Uber has quietly been testing a versatile pricing service in additional than a dozen cities in India, a transfer that would assist it develop its client base within the South Asian nation and put strain on rival ride-hailing platforms, together with Ola and inDrive.

The versatile pricing service, known as Uber Flex, was began in India in October final 12 months and has since expanded to greater than 12 cities, together with Aurangabad, Ajmer, Bareilly, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Gwalior, Indore, Jodhpur and Surat, amongst others, TechCrunch has completely discovered. Uber confirmed that the versatile pricing service has expanded.

“We’re piloting this function in among the Tier 2 and three markets in India at the moment,” an Uber spokesperson mentioned in an emailed response to TechCrunch.

The service, which was initially rolled out for cabs and later expanded to auto-rickshaw rides, lets commuters bid a selected fare for his or her experience. That’s totally different from Uber’s normal dynamic pricing mannequin, which strikes up and down relying on provide and demand and visitors in a selected area.

Uber Flex gives 9 pricing factors — with a default value chosen — to let riders choose a fare of their selection that might be shared with close by drivers. Based mostly on that fare, the drivers can settle for or reject the experience.

Uber’s competitor inDrive, which operates in quite a few Indian cities, permits riders to haggle the fare by manually placing in a selected value for his or her experience. Nevertheless, many inDrive drivers within the nation have complained about passengers providing them too low costs for his or her rides. inDrive has not but addressed the motive force concern over riders fiercely bargaining their fare and has as a substitute touted that its “distinctive strategy ensures that drivers are pretty compensated whereas passengers get pleasure from an inexpensive but high-quality ride-hailing expertise.”

“By providing drivers the choice to make counterbids to passengers’ costs, inDrive fosters an choice for the motive force to extend the value if he feels to take action,” inDrive APAC director Roman Ermoshin advised TechCrunch whereas answering how inDrive is addressing driver considerations of not being reasonably compensated.

“Drivers are sometimes dissatisfied with the pricing within the ride-hailing platforms, as they yearn for honest compensation for his or her companies. With a concentrate on equity and transparency, inDrive showcases a advisable value within the app, which is normally barely decrease than within the different apps, and that is made potential by inDrive’s considerably decrease charges for drivers (roughly twice as little as the competitors, so the motive force earns the identical or extra as with the upper costs within the different apps).”

Uber is attempting to resolve the too-low fare downside confronted by some inDrive drivers by not permitting passengers to set a particular fare manually within the flex-pricing mode. It additionally locations a cap on the bottom fare.

Uber Flex permits riders to decide on a desired fare from the out there choices. Picture Credit: Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch

The service is on the market for inexpensive Uber Go rides and Intercity cabs in some cities, whereas in some, it’s even provided for Premier cabs and auto-rickshaw rides. Commuters will pay their fare in money or through digital cost. Furthermore, whereas Uber’s flex pricing mannequin is on the market for varied modes, the raid-hailing big isn’t making use of it to all modes in a single metropolis.

Uber is testing Flex in different markets together with Lebanon, Kenya and Latin America. TechCrunch discovered that the corporate was additionally trying to check the brand new service mannequin quickly in metro cities in India, together with Delhi and Mumbai.

Along with Uber Flex, the San Francisco-headquartered firm is testing totally different companies in India to cater to the native demand. These embody Uber Taxis in Mumbai, which gives conventional taxi drivers as an choice within the metropolis, and a Wait & Save mannequin in cities together with Mumbai, Guwahati and Chandigarh to let riders overcome surge pricing and pre-book a taxi when out there at a less expensive fare.

India’s app-based cab market has expanded lately, with new gamers coming into its city transportation area in the previous couple of months. Corporations together with BluSmart and Evera supply electrical taxis, whereas Ola, Uber and inDrive have onboarded numerous gasoline cabs. Final 12 months, bike taxi startup Rapido additionally began providing its cab service within the nation to develop its revenues and attain new prospects.

Nonetheless, Indian cab drivers — regardless of the platform they work on — battle as a result of comparatively low compensation and lack of security. There is no such thing as a readability for a lot of on whether or not they’ll stay within the enterprise as soon as their current automobiles turn into out of date.