Uber Gives Free Rides to Shelters During Hurricane Irma (bloomberg.com)

One million households lost power in Florida, and at least three people died, after Hurricane Irma made landfall Sunday morning. Bloomberg reports how Uber tried to help: Uber Technologies Inc. is offering free rides to shelters near Tampa as Hurricane Irma barrels toward the Florida mainland. The City of Tampa's Office of Emergency Management publicized the free rides on its Twitter feed, @AlertTampa, and mobile news alert service. Uber's offer helps serve a vital need for transportation, as Tampa Bay area residents got late notice that the monster storm that changed track on Saturday and was heading their way. It also provided a chance for the company to burnish an image... Uber has also been criticized for using its so-called surge pricing in times of crisis.

Comments

Not correct

[quonset]

Uber isn't doing anything. Their cab drivers are the ones absorbing the costs to take people to shelters.

If the cab driver's vehicle gets damaged, will Uber pay for the repairs? If Uber was doing something they'd reimburse the cost of fuel and time to their drivers, and then some.

But you'll never see that happen.

Re:Not correct

[MangoCats]

Uber could be construed to encompass their drivers as well as corporate leadership / landlord rent-seekers of the website and app.

Would be nice if the landlord did something for the drivers, but the drivers doing something for the public is just the same, from the public's point of view.

Re:Not correct

[Anonymous Coward]

Every day or two I read a post and scratch my head and realize that while I understood each of the words individually, the post as a whole just didn't make any sense. Congratulations, you are today's winner.

Re:Not correct

[war4peace]

If the cab driver's vehicle gets damaged, will Uber pay for the repairs?

As a matter of fact, they are.
I took an Uber with my sick child to drive him to a private hospital once, and the kid vomited on the back seat. Not a lot, he's only three and didn't do a lot of damage. The driver said it's fine because he will take a picture of the damage and Uber will give him money to wash the car thoroughly and then some.
I asked "what if drivers abuse this?" to which he said Uber does keep statistics of how likely this event is to occur and there are certain thresholds. he also said this sort of occurrence happens more often than I'd imagine (drunk fares are fairly common).

The key is for the damage to occur while driving for Uber.

Re:Not correct

[wonkey_monkey]

Uber isn't doing anything. Their cab drivers are the ones absorbing the costs to take people to shelters.

If Uber was doing something they'd reimburse the cost of fuel and time to their drivers

How do you know they're not?

Re:Not correct

[fluffernutter]

Pssst.. I think that was an AI bot.

Re:Not correct

[fluffernutter]

So presumably if your kid had thrown a brick through the window and scratched the side of the car with a key, Uber wouldn't expect the driver to make a claim on his own insurance and cover that damage as well? I guess being an Uber driver is a better deal than I thought.

Re:Not correct

[BasilBrush]

No it couldn't as the drivers are self employed, not employees. Many drivers use both Uber and Lyft apps at the same time to get jobs.

Re:Not correct

[BasilBrush]

If Uber pay the driver to clean up vomit, they charge the passenger. If you didn't have extra money taken from your account by Uber, then the driver wasn't paid.

Re:Not correct

[BasilBrush]

You are wrong. To get the free rides, people use the Uber app, and enter TBSHELTER as a promo code. Clearly only Uber could organise that, not the drivers themselves.

Re:Not correct

[Anonymous Coward]

You are wrong. .... Clearly only Uber could organise that, not the drivers themselves.

OMG, I wonder just how many cabbies have ever helped people all on their own!

Geez people, Uber is just a greedy multinational corporation that's buying an image. :-(

Re:Not correct

[war4peace]

I don't think they charge the passenger. I think they eat the cost up to some extent, and of course if you as a passenger are a repeated offender they would just ban your account.
Can't really say. But it makes sense for some small issues to be covered by Uber.

Re:Not correct

[war4peace]

I don't know, and won't test it either :)
My guess is that if there's an issue that's covered by insurance, then it's up to the driver to handle it. Somebody vomiting in a car isn't covered by insurance, so Uber would do that for the driver.

Re:Not correct

[Anonymous Coward]

According to Uber's help page, they do charge the passengers.
https://help.uber.com/h/21dcbcf7-8fe0-4dd0-a906-06a0a427dc34

Re:Not correct

[BasilBrush]

I know for a fact that they charge the passengers for cleaning up vomit.

Re:Not correct

[fluffernutter]

Well that sucks, because using insurance isn't free. Premiums go up.

Re:Not correct

[DickBreath]

Drat! There goes my plan.

Hello? Uber? I am in Alaska, and I need a ride to a hurricane shelter in Texas. Any hurricane shelter will do. How soon can you pick me up?

Burnish their image?

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm, no, if doesn't help burnish their image.

It just shows even more what opportunistic scumbags they are.

Re:Burnish their image?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup, PR Move.
They started at 05:39, and ended this at Noon, long before this story was published here. EditorDavid caught again at failing to Fact-Check.
And they got a whole lot of free publicity, from shills like this Editor.
Shame yet again, Slashdot.

Re:Burnish their image?

[Hognoxious]

It's a rather odd turn of phrase, even if it does make sense. Makes me wonder what language it was automatically translated from.

Re:Burnish their image?

[Anonymous Coward]

A little known one these days called English. Finding the exact origin is difficult, but the sense goes back to a forgotten playwright by the name of Shakspear or something, who used this simile regarding a Queen Cleopatra, who had things shined up around her to increase her own stature and importance:
"The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne..."
Note that the current meaning is Active in relation to Passive: One Burnishes an already Tarnished Image.

Re:Burnish their image?

[Hognoxious]

You found a *word*. I said *phrase*.

Re:Burnish their image?

[Anonymous Coward]

"You found a *word*. I said *phrase*."
Yes you did. You further inferred a deeper meaning to this inner recently discovered phrase of yours. Perhaps your own meaning.
I simply don't care.
"It's a rather odd turn of phrase, even if it does make sense."
It has made sense for some four or five centuries now, for those who pay attention. That it now eludes you still, is not my problem. It's your problem. You are Culturally Illiterate.

However, this has been fun.
On now to address more important issues

Free rides to shelters

[Anonymous Coward]

The ride home, though? Well, that's gonna cost ya double.

Altruism?

[Anonymous Coward]

There is a 7-11 in Miami that's giving away free water for people in IRMA. That's only because during the last storm they were caught price-gouging the people.

caveat emptor

[Anonymous Coward]

"Uber has also been criticized for using its so-called surge pricing in times of crisis." Why? They're whores, you enter into your contract with them freely. Why shouldn't they rob you when they can?

Re:caveat emptor

[Lordpidey]

Surge pricing also increases supply significantly. Many drivers wait until surge pricing starts before they start driving.

Pricing

[Anonymous Coward]

Could we call this Storm Surge Pricing?

Chest Thumping

[sdinfoserv]

So independent contractors are driving people in their own cars, on their own time, free of charge .... and Uber gets the credit?

Re:Chest Thumping

[BasilBrush]

Wrong. The offer works via the promo code TBSHELTER in the app. Uber is offering the free rides, not the drivers.

WTF

[Anonymous Coward]

Uber is telling its drives to provide free rides. How much is Uber compensating the drives for the *risk*. Again, compensation for the *risk* not the cost. Before even getting into the car, in a hurricane there is a danger above just driving a car under normal conditions. Think about, say, the risk of a tree falling on your car. You are more likely to have the tree fall on you in the high winds of a hurricane.

Re:WTF

[BasilBrush]

No they're not. Uber drivers are self employed, Uber can't instruct them to take any rides.

Contrary to the assumptions here, Uber are providing the free rides via a promo code in the app "TBSHELTER". Rider gets ride free. Driver gets paid normal rates.

But if they driver doesn't want to go out driving he doesn't have to.

What a fucked up situation

[SCVonSteroids]

That sometimes the conversation goes like this:
  - Refugee : "Please help us! We need a drive to the shelter before the storm hits!"
  - Driver : "Yeah of course! That'll be $20 a head!"

Sickening.

Uber

[Anonymous Coward]

When the major part of the flooding hit texas, there were fire dept/coast guard first-responders, then there were a bunch of private citizens out on boats doing part of the grunt work of finding and relocating survivors.

One of the major complaints from the 'official' S&R guys was that they were getting tons of help, but the logistics of knowing who's-searching-where, and what area to send your next crew was hard to manage.

Wouldn't it be great if there was some kind of GPS-enabled tracking app that could be used to coordinate and communicate between groups of people over large areas?

Re:Uber is only slightly less bad than government

[Anonymous Coward]

for those whom are driving for Uber. You have choices in life

You clearly made the choice not to learn when to use the accusative case.

I'd be rather disappointed

[93 Escort Wagon]

If I lived near Tampa and needed saving, I'd be a bit disappointed if some hairy Uber driver showed up rather than Kristin Bell.