Uber vs Black cab costs

thelawnet

Uber fares in the UK are calculated on the following basis:

Base fare - between 60p (Newcastle) and £3.25 (Bristol)

PLUS

Time charge - £6 (Leeds, Merseyside, Newcastle, Sheffield) or £9 (Bristol, London, Birmingham) per hour, calculated per second.

PLUS

Distance charge - between £1.10 (Merseyside) and £1.40 (Newcastle) per mile

PLUS

London airport surcharge - £4 Heathrow/Gatwick, £6 London City for pickups from the airport only (not drop-offs)

If your resultant fare is less than the minimum fare - between £3 and £5 depending on the city, you will be charged the minimum fare.

Meanwhile, a hackney carriage charges a base fare (£2 in London), plus a blended mileage/time charge, whereby you are charged what amounts to £2.55/mile (in London) BUT if during any rolling period of around 20 seconds (varies from city to city) you are averaging 10.4mph (also varies slightly around this number) or less you are charged what amounts to £26.50/hour (in London) but there is no mileage charge during this time.

For example, if you took a black cab for a one mile journey down Regent Street at no point exceeding 10mph during any period of around 20 seconds, and taking 15 minutes in total, then the total cost is
£26.50 *15/60 = £6.63 - time
£0 - distance
£2 - base
= £8.64 total

The Uber car, on the other hand charges:

£9 * 15/60 = £2.25 - time
£1.25 - distance
£2.50 - base
= £6 total

For a different hypothetical journey, let's say along five miles @ 50mph, with NO traffic:

London taxi:
£0 - Time
5 * £2.55 = £12.75 Distance
£2 - base
= £14.75 total

Uber:
10/60 * £9 = £1.50 - time
5 * £1.25 = £6.25 Distance
£2.50 - base
= £10.25 total

Another hypothetical journey, of four miles, at the average traffic speed in central London is around 10mph, and that you pay ONLY a distance charge in a black taxi as long as in each rolling period you have averaged 10.4mph or more.

The total journey time is 24 minutes at an average 10mph speed, and an expensive way to model this for the taxi is to consider it as 14 minutes completely stationary and 10 minutes at 25mph. This results in a charge of:

14/60 * £26.50 = £6.20 time
plus
4 * £2.55 = £10.20
plus
£2 base fare

A total of £18.40 (there is actually a higher charging band above £17.40, so it would be more expensive than that)

If instead you did:

4 minutes stationary, 10 minutes @ 5mph, and the rest above 10mph, then that reduces the mileage charge to 3.17 miles, cutting the fare to £16.40

Uber, meanwhile charges:

£2.50 base
24/60 * £9 = £3.60 time
4 * £1.25 = £5 distance

= £11.10

It's relatively trivial to calculate a total cost per mile for a given average journey speed with Uber. This is, for Uber London:

10mph: £2.15
15mph: £1.85
20mph: £1.70
30mph: £1.55
40mph: £1.48
50mph: £1.43
60mph: £1.40

PLUS the £2.50 base fare

So the cost is only 10% higher at 30mph than 60mph, but 54% higher at 10mph. In addition, most journeys at lower speeds are going to be shorter. So a 2 mile journey @ 10mph costs £6.80 = £3.40/mile, but a 20 mile journey @ 50mph costs £31.10 = £1.55/mile, so the per-mile cost is in fact more than double for the 2 mile journey, due to the base fare.

The full list of charges for London black cabs are:

£2 base

£2.55/mile OR £26.57/hour slow-moving time, Mon-Fri 6am to 8pm, up to a fare of £17.40
£3.14/mile OR £32.73/hr Mon-Fri 8pm-10pm, Sat/Sun 6am to 10pm (surcharge of 23%)
£3.89/mile OR £40.45/hr 10pm-6am, or public holidays (surcharge of 52%)

These charges apply up to £17.40/£21/£25.40 respectively (six miles, or less), beyond this a different charge is levied, which is the same regardless of the day/time:

£3.64/mile OR £37.89/hr. A surcharge of 42% on the base tariff, and 16% on the evening/weekend tariff

So for a longer journey, let's say 20 miles @ 40mph, on a weekend, you would pay around £65 for a black cab. For Uber the cost would be around £32, or half the black cab fare.

Uber does not have fixed surcharges, but it does have 'surge pricing', which is notified to the passenger. These can go to 3x, or higher.

From my analysis above, it suggests that for a shorter journey a black cab costs around 50% more than Uber. For a longer journey it is double. Therefore with 'surge pricing', Uber is unlikely to be competitive.

How does this compare to a mini cab? Well 'Simply Airports' quote me £61 (with a £6 surcharge for airport pickup coming back) for a 34.5 mile journey in 40 minutes, the Uber cost would be £51 (and a £4 surcharge). However a local minicab firm will do it for around £40.

Other hackney carriages in other cities work on similar principles, however fares are generally much lower than in London.

Bristol hackney fares:
£2.40 base + £1.81/mile or £18/hour (below 10mph) 6am-10pm (except public holidays)
£3.20 base + £2.20/mile or £23.20/hr night time (22% extra per mile)

Uber:
£3.25 base + £1.30/mile + £9/hour time.
This works out as £2.20/mile at 10mph, £1.75/mile at 20mph, and £1.60/mile at 30mph.

So in Bristol a hackney carriage works out slightly cheaper for short journeys (up to about three miles) in light traffic during day times, because of Uber's high base fare (although in practice, 'keep the change' might render this difference to zero). But in evenings or very heavy traffic Uber is cheaper.

Manchester hackney carriage:
£1.90 + £1.85/mile or £18.60/hour - day
£2.45 + £2.46/mile or £24.60/hour - night (33% surcharge)

Uber:
£1.50 + £1.30/mile + £9/hour
Again this works out at £2.20/mile at 10mph, £1.75/mile at 20mph, and £1.60/mile at 30mph.

In this case Uber is only slightly cheaper during the daytime in all cases. At the night time significantly cheaper, assuming no surge.

Liverpool hackney carriages:
£1.92 + £1.52/mile up to 6.25 miles, then £1.07/mile beyond that, or £12/hour - day rate
£2.39 + £1.90/mile up to 6.25 miles, then £1.33/mile beyond that, or £15/hour - night rate
£2.87 + £2.28/mile up to 6.25 miles, then £1.60/mile, or £18/hour - journeys going more than 4 miles outside Liverpool boundaries (subject to prior passenger agreement)

Uber:
£1 + £1.10/mile + £6/hour
Works out as £1.70/mile at 10mph, £1.40/mile at 20mph, £1.30/mile at 30mph.
Essentially Uber is always cheaper because of the very low base fare and low mileage charge - most journeys won't significantly exceed 6.25 miles within Liverpool.
E.g., 4 miles @ 30mph = £6.20 with Uber, £8 with a hackney carriage

In Sheffield:
£2.50 (£3 at night) + £1.53/mile up to 10 miles, £1.85/mile beyond 10 miles OR £14.75/hour - Hackney carriage
versus
£1.25 + £1.20/mile + £6/hour - Uber
Works out as £1.80/mile @ 10mph, £1.50/mile @ 20mph, £1.40/mile @ 30mph

Here Uber will work out around £1.50 cheaper on most fares - more so on a fare over 10 miles


Birmingham:
£1.90 + £2.82/mile for the first 0.6 miles, then £1.98/mile, or £15.72/hour - Hackney Carriage
versus
£1.40 + £1.10/mile + £9/hour - Uber
Works out at £2/mile at 10mph, £1.55/mile at 20mph and £1.40/mile at 30mph.

So Uber is MUCH cheaper, around £15.40 for 10 miles @ 30mph, versus AT LEAST £22.20 for the hackney carriage

Newcastle:
£2.20 + £1.67/mile
versus
60p + £1.40/mile + £6/hour
that is 10mph £2/mile, 20mph £1.70, 30mph £1.60

So you save at least the £1.60 base fare on every fare

Leeds:
£2 (80p more night time, 30p more weekends) + £1.51/mile to £5.20 fare, then £1.36/mile to £10.40 fare, then £1.50/mile - Hackney carriage
versus
£1.25 + £1.20/mile + £6/hr
that is 10mph £1.80/mile, 20mph £1.50/mile, 30mph £1.40/mile.

So here you probably save around £1 on the fare using Uber.


Obviously it is London taxis that are the most overpriced, and the biggest savings are to be made using Uber versus a black cab, which are just ridiculously expensive. Note in some cases Hackney carriages charge passenger surcharges for more than adult passenger. Uber makes no surcharge

dawyldthing

I suppose you pay the extra for black cabs for the experience they have. It's a bit like hiring a junior doctor and making them become a senior straight away as 'they would know it all'. The other thing is when I watched a TV programme years ago on a competition for them they were tested to go the shortest route (questionable if they do it in practice) whereas if the uber driver gets lost as they don't know where your going the meter is still being rung up

thelawnet

Uber drivers are all licensed minicab drivers. They use GPS.

theEnd

I take a lot of Uber and Black Cabs.

Generally UberX is about 50-60% the cost of a Taxi. Can be more expensive when the surge pricing is on, but that seems rare.

Personally I find the cars nicer and the conversation better (in general). The routes are much the same. Both can get caught in random traffic, both can try and be clever and fail.

The problem will come when every mini cab office is shut and all the black cabs are gone. Then Uber can (and probably will) charge as much as they'll get away with!!

mr_fishbulb

theEnd wrote: »

The problem will come when every mini cab office is shut and all the black cabs are gone. Then Uber can (and probably will) charge as much as they'll get away with!!

Competing companies will spring up if the market is lucrative.

theEnd

mr_fishbulb wrote: »

Competing companies will spring up if the market is lucrative.

There's competition now, but I feel it's one of those markets where there might only be one winner.

daveyjp

Uber will survive while ever there is a pool of people who believe they can make thousands a year for doing very little work.

To earn a decent wage means doing hours which are far from flexible.