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>People have voted with their wallets Uber is clearly a better service than your average taxi experience. But we also don't know the true price, since most dr
by forgetsusername 11y ago
>People have voted with their wallets
Uber is clearly a better service than your average taxi experience. But we also don't know the true price, since most drivers are skirting insurance requirements and the like.
It is difficult for me to imagine how a service like taxis can integrate a middle man like Uber, which everyone assumes will be massively profitable, compensate the drivers fairly and be cheaper than the current system. The math doesn't add up.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoSure it does. Current taxi system is screwing everybody. Break their monopoly with competition, and fairer prices result. Only traditional taxi drivers suffer, if they don't join the new competitive system.
- forgetsusername 11y ago>Current taxi system is screwing everybody. This implies that there are some taxi companies out there that are worth a massive amount of money, since they are capturing all the profit. Can you point to a single company worth even one tenth of what Uber is worth? I'm sure some companies do very well, but I don't think there are any taxi billionaires out there. But it matters little anyway. The pie is divvied up so many ways. You pay the fare, some goes to the driver, some goes to the middle man. When you pay a smaller fare, there is less for the driver, middle man, or both. How much of Uber's valuation is based on that pie (the number of people desiring taxis) growing?
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoLots of ways to get screwed. Underserved population/demographic. Unreliable cars. Bad experiences. Taxes and fees double the overhead. Astronomical Medallion costs benefit only the banks (interest on million-dollar loans). And so on.
- aianus 11y ago> Can you point to a single company worth even one tenth of what Uber is worth? That's simply because taxi companies are regional and Uber is global. Taxi companies rent out the car and medallion so drivers are $100 in the hole before they've even started work. It's practically indentured servitude.
- icebraining 11y agoCan you point to a single company worth even one tenth of what Uber is worth? This is a misleading way of looking at things. Uber serves many more markets than taxi companies, so they can be much bigger while being more efficient per ride.
- mdpopescu 11y agoAnecdote: every taxi driver I've met in Dublin has Uber.
- puranjay 11y agoThe math tells me that Uber can operate at a volume no transport company in the world can even dream of. With such high volumes, it can afford to have lower margins.
- forgetsusername 11y ago>Uber can operate at a volume no transport company in the world can even dream of. Pure hubris. Do you really think companies like DHL, which operates a logistics network in 220 countries, can't "dream of" the scale at which Uber is operating?
- icebraining 11y agoI think it's fairly obvious that puranjay was talking about transport of humans.