With gas prices rising to new heights in the U.S. and other parts of the world, Uber is debuting a “temporary fuel surcharge” to help offset the costs, the company announced in a blog post Friday (March 11).
The surcharge will start on March 16, and consumers will pay a surcharge of $0.45 or $0.55 on every Uber trip. For Uber Eats orders, the additional fee will be either $0.35 or $0.45, depending on location.
According to Uber, 100% of the money will go to its workers. The surcharges will also depend on average trip distance and the amount that gas prices have increased in every state.
Uber said this will be going on for at least the next 60 days, and the company plans to reassess the surcharge after that.
“We know that prices have been going up across the economy, so we’ve done our best to help drivers and couriers without placing too much additional burden on consumers,” the company wrote. “Over the coming weeks we plan to listen closely to feedback from consumers, couriers and drivers. We’ll also continue to track gas price movements to determine if we need to make additional changes.”
Uber also said it’s using “this moment” to help advance plans to let more drivers switch to electric vehicles (EVs).
Per the post, drivers already using electric can enjoy “higher earnings potential” with the Uber Green Future Program, giving incentives to EV drivers, including $1 more per trip, up to $4,000 annually. There will also be discounts and special deals related to EVs, like charging and other such things.
PYMNTS wrote that Uber also recently debuted features to let people split bills for Uber Eats, allowing users to “create a group and allow individuals to order from the same restaurant and pay for whatever they’d like.”
Read more: Uber Unveils Bill Splitting, Other Group Dining Features
The company also introduced a new feature called Deadlines, which allows people who’ve created a group order to set a deadline so everyone has time to get their orders in. There are also auto-reminders so customers won’t have to bother friends to get their orders in on time.
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