Uber (lyft) keep raising their prices study finds!

Opening the Uber and Lyft ride-hailing apps can be shocking these days.

If you haven’t requested a ride since before the pandemic, you’ll notice much higher prices for the same rides. Based on data collected by analytics firm Rakuten, U.S. ride-hailing fares were 50 percent higher in July 2021 than they were in Jan. 2020, before COVID restrictions went into effect.

A Wall Street Journal analysis shows that ride prices from the beginning of 2021 have been inching up each month, even as more people are vaccinated. A similar report on higher-than-usual fares from earlier in the year (passenger costs were up 40 percent in April) mostly blamed the issue on a driver shortage.

But now, a few months later, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during his company’s July earnings call that there was a 30 percent increase of drivers on Uber in July compared to June. In a separate earnings call, Lyft execs said the San Francisco-based company saw the same trend, with more drivers in July compared to June. It’s not enough.