Uber Taxis - A real positive experience, and here have your first ride on us

We recently used Uber in Leeds on a very busy night (the Arena was chucking out) and we thought we would share our experience, maybe give you a guide as to how it works and because we are nice give you a free £10 credit to use towards your trip(s).

If you haven’t heard or experience Uber before, this is what its about.

Its an app that sits on your smartphone. You register  a debit or credit card with it and you are good to go.
 
So you are sat in a bar or restaurant, cinema, or at home and you need a taxi. Fire up the app, ensure you have your location or GPS service enabled and it finds where you are. Type in where you want to go and it gives you a quote. The quote can vary sometimes, ie. Give a range of £10-£12 for example (usually peak times) but in our experience its cheaper than any other taxi service we have used. 

On our last occasion there was a supplement to pay because it was busy and there was a lot of demand. In practice it meant that a journey that usually shows a range of £17-£20 actually showed at £19-£22. Our usual fare with other taxi companies is about £25. You can choose to accept the far shown or just come out of the app and have another drink, come back in twenty mins. The choice is yours.

The app also tells you how far away a car is…so assuming you are happy press request taxi. It will then confirm the car, the registration number and the name and picture of the driver. No more getting in the wrong cab or illegal cab!

So you have requested your cab and it says it will be here in 3 mins but you think maybe the map isn’t quite right or you have moved to another bar or just down the road. No problem you can press a tab to sms or phone the driver and tell him exactly where you are. This is what happened with us. The map actually had us on an adjacent street and as it was busy we wondered if he could find us so a quick sms, “we are outside KFC” and its sorted. Your app tracks where your car is so you should see it arrive.

Once the taxi arrives, you check it’s the car, the driver and off you go.

Arriving at your destination, that’s it, no fumbling for change or arguing over the fare, your app tells you how much it is and its deducted from the debit or credit card you added. You get an email receipt confirming your journey and cost. You can still tip your driver with cash if you want but we haven’t ever felt any pressure to do so.  

We see Uber as significantly increasing security for user and drivers. Drivers don’t carry cash so won’t be attacked for it, no runners, no arguing over fare. For the user, it’s cheaper, more convenient, generally far less waiting,  you know who is coming, when and in what, you can track the journey, it’s all recorded.

Now why not give it a go, and to sweeten the deal, once you have the app.. tap on promotions and add the code epi9g then apply, bingo, £10 credit to use in bits or against a larger fare.

For full disclosure, I will get a credit when you have your first journey, but give your own code to friends, give them a credit and you can reap the rewards when they start using Uber Taxis

Uber is currently operating in Birmingham, London, Leeds, Manchester, Wakefield and Dublin with more cities being added