Uber announced the launch of its pay-by-the-hour ride service. The SF-based tech company introduced “Uber Hourly,” a way to reserve a driver for $50 an hour.
This means you can take as many stops as you need to while running errands, getting to and from appointments, and anything else you might need to do mid-pandemic- all without having to request a new car at each destination.
The service is advertised as a way to “let customers get more done in these challenging times.”
Although booking multiple destinations in one Uber trip has been around since 2017, this new feature allows you to go to multiple stops while running errands or attending appointments without having to request new rides at each location.
You can book a driver for up to seven hours, though there are some restrictions. For example, you can’t make your final stop the airport.
A driver will wait for you nearby at each stop, and you can book a driver for up to seven hours (the $50 hourly rate doesn’t drop even with more hours booked, unfortunately). There are some restrictions, for example, you can’t make your final stop at the airport.
There is also a limit per hour on mileage, usually around 40 total miles. After the 40 miles have been reached, passengers have to pay per mile for the overage. This also applies to trips that run over an hour (or however long you booked).
Booking the driver is simple and is done through the Uber app- but instead of selecting a ride (UberX or Uber SUV trip, etc.), you click Hourly and proceed through prompts to select the number of hours you need, the stops you’d like to make, and other trip information necessary to get you where you need to go. You also always have the option to change or add stops during the ride.
In a statement, Uber’s director of rider operations Niraj Patel also framed it as “an additional earnings opportunity for drivers as we move forward in this ‘new normal.’”
So far, Uber Hourly has been brought to 12 US cities: Atlanta; Chicago; Washington, DC; Dallas; Houston; Miami; Orlando; Tampa Bay’ Philadelphia; Phoenix; Tacoma; and Seattle. Uber says it expects to expand it to more cities in the coming weeks.
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