Fair enough, I checked the app now and I see the option, although our cost here works out to about USD 0.65 after currency conversion, or maybe it’s because I ordered something cheap.

Based on my always getting hit by this, I guess almost everyone does it.

And if most people choose this, it’s probably rare they can do double deliveries, meaning it’s practically guaranteed that not choosing the priority delivery will result in the algorithm gleefully using the rare opportunity to make Uber more money on the order by making your order part of the same trip as someone paying priority.

So I naively assumed that most people don’t choose this and I would have a low chance of being penalised, but because almost everyone is not wanting their food to be delayed, they’re all paying extra to avoid that. Uber cannot put one priority user above another, so they still land up with too few drivers during peak times, meaning there is still a wait time even for priority users, but on average everyone is paying extra even if on average delivery times aren’t better on average because when near everyone is highest priority, no one is, in practice Uber has raised the base delivery fee unless you’re willing to accept a delay.

But if they’re being honest, they should rather raise the base fee and offer a “discount” if you’re willing to wait longer, which is more representative of the real experience of users.

I guess that no one wants to feel like they’re a cheapskate, hence streaming packages offering “normal” advertising subsidised packages and “premium” ad free packages, as opposed to say “lite” and “normal”.