Uber X Review

Ever since Uber begun offering their services in India, I had been hearing good things about them. So when I needed to hire a taxi on Wednesday, I decided to give Uber X a try.

What is Uber X?

Uber X is Uber’s economy taxi service and consists of a fleet of Maruti Dzire, Toyota Etios and Tata Manza sedans. While Uber Black (which was initially launched) consists of a fleet of luxury sedans eg. Honda Accord, Mercedes E-Class etc.

Why I chose Uber X over Uber Black?

Uber Black is Rs. 3 per kilometer costlier than Uber X and also has a base fare of Rs. 75 vs. Rs. 50 for Uber X.

While I was tempted to pay a little more and opt for Uber Black service, nearest vehicle from Chandni Chowk was around 25 minutes away, while Uber X vehicle was just 12 minutes away. So I decided to save money and time, by opting for Uber X.

Booking Experience

Booking for Uber X and Uber Black can only be done through their mobile app. Since their mobile app runs on Google Maps (just like TaxiForSure), I was somewhat at ease with using their app.

However, both my 3G connections were working erratically in Chandni Chowk and I was having a hard time booking taxi due to it. To my surprise, even though my connection died before I could submit destination, booking got made and I received a call from Sandeep, who was at New Delhi Railway Station.

He confirmed my booking and rendezvous point, and informed me that he will arrive within 15 minutes! Due to this factor alone, I would give full marks to Uber for booking experience.

Uber X service Experience

There was a procession taking place at Jain Mandir in Chandni Chowk and due to it; there was a huge traffic jam in front of Red Fort. Nevertheless, Sandeep managed to arrive on location only a few minutes late and promptly got down from taxi to help us load our luggage, as soon as he saw we had boxes which needed to be put in boot.

Our Uber X vehicle was a Maruti Dezire and it was neat and clean. Sandeep (our driver) was quite courteous and ride itself was quite good with nothing to complain about.

Uber X Cost

Uber differs from other taxi providers when it comes to calculating cost of travel, because they not only charge for the distance, but also the duration eg. with Uber X you pay Rs. 15 per kilometer and Rs. 2 per minute. Here is my bill from the journey, to help clarify things.

As you can see above, apart from paying base fare and distance charge, I also paid for the duration of my travel. However, thanks to a discount coupon I was using, I got Rs. 300 off my fare (use coupon code upqn0 to get Rs. 300 discount).

Due to this factor alone, Uber X turns out to be more expensive than services like TaxiForSure. Though you are getting an AC sedan as taxi and at least from my experience, drivers are fairly courteous. And since billing is done automatically to your credit card next day, there is no hassle of paying the exact change to the driver, at the end of trip.

Final Words

While I quite liked the service of Uber X and the fact that booking a taxi at the last moment is quite easy with them (you cannot do advance booking with Uber), I feel they can simplify their billing by removing per minute charge and hiking their per kilometer charge instead.

In all likelihood, I would again use the services of Uber (hopefully Black, next time around) in future. If you too are planning to use Uber X or Black, then you can use coupon code upqn0 to get Rs. 300 off your fare or you can click on this link to sign up.