Uber Tests Price Lock Pass to Rival Lyft
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Uber Technologies Inc. is working on a new paid offering that would let commuters lock in prices for frequent rides ahead of time, rivaling a popular feature that Lyft Inc. launched five months ago.
The potential new product is called “price lock pass,” according to a Bloomberg News review of the publicly available code behind Uber’s iPhone app. The company hasn’t yet announced the offering, and details about it have not been previously reported. Riders would be able to purchase a monthly pass for $2.99, according to the code, letting them cap prices for a designated route during a one-hour window each day. This would help commuters avoid surprise price increases during busy times — commonly known as “surge pricing.”
“With a price lock pass, you’ll pay the same price, or less, on UberX rides,” the code says. Users can save as much as $50 a month with the feature, it added. An FAQ page for the product is live on Uber’s website but does not currently contain any text.
An Uber spokesperson declined to comment on the code findings. There is no guarantee the company will ultimately launch the feature, but the engineering work on it indicates Uber is considering such a move.
Uber is the parent company of Uber Freight, which ranks No. 13 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America.
Price-guarantee plans represent a potential new source of revenue for Uber, which said recently that a slowdown in U.S. rideshare bookings has been weighing on its core mobility unit. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has also said that weekday bookings have been a highlight thanks to demand from business customers. Consumers, meanwhile, have become more selective about whether to go out on weekends, the firm has said.
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Lyft, Uber’s biggest rival in the U.S., launched a similar feature with the same name last August, and it’s proven popular with riders. Commuters accounted for nearly half of Lyft’s weekday rides in the July-to-September period and its Price Lock feature exceeded performance expectations, the company said last November, prompting it to issue fourth-quarter earnings guidance that beat projections. Lyft had more than 200,000 active passes at the end of September, CEO David Risher said at the time.
Lyft’s pass is also priced at $2.99 a month, with savings capped at $40 per month per pass. The company lets users hold as many as 10 passes at a given time. It is unclear from Uber’s code if the firm would allow users to purchase multiple passes at once — say, one for their morning commute and one for the evening.
It would not be the first time Uber has launched a subscription product billed as a way for consumers to save money. In 2018, the company debuted “Ride Pass,” a $14.99 monthly plan that gave riders cheaper prices on unlimited rides. The product later evolved into its current $9.99-a-month Uber One membership program.
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