Uber still charges surcharge fees for trips to and from airports, and it says it is consistent with its policy that charges such as these are added to trip fares.
This is despite Lanseria Airport and the Airport Company South Africa (ACSA) previously saying they don’t charge ride-hailing drivers or companies anything extra for collections and drop-offs.
A MyBroadband reader recently took an Uber trip to and from Lanseria Airport and noticed they were charged a R10 surcharge fee on only one of the journey’s legs.
An Uber spokesperson said the charges align with its policy to apply a surcharge to its fares for trips to and from airports across South Africa.
However, it didn’t explain why the surcharge was only added for one leg of the journey.
“With regards to general fees, as a rider, additional charges may apply to your trip, including tolls, surcharges, or other fees. All these charges are automatically added to your trip fare,” the spokesperson said.
“The charges that are added to your trip fare may not exactly match the amount paid by your driver.”
“For example, you may be assessed a surcharge when a driver pays a toll when returning to your city of origin or for pick-ups or drop-offs at an airport,” they added.
They said that tolls and surcharges reflect an estimate in some cities due to fluctuations in the amount paid.
In October 2023, ACSA and Lanseria Airport confirmed that they don’t charge ride-hailing services like Uber to pick up or drop off customers.
“ACSA would like to emphasise that the fees for trips undertaken by riders with the various ride-hailing services are agreed upon between the two parties (passenger and e-hailing service),” said ACSA.
“ACSA is in no way involved in setting e-hailing services’ fees and does not charge any additional fees or surcharges that are payable by e-hailing services for drop-offs and pick-ups at its airports.”
It added that while additional fees may apply for parking, as they would to all motorists, these are irrelevant to ride-hailing services.
“In short, ACSA would like to categorically state that there are no hidden or other surcharge fees that it levies against e-hailing service providers that would then need to be passed on to passengers,” said ACSA.
Lanseria echoed this statement, saying it doesn’t impose supplementary fees for e-hailing drivers regarding airport pick-ups and drop-offs.
“No surcharge is paid to the airport for any such services,” it added.
However, this directly contradicts what Uber explained in September 2023.
An Uber spokesperson said additional charges may be:
- Kept by the driver;
- Paid by the driver; or,
- Paid to the airport or other third parties.
This came after a MyBroadband reader saw that an “airport surcharge” of R10 and a “Lanseria Airport surcharge” of R20 had been added to their invoice for a trip from Lanseria to Fourways.
They were initially quoted R179 for the ride, which they accepted.
However, several hours later, the initial charge was reversed, and a new charge of R209 was processed.
The same happened on their return trip to Lanseria Airport a few days later. The original fee of R215 was reversed and a new charge of R235 went off their account.
They noted that they were only charged the R20 “Lanseria Airport surcharge” on their return trip’ invoice.
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