SURGE PRICE: Post goes viral as social media user accuses Uber of ‘not caring’ about women's safety

A social media post continues to go viral as a female Uber user accused the operator of not caring about women’s safety after sharing concerns around surge pricing.

Writer @txadel shared her thoughts via Twitter whilst waiting for prices to drop on the Uber platform. Since the post was made late on Sunday 28 August over 15,000 people have liked the post and more than 2,000 have reposted the comments.

@txadel wrote on social media: “Waited out a surge and saw my Uber price go from £30 to £9. Uber you hate women and do not care about their safety. The constant surges late at night are a clear ploy to take advantage of us and our fear of harm and that is disgusting.”

Further posts said: “Like we talk about how as a society we need to protect women, how about not taking advantage and charging them an arm and a leg because you know they need taxis in order to increase their chances of getting to places safely at night?

“Muting this now. My only amendment would be that maybe Uber doesn’t actively hate women, but it certainly doesn’t care about us.”

Ride-hailing firm Uber has always used a ‘dynamic’ pricing system, which means the cost of a fare is worked out in real time to help balance supply and demand, and provide better earning opportunities to drivers when demand is high.

Uber say this model helps both riders and drivers to get the best price for the service offered. When demand for private hire drivers is low the prices drop and when it is high the prices rise.

When demand in an area is especially high and there aren't enough available cars, fares automatically rise to encourage more drivers to the busy areas. This is called surge pricing.

Uber Support responded to the concerns listed by Adelaja saying they were ‘happy to help’ and asked for further details to ‘assist you further’.