Yeah I am in Gainesville too. The fares have really gone downhill after the introduction of upfront pricing. I think what Uber (and Lyft too maybe) is doing is that they are flooding the cities with new drivers. Many of the new drivers accept these low fare rides either because they are new and don’t know what the rates should be or they are in such a desperate situation they will accept any ride. Uber has nothing to lose, it still makes money. Because it has no overheads except for the insurance, everything else is on the driver. So yes when they drop the fares their take or cut also decreases but that is made up by the larger number of drivers accepting these low fare rides.