Uber comes to Guanajuato

[doncoulter]

Uber has arrived in Guanajuato. The website has a widget for estimating the cost of a ride, and in a couple of tests I ran, the service looked tempting. For example, from the Presa neighborhood to the airport for about 180 pesos.

If anyone has tried Uber here, I'm sure we'd all be interested in learning from your experience.

[mr bill]

Hi Don,

Thinking about your UBER post I wondered if the driver would expect a healthy tip as he couldn't be making much if anything off the tarifa at 180 pesos.

I'm away too long to know actual current GTO prices but I think I'm pretty close. Assuming a Tsuru gets 28mpg on the highway [12km/l] at the current price of Magna [13.16 pesos/l is what I have] and using 24 pesos for the toll each way I get a cost [less daily rent to the owner of the cab if any] of 126 pesos round trip.

48.00 --Toll 24 x2 [of course he could cheap out and use the Libre or ask the passenger to pay the toll - common here in Thailand]

78.00 -- gas 6 litres at 13.16/l on a 70km round trip [SCT "Traza su Ruta" has 28km one way GTO Silao Centro so I added a few more to get to BJX]

126 peso/r/trip so if the UBER tarifa was 180 what would be left for the driver would be a mere 54 pesos for around 1 hours' work. If the driver adds in any other operating expense he won't earn anything. When I was in GTO I was happy paying my taxi guy 300 or around $15.

[jesm]

It sounds a bit low to me as well. The current "official" taxi costs 480 from BJX to La Presa neighborhood.
Quoted taxi fares normally do not include tolls, so at todays cost that will add another 58 to any quote.
The Uber model works as taxi owners and drivers have had high prices and nice profits so there is price room especially as Uber shifts much risk to their non-employee drivers. A "medallion" ie a permit to own a taxi in NYC was valued at $250,000, just the permit, so they were making nice money.