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Who pays the tolls on the return trip on an Uber/Lyft ride?
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The Guru Take
The driver pays unless he or she has another passenger for the return trip. There are exceptions
I assume you are referring to the return leg AFTER the passenger is dropped off. These tolls are paid by the driver unless there is another customer on the return trip. The passengers are not generally responsible for the bridge or tunnel tolls incurred while they are not in the vehicle. (Some drivers requst or demand the customers to pay for the return trip as well, in cash, but this is not legitimate.)
There are exceptions however. There are situations on certain bridges/tunnels, where the passenger must pay tolls for the return trip. These exceptions seem to be set for trips that take the driver out of his or her home territory AND where there is no toll on the outbound trip but there is on the return.
Great examples are:
- Taking Bay Bridge from San Francisco to Oakland. This bridge has no toll on the outbound trip from San Francisco, but there is for the return. In order for the driver to not get stuck footing the bill, only to return to his or her territory, the passenger pays for the toll.
- Taking one of the four bridges from Philadelphia to New Jersey. (Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Betsy Ross, and Commodore Barry bridges) Tolls are incurred when traveling into Pennsylvania on these bridges; however, passengers who are traveling into New Jersey are charged tolls for the outbound trip.
Related Articles:
How do Uber Pool and Lyft Line handle tolls? Who pays for the tolls when there are multiple parties?
Am I supposed to pay cash for tolls on an Uber?
Who pays the tolls on the return trip on an Uber/Lyft ride?
Comments
So those expections only occur when the driver cannot pick up a fare on the other side, right? or else they may end up making money. For example, if they have the outbound passenger pay the return tolls, and they end up picking up someone on the other side?
One of those tolls would be a pure profit for the driver, and in my opinion illegal. Yes, charging your client on something you didn't incur is illegal.
Who should incur the cost? The driver who made peanuts taking you to your destination? I've eaten return tolls that were more than what I earned delivering a person to their destination, and they don't even tip! Should Uber pay it? They weren't involved except to dispatch the driver. In most cases, the driver gets screwed, but unfortunately most passengers don't care about us. Hell, only 10% even tip!
Yesterday I got a pickup going 1 hr south. After dropping him off, I found myself in 2.5 hrs of rush hour traffic getting back into the city. I paid for the gas getting home, and ate the loss of income from 2.5 hrs of downtime. Should I be reimbursed? After getting back to town I picked up a ride going over a toll bridge, dropping my fare off and finding that the only free road back to town was closed. I could either pay out of my own pocket to cross the bridge back to town, (eating half the amount earned) or I coul…
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Who should incur the cost? The driver who made peanuts taking you to your destination? I've eaten return tolls that were more than what I earned delivering a person to their destination, and they don't even tip! Should Uber pay it? They weren't involved except to dispatch the driver. In most cases, the driver gets screwed, but unfortunately most passengers don't care about us. Hell, only 10% even tip!
Yesterday I got a pickup going 1 hr south. After dropping him off, I found myself in 2.5 hrs of rush hour traffic getting back into the city. I paid for the gas getting home, and ate the loss of income from 2.5 hrs of downtime. Should I be reimbursed? After getting back to town I picked up a ride going over a toll bridge, dropping my fare off and finding that the only free road back to town was closed. I could either pay out of my own pocket to cross the bridge back to town, (eating half the amount earned) or I could drive around the lake north or south, spending another 2 hrs stuck in traffic earning nothing. Should the rider pay for my return trip, or should I have to eat that cost?
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Not sure if the practice is illegal. I am sure they have verbiage in place. I rememeber reading in Uber's terms that the tolls charged are not accurate, and it doesn't consider for things like how the drivers may get a discount by using their EZ Pass corresponder, etc.
I've eaten tolls on the way back from NJ and NY and not pennies. $15.00 in NY of course I can take the non toll road to add 2 hrs in traffic losing rides on the way back because I cant pick up in NY. Next time someone wants to complain about $1/$5 they had to pay for return tolls your driver probably road back with dead miles, time, gas, and losing trips. Drivers lose money on these trips most times or sometimes make $5 per hr to get get you where you have to go. If it was my choice I would avoid tolls completely when possibly assuming it didnt add more than 15/20 min driving time. Riders would then complain about time. Cannot win no matter what we do.
Where we are in upstate NY, we get rides across the lake to Burlington Vermont. Uber does not charge the customers in the app ($15.75)and since we are not allowed to pick up in another state we have to dead head back and also pay for the $10.75 ferry toll back. I have to tell customers that they have to pay me $25 just to cover fares because Uber and Lyft do not care at all about us drivers. I have told them so many times that I have given up. Lyft cut me off from driving because my security check by CHECKR could not get a response these last 4 or 5 months so, what’s the difference? I told them my only alternative was suicide and they said, Good, Have A Great Day! And I never had less than a 5 star rating in a whole year worth of rides with Lyft!
I had no idea of those exceptions. I feel like the drivers and riders should be notified of such arrangement.