Uber and Lyft Drastically Raise Prices in Illinois

Once upon a time it was super easy to get an Uber or a Lyft to wherever you want to go, whenever you needed to grab it. That's not quite the case these days.

For the rest of our lifetimes, we'll be able to say, pre-pandemic and eventually post-pandemic, and whatever you'd call where we are right now, and when it comes to ride-share programs, this will probably be a hot button issue.

I've lived in Rockford for years and have always been able to find an Uber when I needed one.

Lyft came around a few years later and was a great alternative when Uber prices would bump up at high traffic times.

But those days are over. There seems to be a real decline in ride share drivers and that means difficulty getting a ride and huge fees.

For example, I went to a wedding in Beloit in June and paid $27 and some cents to take a ride share from my apartment to the destination.

Over the weekend I tried to get a ride to DC Estate Winery from my same apartment and the first price listed was $60, but instantly jumped to $80 once a driver was found to complete the route.

That's over a 100 percent increase in just about a month.

According to CNBC, 'drivers are in a low-key strike,' and are at about 40 percent capacity.

In an interesting twist, it's not very hard to find someone to deliver food or groceries. According to the same article, it puts less wear and tear on a car and there's less interaction/covid transmission opportunities with food drop off than human drop off.

Have you tried to get a ride share recently? What was your experience?