Breaking The Myth: Is App-Based Cab Fare Higher for IOS Users Than Android?

Cab fares are soaring and travellers need to pay 18.7 rupees on average for traveling every kilometer. Travelers are willing to pay the amount as they get comfort and reliability. Moreover, late-night travelers are massively aided because of the app-based cabs. A conspiracy has taken all over the internet claiming IOS users need to pay more for app-based cabs when compared to Android users.

As per agency reports, a survey was conducted where the prices of ride-hailing applications showed higher prices for IOS consistently when compared with Android devices. The survey was conducted in Chennai amongst some frequent travelers on similar routes. The survey revealed improper pricing algorithms for the applications. For shorter rides, the fares were too high and when compared with long distances, the prices were to some extent justified. Still, it was higher than the prices shown on Android devices.

The variation in the price has raised concerns amongst IOS users as they need to pay more to travel to a specific distance. Upon questioning the popular ride-sharing application, they denied any involvement in personalizing the prices or creating a hardware manipulation to change the prices of the cabs. However, the dynamic prices are consistent and are often tagged as long distances, higher demand, and increased travel time.

Speaking to the Managing Director of a Chennai-based ride-hailing company, he claimed that popular ride-hailing companies can manipulate the pricing algorithms once the application studies the hardware of the device. “It is child's play for companies to tweak fares based on hardware details while hiding behind the ‘dynamic pricing algorithm’ explanation.”

The former Director of the Center of Development of Advanced Computing in a statement claimed that cab aggregators have an advantage in making the prices dynamic. Moreover, ML platforms such as Azure and Google Cloud allow them to control the search frequency, hardware type, and how frequently the application is used. It systematically collects data from the user sessions and changes the prices dynamically.

An expert from the Union Ministry’s aggregator policy suggested that phone models do not play a role in pricing algorithms but the user behavior is used to suggest the prices. While demand-based pricing and surge fares are important to make the cabs available for travelers, checking the prices of the cabs frequently leads to an increase in the charges.

The Managing Director of Fastrack claims that the applications collect user behavior and predict pricing accordingly. “Once they identify a regular user, they inflate fares, confident that the user will eventually book.” Contrary to this statement, the Director of the Center of Development of Advanced Computing claimed "If factors like estimated time, distance, and ride modes are consistent, users should not face discrimination based on their device."

Overpricing of cabs has become significantly challenging for daily travelers. Many of them use cabs for safer and reliable travel. Despite the cabs over-charging minimally, on frequent rides, the amount accounts for a larger sum.