Uber has introduced Uber Comfort, high-end mobility product designed to meet the preferences of riders, offering a personalized and comfortable experience for every trip. This service features newer vehicles with generous space and enhanced comfort amenities, ensuring a pleasant journey for passengers.
Passengers opting for Uber Comfort will benefit from a seven-minute waiting time allowance, which is longer compared to the standard five-minute wait time for other ride options. The service will be priced at a 5% premium over existing options like Uber X, and only drivers with newer vehicles manufactured from 2015 onwards will be eligible to participate in this service.
When hailing a ride on the app, customers opting for Uber Comfort can set their preferred temperature which drivers would adjust to before picking them up and specify if they want a silent ride or a conversational one.
Other than the year of manufacture, the initial phase of the service will not consider ratings when approving eligible drivers. “As time goes by, additional thresholds like inspection could be introduced. This ensures that a car is in good condition. But we are currently limiting the eligibility requirements to cars newer than 2015,” said the Uber head of communications Lorraine Onduru
”In the previous year Uber saw an increase of 10.96% in business trips. The commission that drivers earn at Uber is based on product demand,” said the head of Uber East Africa Imran Manji, “We are optimistic that if more customers choose our new product, drivers will be happy with their earnings per kilometre rate.”
In Nairobi, Uber comfort will be limited to fuel-powered cars due to what the ride hailing company attributes to delays within the larger ecosystem that includes the government and manufacturers.
