Uber has announced a major shake up by allowing customers to pay for their rides by cash.
The app-based firm said it wanted to make transport more accessible for its passengers as it announced an 18-month trial in several cities would be extended across Britain, apart from in London.
Uber’s pilot scheme in Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham and Stoke found that some customers had preferred to use cash when it came to paying for their rides.
The cash option will now show on the app, but drivers can opt out of accepting notes and coins if they can’t provide change or if they fear for their safety by carrying money.
If drivers are unable to provide any change then Uber will credit the customer’s account on the app.
The option of paying by cash is still under review by local authorities in the capital and can’t be used for Uber Eats or any other form of transport on the app.
The move has been heralded by campaigners as Uber now ‘believing in the future of cash in the UK’ and comes on the back of the Treasury Committee finding that a growing number of retailers and services are rejecting cash payments.
The cross-party committee warned the country could become a ‘two-tier society’ unless the problem was tackled where vulnerable groups become excluded from community spaces.
Uber has announced a major shake up by allowing customers to pay for their rides by cash
The cash option will now show on the app, but drivers can opt out of accepting notes and coins if they can’t provide change
A spokesman for Uber said: ‘We believe that movement should be accessible to everyone, so following successful pilots in some UK cities over the last 18 months, we have decided to give passengers outside of London the option to pay for trips with cash.’
Ron Delnevo, chair of the Payment Choice Alliance, told the BBC that Uber’s decision ‘demonstrates that they now believe in the future of cash in the UK’ and called on government to go one step by further by making it a law for shops and services to accept cash.
The Treasury Select Committee last week urged the public to hoard cash for cyberattacks and blackouts.
The Treasury Select Committee mooted the drastic advice as it warned over the growing shift away from coins and banknotes.
The MPs said businesses might have to be forced to accept hard currency to stop the UK sleepwalking to becoming a cashless society.
One in two shoppers have recently been somewhere that did not accept, or discouraged the use of, cash, according to research from ATM network Link published last year.
Around a fifth experienced this in a cafe, restaurant or when paying for parking, and one in ten on public transport or in a pub.
Charities also told the Committee that local government funded services, such as leisure centres, are increasingly cashless.
The app-based firm said it wanted to make transport more accessible for its passengers
Vulnerable groups who rely on cash, including elderly people, those with learning disabilities and domestic abuse victims, told the Committee that they are forced to pay more for essential goods and services because the number of places where they can spend cash is reduced.
The Committee suggested the Government could recommend that households hold cash in case of a national emergency.
‘In discharging its responsibility for national security and resilience, HM Treasury must consider the value of physical cash in emergency preparedness,’ the report said.
‘This may include recommending that cash is held by individuals in case of emergency, and considering what role cash distribution might play in a severe payment systems outage.’
