Hint: Regular cab companies have ride hailing apps now, too. At least, they do here in Toronto. If the fare is more expensive than Lyft, at least you can ride with the reassurance that your driver has been vetted and licensed by a regulatory body, and has an actual employer who will be on the hook if one of their drivers turns out to be unqualified or criminal.
Yeah, it’s basically that Uber is Walmart, and Lyft is Target. We need a Costco of rideshare!
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Exactly. Plus don’t forget the mob ties![quote=“Glaurung, post:41, topic:96157”]
Hint: Regular cab companies have ride hailing apps now, too. At least, they do here in Toronto. If the fare is more expensive than Lyft, at least you can ride with the reassurance that your driver has been vetted and licensed by a regulatory body, and has an actual employer who will be on the hook if one of their drivers turns out to be unqualified or criminal.
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Which they only did after Uber/Lyft started killing their business. Before that, they saw no reason to change since they had a monopoly in the area. Despite what the TGOP and their business sponsors think, actual competition is a GOOD thing.
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When a company rebrands itself, the story of its rebranding is often a really clear window into its corporate culture and a microcosm of how the place operates internally.
Reading the story of Uber’s recent rebranding is a story of hubris, ego, and a complete lack of self-reflection. A company that thinks it can do no wrong and has the right to take over a consumer space, with a CEO who wants to run a one-man show and couldn’t give a shit what anyone else thinks.
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I think a lot of romanticizing of taxis comes from those novels and movies set in mid 20th-century London where taxi drivers were their own bosses, and had to learn “the Knowledge” – knowing how to navigate the city just using their own brain. It doesn’t really transfer to the typical US situation where drivers are just employees and often know so little about the city that they have to (or at least did before GPS) ask the passenger how to get to the address.
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Even with GPS, it can be incredibly frustrating using a cab. I’ve used them most when traveling, trying to get around somewhere like NYC, LA, or San Francisco, and when you’re a stranger in a strange city with no idea how to get around, having a cab driver get irate when you can’t give them directions sort of defeats the whole point of having someone drive for you.
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I’m sure you can’t mean this, but it reads like you blame the Republicans for the medallion/taxi monopoly?
This I wish I could see more. Seems to me this is an area with pretty low barriers to entry, once the medallion artificial scarcity is removed. I’m curious, how is the service and prices?
Extortion is such an ugly word for it’s a free country. They are free to ask, people were free to say no, and they were free to leave.
One aspect of Uber hate I don’t get is that they are attempting to become a monopoly. But they are losing money hand over fist, and that can’t go on forever. They look trapped in the same unsustainable aggressive growth-at-the-expense-of-profit model that loves to kill startups. If at some point they try to extract monopoly rents, they will no longer have a price advantage and someone can undercut them same as they did. If Lyft (and trad taxis) is smart they’ll just keep slipstreaming right behind them and pounce every time uber fucks up (which seems to be rather often).
I have a car and drive myself places, so I really don’t know.
This is true, but it was clear they thought they could use it as a bargaining chip and it didn’t work.
Uber is also very aggressively pursuing driverless car technology. Eventually they won’t have to mess with those pesky human drivers that demand compensation and eat up all their revenue.
And more power to them for investing in this useful R&D. But between all the details to work out changing such a huge part of daily life and politicians’ natural luddite conservatism in realms affecting public safety I don’t see it becoming a political reality anytime soon. Are investors really going to put up with Uber bleeding money for another 10 years? I don’t think so.
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I feel like their investors meetings consist of the CEO saying “Hey, I know this looks bad, what with the massive debt, the huge losses, the lawsuits, the strikebreaking, the terrible press, the ugly corporate culture, and angry drivers… but just wait until the driverless car technology we stole and are being sued over goes mainstream!”
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I haven’t looked at a regular taxi in years, but when I was working in SF for big law firms, a cab ride home late at night to the East Bay/Walnut Creek was often $85+ (1.5x once they go through the tunnel). That was 1998-2002ish; what’s that ride on Uber? $35? It was $55 from SFO the other day. I’ll take BART when it makes sense (usually I’ll take it on my way to a flight, but almost never upon my return), but regular cabs v. Uber or Lyft? Not a chance.
Oh so cost trumps ethics. Right.
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A dear friend of mine was a cabbie who had to go through a lot of training and testing to get his hacker’s license and medallion. One night, while changing a tire, he had a massive heart attack and passed away before the next morning. He was uninsured - this occurred before the ACA. This was also while Uber and Lyft were just beginning to take off.
To honor Andrew’s memory, I have never installed either application and always take a cab.
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Not to mention not even having the basics down. When I first moved to NY some years ago I had a driver get lost between Manhattan and La Guardia. He was circling aimlessly around Queens until I told him to turn off the damn meter and stop to get directions.
Even though I refuse to use Uber, I certainly understand why many people do.
No, but I do think the people that run Uber should treat their employees better. You made what seemed like the best financial decision for yourself in your circumstances.
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Some American cities do have this, too. Here in ATL it’s called Zipcar. If I lived inside the city limits and didn’t have a car, I’d take advantage of it. Of course, ATL is unlike NYC or Chicago, in that you really do need a car to get around. Our public transit is really under developed here and the changes being proposed aren’t very helpful (smaller scale, focused on the tourist destination, etc).
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I have read that old(er) people tip Uber drivers and young(er) people do not. I’m mid 40s. I never tip Uber drivers. If that makes me young, so be it. Now I feel bad for never tipping.
I’m torn after moving out of NYC (where I very rarely used cabs, preferring to walk or use the subway). I now live in a more rural area where the local taxis are barely functional bottom feeders. We’ve tried to use them four times in the past few months:
- First time I arrived at the Amtrak station needing a ride for the 5 miles home. There was a sign on the station with taxi companies’ numbers (I had vainly assumed there would be cabs to meet the train). 3 of the 4 were out of service or didn’t answer. The one who did answer told me it would be 40 minutes wait, and when the dirty, 20 year old ex-cop car arrived the driver spent the whole trip complaining about rich people (i.e. me) who had moved to the area and made things shitty for the locals.
- A friend was visiting and needed a ride to the station - none of the companies would come to the house, said they only operated “in town” (a town of <40,000 people, were too busy, or just didn’t answer. She used Uber which can in 5 mins and was friendly and efficient.
- I needed to go to the airport - a one way trip since I was going to be gone for 3 weeks and didn’t want to pay $400 for parking. None of the taxi companies were interested and a limo company quoted me $300 plus tip for the 40 minute journey. I rented a car one way to make the trip - cost me $70.
- Last time was when we were out at a local restaurant / bar and a lady there had had to much to drink. They called a cab to come and take her home (5 miles or so). The company said it would be there in ten minutes. After 30 minutes we called again, they said it had been there and there was nobody there - a lie since we were sitting outside. Said another driver would be there in 10. 40 mins later no show and we decided to have one of the kitchen staff take here home in his own car. Second taxi never showed up either.
So I have resisted giving any money to Uber (Lyft don’t operate here) but in the absence of a functioning taxi system and no public transport I may have to get their app for emergencies. I still won’t use it anywhere where there is a functioning taxi system, but the taxi companies are not doing themselves any favors while they watch their market erode. At least in this area they seem to be sticking to their core constituency of people too poor or sick to have a car, who only use cash, and literally have no other method of getting around.
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Zipcar and Car2go, of course, reinforce the need for non-market-based solutions like public transit. Their service coverage is far better depending on the neighborhood you are in. We’re looking for apartments/housing right now, having been squeezed out of our 1 bedroom space-wise by babies, and price-wise by well, you know. I drove a car2go out to see a house that was just over some invisible line to where I can afford anything larger than a 1 bedroom. except that line wasn’t so invisible anymore, the car2go app shows you where their areas of operation were, and thus where you can leave the car. Turned out the service area ended about 3 blocks from the place I was looking at. No surprise there. Strangely though, the demand clearly exists in large part from these neighborhoods, as the cars are all crowded up against the borders. Clearly a lot of the users have driven as far as allowed, then hoof it the rest of the way into their “non-service” area.
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One time I hailed a cab in NYC and asked him to go to such-and-such address.
“How do I get there?”
I dunno, man, I’m from out of town.
“Well, I need directions to get you there.”
You don’t have a GPS?
“I don’t trust it. Okay, I’ll try it if you can’t help me.”
(ten minutes later) Er, why are we heading into Brooklyn? The address was in Manhattan.
“Wait, you said you didn’t know how to get there! Shit!”
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