Here’s Why You’ll Be Paying More To Ride Uber or Lyft in New York

I know a lot of people who depend on ride sharing services to get from destination to destination here in Central New York. In fact, it's also a way a lot of people locally make some income.

With the way gas prices have been out of control lately, the ride sharing industry is also being impacted. Drivers for companies like Uber or Lyft are responsible for a number of different things: owning and maintaining their own vehicles, filling up on gas, fixing timely repairs, etc. Unfortunately, the filling up on gas part has been a really difficult portion of the hustle lately, so the ride share companies have decided to do something about it.

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Uber and Lyft recently announced they'll start tacking on temporary fuel surcharges to rides, according to the New York Times.

Uber, beginning Wednesday, is charging customers an extra $0.45 or $0.55 per ride and $0.35 or $0.45 on delivery orders. Lyft will add a $0.55 to each ride starting next week. Both companies said the fees will go straight to drivers.

Linda Brooks is a driver for Uber in Utica, and she said although it seems like the company is doing this for the drivers and their best interests, they are not.

"An extra 55 cents? Yeah - that's gonna help my $75 gas bill tremendously," she said with sarcasm. "I can't even take this side job of mine seriously anymore. It was a great way to make an extra few hundred dollars on the weekends. Now, I'm spending more money than it's even worth."

So, will be end up seeing a shortage of ride share drivers in New York due to the price of gas, despite the company efforts to compensate their drivers? Only time will tell.

According to AAA, the average in Utica for a gallon of gas is at $4.34. It is, in fact, down ten cents from last week, but is still 57 cents higher than this time a month ago.