauffeured car services in Chennai late in January 2014. AJ of Live from a Lounge wrote about it, but other than to sign up for referral credits, I didn't really give it much thought at the time. Earlier this week, thought, I had some travel come up, and I decided to cancel the cab pick up that my office had arranged, so I could use Uber.

I was initially a bit apprehensive about the whole concept, for two reasons. One, while I'm OK with *some* technology, I'm not all that comfortable with too much of it, particularly on smartphones. And two, because Uber doesn't take bookings in advance, I wasn't too sure about their on time arrival, particularly when I had a flight to catch (and so I actually had a friend prepared to drop me off at the airport, should things go pear-shaped with Uber).

I'm happy to report that I survived on both counts - their Android app was quite easy to use, and even indicated the location of the nearest car. As a matter of fact, their cars are stationed really close to my home, though there were not at that exact spot at the time of booking - the nearest was about 5 minutes away, as the map showed. I confirmed by car, and within 5 seconds, I'd received a text message indicating that the car was on the way. Almost immediately, the driver rang me up to confirm the pick up address and wanted some directions.

Here's the car that eventually came for me - a Mercedes Benz C class!

The interiors were very clean and neat.

Heck, my car even had sun roofs!

We left for the airport, and as both the driver and I were in a chatty mood, we got talking. That's when I noticed the iPhone placed in the driver's view, with the Uber app displaying their perspective - current location, passenger name and contact number.

At the end of the ride, the app asks you to rate the trip. Also, the billing is charged to your credit card, and you receive an email of the invoice, containing key statistics of your trip, a map of the route you took, and also a photograph of the driver (don't ask me why).

The rates, as of now, are extremely reasonable - Rs 100 minimum fare, plus Rs 15 per km, and Rs 2 per minute of waiting (including when the car halts at signals). If you consider that these (except the minimum fare) are the same rates as most other taxis operate for (with cars at varying degrees of maintenance, from laboratory santisied conditions to garbage dumps), Uber does seem extremely inviting!

Here's the low down on the service, at least as applicable to Chennai:

• Uber has tied up with 4-5 large local cab companies that offer private taxi (chauffeur driven) services, which own the cars (again, unlike regular taxis, where there's a mix of company-owned, driver-owned and privately-owned-and-leased cars)
• At this point in time, they use only Mercs, BMWs and Jaguars
• The comparable fare for an airport drop (from virtually anywhere in the city) in a Merc, as charged by the private taxi operators, is upwards of Rs 3,000 [to put that in perspective, my ride cost me Rs 354]
• Uber pays the local cab company Rs 10,500 for every 12-hours, irrespective of usage
• Usage is picking up, but average distances are quite short - I was my cabbie's 8th ride of the day, and his total billing till then (in 6 hours of his work day) was around Rs 1,200
• Uber operates from 5 am to 3 am, with drivers taking shifts at the wheel

Overall, I find this service to be extremely good and cost-effective. Also, they will wait at a location as long as you want them to, subject of course to a charge of Rs 2 per minute. In particular, this is a great idea if you're going for a night out, can't remain sober enough to drive back, and can afford the waiting charges! Or you could always have one pick you up at the end of the night, though availability could be an issue sometimes.

So, I did some math. At 30-40 kms of travel per hour (that's a pretty liberal estimate), one can expect to run about 400 kms (give or take) every 12 hours. That itself would cost upwards of Rs 25 per km, at their current cost rates (going by what the driver told me). However, that's the theory. This level of traffic is not practically possible, at least not until there is significant awareness of Uber, so I'm putting my estimate of costs at close to Rs 50 per km, if not more. Compared to a billing of Rs 15 per km, that's an up-front loss rate of 70%, which is clearly not sustainable, even if you had unlimited funding.

So, I do expect their costs to go up, and quite significantly at that. Still, for the occasional ride in a Jag, it may be a good trip for the ego, if not for the wallet!

To use Uber, you will first need to download the Uber app (Android version here, go here for iPhones) and register - your mobile number and email are used as reference, so multiple signups may be a challenge. You will also need to provide your credit card details which will be stored by Uber. You can also use my promotion code ubermilesandevenmore, or just click here, to get a Rs 300 credit to your account, if you want to. For full disclosure (and since this isn't really a commercially oriented blog), I too will receive a Rs 300 credit if you sign up using the above code.

Let me know if you've used Uber, and what your thoughts are.