Dynamic Pricing in Transport: a study on social and personal implications to travellers

Sammanfattning: Dynamic pricing is a pricing strategy where prices are no longer fixed or constant. Instead, they are continuously readjusted according to perceived demand and factors that influence the desirability of the product. It is in passenger transport where it has one of its biggest applications, in order to increase profits and maximize the use of limited capacity. While extensively studied for its economic uses, showing a very positive case for it from a corporative perspective, the social dimension of this phenomenon is not so explored. Existing research base the acceptance of this model on his widespread use and the benefits it poses to companies who employ it, who can count in this pricing system to maximize revenues and rationalize the use of the capacity they have. This thesis aim to exploit and investigate the potential social consequences of this pricing model to travelers, through interviews with frequent travelers and a narrative analysis of the content. It does so by exploring the existing research on the topic, and using theories and concepts such as time geography, bounded rationality and justice in accessibility to identify other potential costs and barriers to traveling than solely financial costs. The three main identified themes are as time availability, fairness and access to information. The conclusion after the interviews and their stories was that travelers feel disadvantaged by the lack of information available about how prices are set, meaning that it is difficult to take decisions. Meanwhile, while dynamic pricing does have an impact on how some travelers use their time, leading to trips that are longer and less logical that they could be, users do not feel the system is in principle unfair and discriminatory to them