RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Those who have used Uber Eats in the last few days may have noticed an extra charge: a five to ten percent service charge on the order amount, plus a new R$1 (US$0.25) fee for small orders (less than R$15).
The delivery fee is still in place, but now it varies according to the customer’s location. The company says the new feature is under testing and should not increase delivery prices for users.
As for the delivery fee, an Uber support article explains that it is variable and depends on location: “you pay less for nearby restaurants and you will always be aware of the amount before you select the restaurant,” says the article.
For instance, if someone wants a R$10 item at a nearby restaurant, and the service charge is five percent, this is the calculation:
order: R$10
service charge: R$0,50
small order fee: R$1
delivery charge: free
total: R$11,50
Tecnoblog tested addresses in four different cities – São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, and Recife – and the service charge showed up in all of them, both on the iPhone App and on Android.
On the web, Uber Eats only showed the additional charge after having logged in; the delivery fee already showed up. According to Tecnoblog, this suggests that the service charge is tied to certain profiles, not specific cities. It can be either five percent or ten percent, depending on the user.
In a statement to Tecnoblog, Uber says that the service charge is passed on to the partner courier and is still being tested – this is not something definitive, at least for now. “Uber Eats is constantly conducting tests to improve the platform’s efficiency,” says the company.
Uber believes that the new fee “should not lead to an increase in prices for the end-user, since the amount paid for delivery is variable, according to the distance and value of the order.”