A Growing Empire – My Colombian Uber Experience

Uber Spreading Across The Globe

Uber is a fantastic car service that has grown increasingly popular over the past few years. Since I don’t typically take taxis and instead prefer public transport, I have only used the service a handful of times and have thus not written much about it here.

What I keep forgetting is just how fast Uber is growing. This morning when my family and I arrived in Bogota by overnight bus from Medellin, I fired up Google Maps for directions to the hotel and saw that Uber was an option!

Uber Is In Colombia

In fact, in addition to Bogota, Uber has service in other South American cities like Lima, Santiago & Rio. In total, Uber now provides service in 42 countries on 5 continents. Wow! They have grown.

Today was my first time using Uber’s international service. After seeing the message from Google, I fired up the app and it took about 10 minutes for the driver to arrive at my location. The initial message said it would take 6 minutes, but it was raining pretty hard so I don’t hold it against him.

Our driver’s name was William and he drove us very efficiently in his small white Chevrolet across the city to our hotel. It took about 40 minutes to travel 12 kms which is just an example of how terrible traffic in Bogota can be.

While I don’t have any complaints about the service (which works exactly the same in Colombia as in the U.S.), other Uber drivers that we have had in the past were far friendlier. William did his job, but never said a word to us other than finding out the destination. (Language wasn’t an issue because my wife fluently speaks Spanish and I am able to communicate as well.)

Conclusion

While today’s experience was life changing, it is a good reminder that I should check to see if Uber provides service in places that I am visiting. In today’s example, public transport just wasn’t an option, and I was glad not to have to deal with getting a taxi in the rain. As a comparison, Uber’s service was about the same price as I was quoted for a taxi.

If you have never used Uber, they offer $30 off of the first ride for new members, so there really is no reason not to try it. At the very least try them out once and save the money you would have otherwise paid a taxi. As someone who doesn’t “need” the service often, I am glad it is there on days like today!

Note: If you sign up for Uber through the links in this post then you receive $30 off of your first ride and I receive a referral credit. Feel no pressure to use my links, but if you do, I sincerely appreciate it!