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Uber back up and running

Lauren Kate Rawlins
By Lauren Kate Rawlins, ITWeb digital and innovation contributor.
Johannesburg, 05 May 2016
Uber is back up and running after a brief technical disruption yesterday morning.
Uber is back up and running after a brief technical disruption yesterday morning.

Passengers across the country who rely on Uber to get to work were unable to access the app yesterday morning. The company has since corrected the problem and apologised for any inconvenience caused.

Drivers were unable to connect to the platform and passengers were presented with a message saying all vehicles (UberX, UberBLACK and UberSUV) were in use.

Uber spokesperson Samantha Allenberg says: "It was a technical disruption that affected some drivers/riders in South Africa from accessing the app. In total, the disruption was for less than two hours, and everything was back to normal by 9:40am.

"We are thankful to the Uber community for their patience while we worked through the problem."

Uber SA did not say if it has experienced this type of problem before.

The company launched in SA two-and-a-half years ago and has covered over 93 million kilometres since then.

Last month, Uber dropped its fares on UberX by up to 20% in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town.

Uber said it was confident the price cuts will increase demand among customers, leading to driver-partners earning more money. Uber SA GM Alon Lits says the company expects existing riders to use the service more and more, and additional people who thought it was too expensive, to start.

The platform is growing rapidly in the country. In 2014, there were over one million Uber trips in SA. In the first half of 2015, there were over two million trips booked. Uber claims that within the centres it operates in SA, users will be able to hail an Uber within four minutes.

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