The Uber app in Birmingham states the estimated fare which allows for any surge price and then if there is a surge it will give you an additional prompt that states they're on a surge, E.g. a surge price of 2.0x, asking if you still wish to accept. The surge doesn't happen at any particular time, only if there's not enough drivers available to meet the demand in your area which I've known happen occasionally at any time, even on a Sunday afternoon on occasions. It could happen at peak times, but there's often more drivers working at these times which could still keep it at the standard rate and similarly at off peak times there could be less drivers working, it seems more likely to be at a surge price when there's a lot of traffic during the rush hour periods and at school run times, but even then that's not always the case. If you accept by accident and you cancel quickly you won't be charged at all, but if you're not quick enough you will be prompted that you will be charged the minimum fare for the driver's time, asking whether you still wish to cancel. Is the system not the same in Sheffield?
Tip: If there is a surge you can simply not accept it, refresh, add your pickup and destination again and then often the surge price will have changed, it can fluctuate up or down from one minute to the next and on many occasions I've refreshed for a few minutes until I get a standard fare again.
PS: Uber drivers have been caught trying to force surges however by communicating with each-other and all going offline at exactly the same time, then when they all return a few minutes later the system is on surge, obviously this is scamming the system and the customer, plus as I mentioned in my reply earlier I suspect there's other scams. In these cases however the price is likely to return to normal again a short while later.
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