Incident Record: Cab Fare Comparison
The cab was booked. The fare was compared to the previous fare. The cab was still booked.
SEARCH HISTORY EXTRACT Date: Q2 2022. Context: Cab Fare Comparison Event.
The Search History
09:43 "cab fare mumbai 2019 average"
09:44 "uber price increase 2022"
09:46 "ola fare surge reasons"
09:47 "why are cab fares higher now"
09:49 "inflation transport sector india 2022"
09:52 The searches were concluded. The cab was already in transit.
Reconstruction of Events
The cab was booked at 09:38. The estimated fare was displayed before confirmation. The fare was higher than the fare remembered from a similar journey taken in early 2020, which was the last comparable journey taken before patterns changed.
The cab was confirmed. The journey began.
The search history begins at 09:43, which is approximately five minutes after the cab was booked, meaning the searches were conducted from within the cab, after the booking decision had been made and the driver had been assigned and was navigating toward the pickup point.
The journey is the same journey it was in 2019. The fare is not the same fare.
Analysis of the Searches
Search 1: "cab fare mumbai 2019 average". Purpose unclear. The fare in 2019 cannot change the current fare. The search retrieved a figure. The figure was lower than today's fare. This confirmed what was already suspected before booking.
Search 2: "uber price increase 2022". Retrieved multiple articles. The articles confirmed prices had increased. Fuel costs, driver earnings adjustments, demand recovery post-lockdown. All causes were real. None reversed the fare.
Search 3-5: additional searches producing additional confirmation that prices have increased and that this is expected to continue.
The Core Finding
The comparison produces no alternative outcome. It produces only a record of the previous fare and the current fare and the gap between them.
The gap is approximately forty to sixty percent depending on route and time of day. The gap exists. The cab was booked. These two facts coexist.
Consequences
First consequence: the subject now has a reasonably thorough understanding of the structural reasons for cab fare inflation. This understanding arrived after the booking and will not affect the fare.
Second consequence: on subsequent bookings, the subject sometimes checks both apps before booking, not to find a lower fare, but to verify which app is offering the lower fare on this particular booking. The saving is usually between eight and fifteen rupees. The checking takes approximately three minutes.
Third consequence: the subject still describes pre-2020 fares as normal fares and current fares as high fares. The current fares are the current normal. This reclassification has not occurred.
Absurd Rule
Researching the cause of a price increase while in the process of paying that price is common, documented, and produces no useful action. It provides the psychological satisfaction of having an explanation, which is different from having a remedy.
Contradiction
The subject accepts fare increases from other services with minimal research. Cab fares are researched. The methodological distinction between them is not documented anywhere.
Record closed. Next fare comparison: approximately fourteen days.