New Yorkers can literally get free rides from Gett, a London-based ride-hailing company, as part of the latter's promotional gimmick dubbed "Surge Sucks."
Gett launched the campaign as a response to Uber's surge pricing scheme and promises to offer New Yorkers free rides, the amount of which is equivalent to what they are paying Uber.
In order to participate, customers would have to create an account at SurgeSucks.com where they can forward their surge receipts from Uber into Gett's system. Afterwards, Gett will send a credit to the customer which is similar to his incurred surge amount.
"Everyone has been affected by expensive taxi and car service rides at some point due to traffic, roundabout routes or unnecessary, sky-high surge charges," said Gett in its press release last year.
Surge pricing, while being intended to keep a constant balance of supply and demand for both drivers and riders, had eventually earned Uber a lot of criticism after its implementation. Though it actually deflates demand for rides, it also made drivers feel more interested to drive in areas where there is surge pricing. Usually, the occurrence of surge prices lasts not longer than 10 minutes and shorter than 5 minutes.
In an earlier report at Tech Times, researcher Christo Wilson from Northeastern University argues that while surge pricing works since it seems to be responding to supply and demand, "it's not working as intended."
Gett added that the credits they are giving to the customers will be rounded up to the nearest increment of $5. For instance, if the customer sends $70.64 in surge fees, his Gett credit will be equivalent to $75.
Customers are also allowed to send multiple surge receipts not only from Uber but also from Lyft which can have a total cumulative value of $100. There's even a "lucky rider" who can win a cash prize of $1,000 if he has paid the highest surge pricing amount to Uber.
Earlier in September, Gett announced that riders in Manhattan will be charged with a flat rate of only $10 which will remain true whatever the distance, traffic or time it took them to get to their destination. The campaign is said to run towards the end of 2015.
"With the $10 Anywhere campaign, we want to make sure New Yorkers know there's an alternative to surge; users can have a great ride anywhere in Manhattan, in a licensed black car for only $10," said Ron Srebro, VP Innovation of Gett.
