Welcome to Uber Cebu Tips

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Uber Cebu Driver Incentive for September 26 to October 2, 2016

Cebu Uber Driver Promotional Incentive Photo credit: www.sgvbusiness.com

Here's the official promotional incentive for drivers for the week of September 26 to October 2, 2016:

Uber Cebu Driver Incentive for September 19-25, 2016

Cebu Uber Driver Promotional Incentive Photo credit: www.sgvbusiness.com

Here's the official promotional incentive for drivers for the week of September 19-25, 2016:

Uber Cebu Driver Incentive for September 12-18, 2016

Cebu Uber Driver Promotional Incentive Photo credit: www.sgvbusiness.com

Here's the official promotional incentive for drivers for the week of September 12-18, 2016:

Best Mobile Network and Data Promo for Use in Uber Cebu

UPDATED (Sep 9, 2016)

A lot of partners are asking if which is the best mobile network operator and data promo to be used in Uber Cebu. In this post, i'll share to you what we have used (tried and tested) to give you an idea which network among the three options is better (if not best, if you are still undecided), and/or give you the best mobile data promo available for your network of choice.

Mobile Network Operators in Cebu

There are three mobile network operators in Cebu, Philippines. They are Globe Telecom, Smart Communications and Sun Cellular (technically two since Smart and Sun are now both under PLDT Group). Based on the recent data from OpenSignal.com, a leading source of insight into the coverage and performance of Mobile Operators worldwide, Globe is ranked #1 in Cebu (but Smart's reliability is slightly higher than Globe). However, we are using both networks and our verdict is that there is no significant difference between the two.

Coverage Heat Map of Mobile Operators in Cebu City
(Credit: OpenSignal.com)

Best Mobile Data Promo Package

Globe Prepaid:

Note: As of September 7, 2016, GOTSCOMBOAHD10 is not anymore working. Use Package 2 (GOTSCOMBODD70) instead, or try the new package 1 below.

Best Promo Package 1: GS99 combined with GOCOMBOIKEA35
Cost: ₱ 134
Validity: 30 days
Data Allocation: 1.2 GB (1228800 KB) valid for 30 days
Call: Unlimited to Globe/TM (valid for 1 day)
Text: 20 Texts to All Networks (valid for 1 day)
Other: 1GB worth of freebie of your choice (facebook, youtube, spotify basic, etc) (valid for 30 days)

How to register:

Step 0: Disable data and load at least P134.

Step 1: Send GS99 to 8080. Wait for the confirmation message.

Step 2: Send GOCOMBOIKEA35 to 8080. You should receive a confirmation message.

NOTE: If you receive a message like "Our system has detected that multiple promo registrations were sent from your account", wait for at least 20 mins before sending IKEA35 again.

Step 3: Check the status/balance of your registration by sending GOSURF STATUS to 8080 and/or GOSAKTO STATUS to 8080.

To add another 1GB consumable data, just register GOCOMBOIKEA35 to 8080 again. If done right, you'll get 2.2GB data in 30 days for only P169!

Best Promo Package 2: GOTSCOMBODD70
Cost: ₱ 70
Validity: 7 days
Data Allocation: 1 GB
Other: ~~1000 texts to Globe/TM~~ Unli Text to All Networks
How to register: send GOTSCOMBODD70 to 8888

Globe Postpaid:

Best Plan 1: myStarter Plan 300 (with FREE smartphone)
Cost: ₱ 300
Consumable: ₱ 300 per month of prepaid load
Preferred handset: Lenovo A2010 (4G & Dual-SIM)
Cash-out: ₱ 600

Best Plan 2: Plan 1299 (with FREE iPhone 5s)
Cost: ₱ 1299
Inclusive:
Unli Call & Text to Globe/TM: ₱ 499
GoSurf 499 (3GB): ₱ 499
Unli All Net Text: ₱ 299
Consumable: ₱ 2

Smart Prepaid/Bro:

Best Promo Package: Big Bytes 70
Cost: ₱ 70
Validity: 7 days
Data Allocation: 1 GB open access volume and 300 MB of Entertainment Bundle Hero Innovations (iflix, Fox, & Spinnr)
Other: 1000 texts to Smart. TNT and Sun
How to register: send BIG70 to 9999

Smart Postpaid:

Best Plan: All-in Plan 800 (with FREE LTE-capable smartphone)
Big Bytes 299 (1.7 GB of data with FREE 1.1GB for iflix, Spinnr, YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, Dubsmash and Skype Qik, all valid for 30 days): ₱ 299
Unli All Net Text 349: ₱ 349
Consumable: ₱ 152

(We have no experience yet with Sun Cellular. We will update this post as soon as we have data from fellow Uber Cebu partners).

Sun Prepaid:

Best Promo Package: TBD
Cost: TBD
Validity: TBD
Data Allocation: TBD
Other: TBD
How to register: send TBD to TBD

Sun Postpaid:

Best Plan: TBD

Uber cuts fares by 20% in Cebu

Photo credit: Uber

Since Uber's launch in Cebu last December 2015, thousands of Cebuanos have made Uber their ride of choice when it comes to getting around Cebu. With Uber, you’re guaranteed a safe and reliable ride anywhere in the city, at the tap of a button. Since Monday, September 5, you can get further for less, with uberX fares 20% more affordable than before. That's another reason to leave your cars at home.

New Fares

So how much is uberX's new fare compared to a regular (white) or airport (yellow) taxi?

Let's start with a sample route from One Oasis Cebu to Mactan Airport. Below is the route I selected, based on the current traffic condition.

Google map says its 12.7 km away and is 26 min without traffic. And these are the assumptions that we'll be using (based on experience):

Total travel time from One Oasis to Airport is 48 min.
It is assumed that the idle time for taxis is 22 mins (48 - 26 = 22).

Let's plug in these numbers on our calculator. Here's the formula:

Base Fare + (Time Rate * Time) + (Distance Rate * Distance) = Total Fare

For regular/white taxi:

30 + (1.75 * 22) + (11.67 * 12.7) = ₱216.71

For airport/yellow taxi:

60 + (2 * 22) + (13.33 * 12.7) = ₱273.29

For uberX car:

40 + (3 * 48) + (6.90 * 12.7) = ₱271.63

For uberX new rate (Sep 5, 2016):

30 + (2.4 * 48) + (6.50 * 12.7) = ₱227.75

Here's a comparison table for everybody's reference:

As you will notice, at moderate traffic, Uber's rate is comparable to regular (white) taxi. If the traffic is good, expect Uber's rate to be a lot cheaper than regular taxi due to it's lower per km rate.

Wait, there's more. Uber is giving away promotional discount to ALL users. Just enter the promo code MASBARATO and you'll get P100 off your next Uber ride! This promo code is valid until September 13, 2016 only.

Disclaimer: The calculation above is based on a specific condition. The result is greatly affected by actual traffic condition. I will try to analyze this in my next post.