Welcome to Uber Cebu Tips

Monday, March 21, 2016

Uber Recorded its First-Ever SURGE in Cebu

Surge Pricing or NO CARS AVAILABLE

Yesterday, Uber announced that it is activating its Surge Pricing feature in Cebu beginning today, March 21, 2016. Check this post for more details about surge pricing.

The first-ever surge in Cebu happened at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport this afternoon at around 2:50 PM, as shown below. Per our monitoring, the surge started at 1.2x and disappeared after few minutes.

There are a number of ways that you can do to avoid paying extra in an event of surge. The first, and probably the most used, is to wait until the surge disappears. You will receive an automatic notification by clicking "NOTIFY ME WHEN SURGE DROPS" button as below.

The other option that you could try is FARE SPLIT. Of course, you need a friend (up to 3) to do this. In a nutshell, the total fare will be divided into 2 (or 4 if you have 3 friends with you) plus an additional P10 for using the fare split feature.

Again, Surge Pricing is helpful to balance the supply versus the demand. Without it, there's no way to get an Uber ride when you need it most. Surge Pricing is better than NO CARS AVAILABLE.

Surge Pricing: Uber's Dynamic Pricing Explained

Uber will be activating it's surge pricing feature in Cebu beginning Monday, March 21, 2016. For those who aren't familiar with it, don't freak out yet as I will try to explain here everything you need to know about it. But before anything else, it is important to know what does Uber stands for.

Uber is ALWAYS a reliable ride. Being unavaliable, inconvenient is the opposite of Uber. Being Uber means being "Always On" and "Always Convenient".

This is Uber's differentiator from your regular taxi system. And this is the main reason why they do surge pricing.

What is surge pricing and how does it work?

At times of high demand, the number of drivers becomes limited. As a result, prices are increased to encourage more drivers to become available. Raising prices will dramatically increase the number of cars on the road, therefore, more safe and convenient rides will be served.

For example, if there are 300 cars up in a city and 290 of them are either picking up a rider or in a trip, this would be considered an extremely tight supply situation. Higher prices encourages more drivers to come online. The algorithm raise the price in increments over time until demand begins to decrease. When supply is enough, the price will go down.

How do Uber riders know the price?

Whenever there is surge (or surge pricing), you'll see a notification screen (as below) in your app. You'll have to accept these higher rates before you can proceed with your request.

The math is fairly simple. If your 2-km commute to work takes you 7 minutes, a regular-priced Uber ride would cost you around Php 74.80, as below:

UberX rate in Cebu

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

40 + (3 * 7) + (6.9 * 2) = Total Fare

Total Fare = Php 74.80

However, if there is 2.0x surge, your trip will now cost Php 149.60.

You can also run a fare estimate right within your app to know roughly what your trip will cost before you request it, so there are never any surprises on your receipt.

Please note that depending on supply/demand conditions, you may begin seeing surge pricing take effect in Cebu beginning Monday, March 21, 2016.

Questions? Send us an email at ubercebutips@gmail.com.

Cebu Uber Driver Promotional IncentivePhoto credit: www.sgvbusiness.com

Here's the official promotional incentive for drivers for the week of March 21-27, 2016:

Uber Cebu Driver Incentive for March 14-20, 2016

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

Here's the official promotional incentive for drivers for the week of March 14-20, 2016:

Uber Cebu Driver Incentive for March 7-13, 2016

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

Here's the official promotional incentive for drivers for the week of March 7-13, 2016:

Uber phone battery draining so fast? Here are some simple tips you should try

Photo credit: finance.yahoo.com

Is your Uber phone's battery draining so fast that even if it's charged all the time, battery level keeps going down? This problem is more common on Android phones than iOS devices. This is because Uber Partner app is a high battery use app. But there are a lots of things you can do to make your phone's battery last longer. And they are just simple adjustments on your phone's settings.

1. Screen

The phone's screen is almost always the #1 offender. Try setting the brightness level to the minimum level. Go to Settings -> Display ->Brightness (or Brightness Level). You might also want to change to a black wallpaper.

2. Wi-Fi

There's no reason why you need to turn on Wi-Fi (same with Bluetooth) when driving, so make sure it is turned off or disabled all the time. Wait, there's more, on Android, even if Wi-Fi is disabled, your phone could still be searching for networks. To turn this off, go to Wi-Fi settings -> Advanced. Uncheck the option for Wi-Fi Scanning (or anything similar to this such as below).

3. Auto-sync

Any changes you make to your accounts (Google, Facebook, Messenger, etc) on the web will be automatically copied to your phone, and vice versa. That includes facebook posts, e-mails, and even photos. So disable this as well.

4. Unused Apps

Unused apps drain battery by consuming processing power when not in use. Uninstall them or restrict them from running.

Last but not the least, as soon as you notice that your battery is dropping faster than usual, restart your phone.

Let us know your comments and more tips by commenting it below.

Uber Cebu Partners Guide in Online Submission of TNVS CPC Requirements

Uber Cebu Partners Guide in TNVS CPC Requirements Online Submission
Photo credit: forbes.com

CONGRATULATIONS to all Uber Cebu partners who received an email/SMS that their Provisional Authority certificates have been approved by LTFRB.

Below is the extracted form from t.uber.com/TNVSCPCSubmitCebu for everybody's reference. If you need to know the CPC requirements and blank forms, click here:

No DTI Certificate of Business Name Registration yet? Check here.

No BIR Certificate of Registration yet, use your 2015 ITR or BIR 2316.

UPDATE (March 9, 2016): Updated per latest update from Uber.