With upfront fares, Uber is able to manipulate the base price of a fare extremely low, then add the surge back into the fare, to make it seem like it’s an ok fare.
Or, (my favorite), Uber will take your surge, give you a long pickup and pay you nothing for it, then just pay base fare plus surge for the drop off and it barely equals $1 per mile
Another observation, if it’s not busy and Uber is giving you a bait surge to stay in a certain area, be prepared for Uber to give you a long pickup to make you “work” for your surge
If it’s surging and you are in an actual busy area, Uber has no choice but to give you the surge and base with no long pickup, which is priced like how we used to get paid for surge rides, before upfront fares.
There are also times when there is no surge, but it is busy. You will get bombarded with pings that pay $1.00-$2.00 per mile, including pickup miles.
It’s all based on real demand. Surge may or may not make you more money, based on the pickup miles, and if Uber decides to drop the base pay for your fare.
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