‘Price gouging’ is good for you: Uber

Uber execs insisted Monday that the cabhailing app’s muchloathed surge pricing is actually good for New York riders and drivers.

“Uber’s dynamicpricing model benefits both consumers and drivers,” Uber publicpolicy expert Colin Tooze said at a City Council committee hearing.

“If prices were artificially capped within the normal course of business, consumers would be unable to utilize our safe, convenient transportation option because demand would simply overwhelm the available supply,” he continued. “When fares have increased, we repeatedly communicate that fact to the user.” Critics were having none of it. “If it looks like pricegouging, if it sounds pricegouging, it is probably pricegouging,” Councilman David Greenfield said at the Transportation Committee hearing.

Uber regularly raises its rates during peak hours or when the demand for drivers goes up, claiming the increase acts as an incentive for more drivers to hit the streets, thus increasing the number of available cars.

But that can mean being asked to shell out hundreds for a ride home. Uber will sometimes charge customers as much as $39 per mile or $9.50 per minute, ac cording to filings the company turned over to the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

Greenfield said that a ride to La Guardia Airport from his Midwood, Brooklyn, district would cost $780 when demand is highest.

“If that’s not pricegouging, I don’t know what is,” he said.

Council members are considering a bill Greenfield wrote in tended to stop companies like Uber and Lyft from driving prices sky high, by capping the amount they would be able to charge to double the price of a normal ride.

But the company said the practice is good for everyone.

“The economic opportunity of the Uber platform is unprecedented in the industry, providing freedom and flexibility for drivers,” Tooze said. “The technology has provided hundreds of thousands of driver partners the opportunity to start and grow their own small businesses, including over ten thousand drivers in New York City.”

Some Uber users said they failed to see how charging so much could be a good thing.

“Quite frankly, that’s one of the stupidest things I’ve heard in my life,” said Roland Kibardin, a 19yearold Pace University student. “I’m sure yellow cabs are much more affordable in that case.”

“The city should step in . . . they should at least have some sort of cap,” he said.