Whenever you’re planning a road trip, knowing where you stand on travel costs before embarking on the trip will help you budget better. If you plan to use an Uber ride for your trip, there are several tools available to help you know exactly how much you’ll be paying for your Uber fare. In this article, we will discuss how to calculate Uber fares in Nigeria so you’d know the price estimate for your planned trip.
How to calculate Uber fares in Nigeria would be discussed below:
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Uber Fare Estimator
One of the Uber tools that you can use to easily check the price of your planned trip ahead of time is the Uber fare estimator. To make use of this feature, simply open the Uber app on your smartphone device, then provide where you are in the “Where to?” bar, as well as where you want to go in the “destination” field. Immediately after you finish providing the starting point and destination of your planned trip, the estimated price would appear at the bottom of the screen.
Aside from using the app to determine what the Uber fare for your planned trip would be, you can also do so online by visiting https://www.uber.com/global/en/price-estimate. Once this webpage loads, you’d have to log in if you already have an Uber account or sign up if you’re new to Uber. Once you either logged into your account or completed your registration, you’d need to enter your pickup location and destination in the appropriate boxes, then hit the “Request Now” button. The estimated price for your Uber ride based on your pickup location and destination would then be shown to you.
It is, however, important to mention that the price which is provided by the Uber fare estimator is based on traffic and the hour at which you check. This implies that the price estimate can be subject to change depending on the availability of drivers.
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Uber Fare Split
Another method you can use to calculate what your Uber fare would be for your proposed road trip is the Fare Split tool on the Uber app. This Uber tool is particularly useful in situations where you and your friend(s) are planning the trip together. Aside from having more fun riding with your friend(s), you get to pay lesser than you would have if you made the trip alone.
To make use of this feature to calculate what the price of your trip would be, simply open the Uber app at any point before or during your ride, then select “Fare Split”. Next, you’d need to enter the name of your friend or the mobile phone number of your friend(s) that you’re riding with (or plan to ride with). Your friend that you’d be sharing the Uber ride will get an invite, which he would need to open the Uber app on his phone and proceed to accept the invite. Upon acceptance of the Fare Split, the fare would be split between your account at the end of the ride.
When using this fare-splitting feature on Uber, you’ll need to have your credit card handy to make payment as that is what is acceptable as a payment method for certain Uber features such as the Fare Split.
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Uber Dynamic Pricing Model
In situations where too many riders in your vicinity are requesting Uber rides at once thus causing the demand for rides to be more than the number of drivers available, Uber uses the dynamic pricing model to provide price estimates for trips.
In situations as described above (i.e. when there are more riders than available drivers), you’ll be notified in big bold letters that there is a price surge. While Uber fares may be higher during such rush periods, dynamic pricing entails that drivers would swiftly get to your pickup location if you accept to proceed with the trip with the price boldly displayed on your screen.
If you aren’t so in a hurry to hit the road, you can choose to wait a while to check to see if the price estimate for your trip drops lower. Alternatively, you could also request to be alerted immediately if the marketplace becomes rebalanced and more drivers become available, thereby causing the fare to drop.
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How is Uber Fares Estimated?
Sometimes when you use Uber in Nigeria, you get to see the exact amount you’d have to pay for your trip upfront. In some other cases, you’d see an estimated fare range for your trip. That being said, let’s briefly define the terms you’d come across when you want to calculate what your fare would be for your proposed ride, whether you’re using the Uber app to do so or its website.
The base rate is one of the terms you’d surely come across whenever you want to find out your fare would be with Uber. The base rate of every Uber ride is determined by the time and distance of your trip.
The operating fee is another term you’d see whenever you’re checking the price of your planned trip using an Uber cab. Depending on the city/town in Nigeria you are in, a flat rate might be added to support operational, regulatory, and safety costs.
Busy times and areas are a common terms you’d likely come across on your Uber app whenever the demand for Uber rides exceeds available drivers. As a result, there would be a temporary increase in the fares. However, when the number of available drivers exceeds riders requesting rides, the price drops further.