UberPOOL gets more than 1 million customers

Uber claims the growth of these shared trips has contributed to reduce air pollution in London

Globally, 20% of Uber journeys are now done via UberPOOL

More than 1 million Londoners have opted to share their Uber journey with the company’s uberPOOL service since it launched last December.

The service, which operates in central London as well as Heathrow Airport, enables passengers to save money by turning the usual Uber into a minibus service by matching people heading in the same direction.

It also ensures drivers earn more than if they were to carry just one passenger through longer journeys and by increasing the number of people travelling in the car.

Uber claims the growth of these shared trips has helped to reduce air pollution in London. UberPOOL trips have saved more than 700,000 driving miles compared if the passenger was travelling alone, according to the company.

More than 50,000 litres of petrol or 124 metric tons off carbon dioxide emissions have also been saved.

The news comes at at a time when London reached its legal limit on air pollution for the whole of 2016 in just over seven days in January.

Under EU rules the capital is allowed to exceed the maximum safe levels of nitrous oxide for 18 hours a year – an allocation it had burned through by the peak of the morning rush hour on Friday 8 January.

“Not only does car-sharing save consumers money, it’s also good for our city as it means fewer miles driven and less air pollution,” said Jo Bertram, regional general manager of Uber in the UK.

“The number of people trying uberPOOL is growing each week and we want more Londoners to leave their own car at home and share an Uber to get from A to B instead,” she added.

The growth of uberPOOL has repelled previous accusations that the company’s arrival in London has contributed to congestion and worsened air pollution, but is has also worked well for the company.

Globally, 20 per cent of Uber journeys are now done via UberPOOL, the company said in May.

This means that if the company is sacrificing margin on individual journeys – uberPOOL fares 25 per cent cheaper than the typical Uber journey – it is potentially growing the overall number of rides, giving it a larger economy of scale.