Taxi-hailing service Uber’s drivers are using dummy apps to
extend the distance travelled by riders in order to charge them
exaggerated fees, hitting Kenyan users’ confidence in the automated
billing system.
The dummy apps, which have recently
caused an uproar in Nigeria, interfere with the Uber Application’s
location (GPS) readings to create a parallel travel path, prolong the
journey and ultimately drive up the cost of the ride.
In
recent weeks the rogue Uber drivers have used the dummy app to more
than triple the distance travelled and charge customers fees that are
exaggerated by similar margins.
One passenger who used Uber taxi from a location on Nairobi’s
Riverside drive to the city centre — a distance of about five kilometres
— was last week billed for 42 kilometres, resulting in a charge of
Sh2,456 rather than an estimated Sh580.
Uber immediately agreed to properly bill the rider when the matter was reported and refunded the Sh1,800 that the driver had stolen from the customer.
Another rider who boarded Uber near the
Chiromo roundabout on Ngong Road, a distance of less than four
kilometres, was billed Sh1,900 for a distance of 17.6 kilometres.
He
was refunded after filing a complaint. Most riders, however, do not
check the data sent to their e-mails at the end of a trip to confirm
their accuracy.
Breach of guidelines
Uber acknowledged that it was aware of the violations, which it said were in breach of its operating guidelines.
“Uber
is aware of these incidents. They are in clear violation of our
Community Guidelines. Fraudulent activity undermines the trust on which
Uber is built. That’s why we are constantly on the lookout for fraud by
riders and driver-partners who are gaming our systems,” said Uber East
Africa spokesperson Janet Kemboi.
Fraudulent billing by
Uber drivers has been on the rise in Kenya since late 2017 when similar
incidents were reported in Nigeria.
Reports showed
that a test geofencing-based app Lockito was used by drivers to defraud
their customers. The app is used to generate a fake trip and a fake fare
from the point a driver picks up a passenger to the point they end the
trip.
In most cases, the app is able to start the trip
long before the actual one begins. At the end of the journey, the
passenger is presented with a cost tally of both the actual and fake
trip as the app cannot differentiate the two.
Most of
the time the unsuspecting passengers will barely notice the glitch in
the pricing or merely attribute it to the usual Uber price surges.
Any
customer who does not notice or report irregular billing through the
support line offered on Uber’s system will have left the fraudulent
driver to go scot-free.
Refunded
Uber
Kenya, however, maintained that all riders reporting fraudulent
activity get refunded — suggesting it is a customer’s responsibility to
evaluate the fare charged after a trip to avoid losing money to the
fraudsters.
“Uber encourages both riders and
driver-partners to rate their journey at the end of the trip. Honest
feedback helps ensure that everyone is accountable for their behaviour,”
said Ms Kemboi.
It has also emerged that some Uber
drivers charge riders parking tolls even in cases where the ride did not
actually go through a paid parking yard.
One driver
insisted that this was usually an ‘innocent’ error when driving close to
an establishment with pay parking and could easily be solved by
requesting for a refund through the app.
Some drivers are, however, said to be using the technology to beat what they see as low charges on the Uber app.
Over
the past couple of years, the drivers attached to e-hailing platforms
have protested, in some instances violently, poor returns and high
commission charges.
The introduction of low-cost
alternatives last year for customers willing to use older cars sparked a
new row between the taxi drivers and the technology companies.
dwainainah@nationmedia.com, anjanja@ke.nationmedia.com
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