7 ms·

Personal anecdote, of course, but Uber saved my ass while I was in Europe (specifically Paris and Madrid). Immediately upon arriving via train to Paris from Lo

Personal anecdote, of course, but Uber saved my ass while I was in Europe (specifically Paris and Madrid). Immediately upon arriving via train to Paris from London we were harassed by a number of sketchy looking individuals claiming to be "taxi" drivers, of course not speaking French I really had no way to validate the claims, they all became hostile towards me the minute I took my camera out. I resorted to opening the Uber app and lo and behold had a validated ride within minutes. The service was exceptional and they even spoke English relatively well. Fast forward 24 hours, I thought I had booked a flight out of the airport in the city about 20 mins drive, turns out my flight was actually out of the airport much further north of Paris. I rushed to get an Uber and my driver was extremely friendly and not only brought me to the exact bus station I needed to be at, also showed me exactly which ticket to purchase and where to wait. Never in my life have I received close to that level of service from a taxi driver. A couple weeks later in Madrid we found ourselves pretty far away from our flat, not well equipped for the weather and ready to head back. We saw several advertisements for the local taxi services "ride sharing" app and decided to give it a shot. After jumping between a couple starbucks to find reasonable wifi, we ordered a taxi and proceeded to wait 20+ minutes for a driver to finally show up in the app as our pickup, however, the actual taxi was nowhere to be found. No text / call / messages in the app ever succeeded. Once again we resorted to Uber and had a painless experience. I guess my point overall is that Uber offers a familiar service no matter what country I happen to be in. It's simply not viable for a foreigner to arrive in a new country, find out what ride sharing taxi service is allowed existence there, download the app, finagle my way through the most-likely non english friendly sign-up process and enter my personal banking details only to find out the service doesn't even work for whatever reason. Don't get me wrong, I love traveling to new places and truly exploring a city without all the luxuries and convenience of home, but when I arrive in a new place with expensive items in tow, I'd MUCH rather pay for the convenience of a safe and familiar ride to get to my destination then risk getting scammed or taken advantage of otherwise, I also don't always arrive with local currency in tow and don't like paying exorbitant fees at major transport hubs.

JoshTriplett 10y ago
> I guess my point overall is that Uber offers a familiar service no matter what country I happen to be in. This is exactly why I use it as well. I see advertisements for a local "taxi app", and ignore them because I have no expectation of consistency. I can expect that Uber will work the same way with the same level of quality everywhere.
- kuschku 10y ago
  Do you want a global monopoly? Because this is how you get a monopoly. Expect a taxi market similar to the current US ISP market soon.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - JoshTriplett 10y ago
    > Do you want a global monopoly? Because this is how you get a monopoly. I want consistently good service, no matter who provides it. I'd love to see more than one company providing that level of service, but I place far less value on that than I do on consistently good service. I plan to try Lyft as soon as they either get their Android app upgraded for Marshmallow-style selective permissions (which they still haven't done a year after Marshmallow) or they provide a web app.
    - kuschku 10y ago
      As soon as uber has a monopoly, you think they’ll continue their good service? Because what you’ll get as soon as 2 or 3 companies control the market will be like the ISPs in the US. Uber and Lyft are going to be the next Comcast, the next TWC; the next ATT, the next Verizon.
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    Taxi's are already a defacto monopoly regardless of how many taxi operators there are in a given region. Most countries/cities have one taxi driver union/authority which is responsible for licensing drivers and cabs as well as usually setting fares. If anything Uber and various direct bid/reverse bid car hire services actually break down the monopoly. Now I don't like Uber for many reasons, the primary one being that it sets a horrible example of how to run a multi billion dollar business involving 100,000's of people around the world without having actual employees. I also don't like the fact that Uber in many places actually externalizes the risk to its drivers because while France might fine Uber if you as a driver are caught operating a car service without the proper license you'll be in hot water and I somehow doubt that Uber's onboarding process has a huge warning to drivers and for the most part Uber doesn't seem to do any due diligence or much of it in places where it's illegal for individuals to commercially drive others without a proper license and a criminal background check (I know in the UK Uber doesn't ask you for a commercial license or a DBS).
kartan 10y ago
Does this means that you are ok with breaking the law if some ones offers you something convenient? Don't you care about workers rights? Should that rights be removed so you can have cheaper services? I think that Uber app can bring awesome things. But is still operates in the real world and should not break the law. And it also should respect workers rights. One think should not exclude the other. French law doesn't forbids Uber to operate. It just asks it to have the correct licenses like any one else.
- spriggan3 10y ago
  > French law doesn't forbids Uber to operate. It just asks it to have the correct licenses like any one else. You are being downvoted but that's a very good point, France isn't the wild west. Is Uber useful ? no doubt they are, but so are any other illegal taxi service. The french justice system just said Uber POP is illegal in France. other Uber services are just fine. Uber hasn't been outlawed in France.
  - bubuga 10y ago
    > Is Uber useful ? no doubt they are, but so are any other illegal taxi service. It is my understanding that Uber only has a problem with a single service of the many they provide: the rideshare one, where unlicensed and unregistered people get to provide the service for a fee. This is not the only service provided by uber. Uber also offers transportation services provided by fully licensed and perfectly legal transport operators.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- ajnin 10y ago
  Except that the taxi licenses are limited to a fixed quota that is much too low for a city like Paris. Taxi drivers must rent their license from a taxi company or buy it from former drivers for large sums of money and they will go on strike as soon as a government says that they want to loosen the system a bit, which would lower the value of their investment. Uber such a success because the taxi service is so inadequate.
jacquesm 10y ago
That's a rather low standard for 'saving your ass'. I travel abroad frequently and I don't recall ever having had trouble to find a taxi except for Colombia, where you have to arrange one in advance (or rather, had, no idea how it is today there). Really, of all the hard things one could attempt to do while abroad getting a taxi isn't one of them. Some simple rules: - don't accept anybody's offer of a ride - look for relatively uniformly colored vehicles in a row - observe whether or not the drivers are asleep or awake - approach the first one that looks awake - ask if they are free - if so enter the vehicle and state destination - optional: if all you have is a credit card make sure you ask up front if it will be accepted, otherwise ask to stop at a local ATM to pick up some currency Using taxis was a solved problem long before Uber and the like arrived. Just like there is more food than McDonalds that is perfectly safe to eat when abroad.
- curun1r 10y ago
  Your advice is laughably bad in many parts of the world. Taxi scams, often perpetrated by those uniformly-colored vehicles lined up to take riders, bilk tourists/travelers out of a ton of money. The simple fact that there's often no way to ensure what the price of the ride will be before agreeing to accept the ride has left many a traveler being faced with the choice of paying and exorbitant amount or risking a run-in with the authorities for not paying. Worse yet, taxi drivers will hold bags in the trunk hostage as they demand payment. Even in the US, scams are common. Taxi drivers let air out of their tires to increase the milage or ask whether they can use the freeway knowing it will take you miles out of your way. And these are legitimate taxi drivers. From everything that I've observed taking both legitimate taxis and Ubers around the world, Uber's policies keep drivers far more well behaved than do the policies of the official taxi agencies. And the poster you were replying to is right...the consumer experience is considerably better. The simplified payment and upfront pricing alone make Uber better for riders.
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    I've done my share of traveling and I've yet to be scammed by a taxi driver, maybe that's just luck but the number of days I spent abroad is probably higher by now than the number of days I spent in my home country. I'm far more ware of the police abroad than of taxi drivers.
n72 10y ago
I'm in a taxi at the moment driving home from Orly. There are lots of those 'chauffeurs' out there like there are at many airports in the states. I walked by them to the taxi stand about 15 feet from the airport exit and am now in a taxi as comfortable as any uber I've been in in NYC. Two weeks ago I returned to Paris from Amsterdam by train at Gare du Nord (a major train station in Paris) and the experience was almost identical to the one I am currently experiencing. In short, there is no need for uber to save your ass in the circumstances you describe since your ass doesn't need saving in the circumstances you describe.
- nikanj 10y ago
  Search for "stockholm taxi scam" for a great example of why your ass might indeed need saving
  - atomwaffel 10y ago
    True, that's quite scummy, but surely it's an example of under-regulation, not over-regulation. This scam (not sure that's the right word since what they're doing is perfectly legal albeit morally reprehensible) literally cannot happen in places where taxi fares are fixed.
    - nikanj 10y ago
      In my opinion, I'd rather not have to research the taxi legistlation of countries I visit. Uber provides a globally uniform service at an uniform price, and like it or not, taxis do not.
      - atomwaffel 10y ago
        That's fair, I guess. It seems like a relatively minor point in the grand scheme of cultural differences you will have to deal with whenever you travel somewhere else and I find it hard to relate to the desire for standardisation and uniformity that I notice mostly from people in the tech community, but I'm not going to pretend that variations in taxi legislation are a charming cultural quirk worth preserving, so nothing makes my opinion more valid than yours.

JoshTriplett 10y ago

> I guess my point overall is that Uber offers a familiar service no matter what country I happen to be in. This is exactly why I use it as well. I see advertisements for a local "taxi app", and ignore them because I have no expectation of consistency. I can expect that Uber will work the same way with the same level of quality everywhere.

kuschku 10y ago
Do you want a global monopoly? Because this is how you get a monopoly. Expect a taxi market similar to the current US ISP market soon.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- JoshTriplett 10y ago
  > Do you want a global monopoly? Because this is how you get a monopoly. I want consistently good service, no matter who provides it. I'd love to see more than one company providing that level of service, but I place far less value on that than I do on consistently good service. I plan to try Lyft as soon as they either get their Android app upgraded for Marshmallow-style selective permissions (which they still haven't done a year after Marshmallow) or they provide a web app.
  - kuschku 10y ago
    As soon as uber has a monopoly, you think they’ll continue their good service? Because what you’ll get as soon as 2 or 3 companies control the market will be like the ISPs in the US. Uber and Lyft are going to be the next Comcast, the next TWC; the next ATT, the next Verizon.
- dogma1138 10y ago
  Taxi's are already a defacto monopoly regardless of how many taxi operators there are in a given region. Most countries/cities have one taxi driver union/authority which is responsible for licensing drivers and cabs as well as usually setting fares. If anything Uber and various direct bid/reverse bid car hire services actually break down the monopoly. Now I don't like Uber for many reasons, the primary one being that it sets a horrible example of how to run a multi billion dollar business involving 100,000's of people around the world without having actual employees. I also don't like the fact that Uber in many places actually externalizes the risk to its drivers because while France might fine Uber if you as a driver are caught operating a car service without the proper license you'll be in hot water and I somehow doubt that Uber's onboarding process has a huge warning to drivers and for the most part Uber doesn't seem to do any due diligence or much of it in places where it's illegal for individuals to commercially drive others without a proper license and a criminal background check (I know in the UK Uber doesn't ask you for a commercial license or a DBS).

kartan 10y ago

Does this means that you are ok with breaking the law if some ones offers you something convenient? Don't you care about workers rights? Should that rights be removed so you can have cheaper services? I think that Uber app can bring awesome things. But is still operates in the real world and should not break the law. And it also should respect workers rights. One think should not exclude the other. French law doesn't forbids Uber to operate. It just asks it to have the correct licenses like any one else.

spriggan3 10y ago
> French law doesn't forbids Uber to operate. It just asks it to have the correct licenses like any one else. You are being downvoted but that's a very good point, France isn't the wild west. Is Uber useful ? no doubt they are, but so are any other illegal taxi service. The french justice system just said Uber POP is illegal in France. other Uber services are just fine. Uber hasn't been outlawed in France.
- bubuga 10y ago
  > Is Uber useful ? no doubt they are, but so are any other illegal taxi service. It is my understanding that Uber only has a problem with a single service of the many they provide: the rideshare one, where unlicensed and unregistered people get to provide the service for a fee. This is not the only service provided by uber. Uber also offers transportation services provided by fully licensed and perfectly legal transport operators.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
ajnin 10y ago
Except that the taxi licenses are limited to a fixed quota that is much too low for a city like Paris. Taxi drivers must rent their license from a taxi company or buy it from former drivers for large sums of money and they will go on strike as soon as a government says that they want to loosen the system a bit, which would lower the value of their investment. Uber such a success because the taxi service is so inadequate.

jacquesm 10y ago

That's a rather low standard for 'saving your ass'. I travel abroad frequently and I don't recall ever having had trouble to find a taxi except for Colombia, where you have to arrange one in advance (or rather, had, no idea how it is today there). Really, of all the hard things one could attempt to do while abroad getting a taxi isn't one of them. Some simple rules: - don't accept anybody's offer of a ride - look for relatively uniformly colored vehicles in a row - observe whether or not the drivers are asleep or awake - approach the first one that looks awake - ask if they are free - if so enter the vehicle and state destination - optional: if all you have is a credit card make sure you ask up front if it will be accepted, otherwise ask to stop at a local ATM to pick up some currency Using taxis was a solved problem long before Uber and the like arrived. Just like there is more food than McDonalds that is perfectly safe to eat when abroad.

curun1r 10y ago
Your advice is laughably bad in many parts of the world. Taxi scams, often perpetrated by those uniformly-colored vehicles lined up to take riders, bilk tourists/travelers out of a ton of money. The simple fact that there's often no way to ensure what the price of the ride will be before agreeing to accept the ride has left many a traveler being faced with the choice of paying and exorbitant amount or risking a run-in with the authorities for not paying. Worse yet, taxi drivers will hold bags in the trunk hostage as they demand payment. Even in the US, scams are common. Taxi drivers let air out of their tires to increase the milage or ask whether they can use the freeway knowing it will take you miles out of your way. And these are legitimate taxi drivers. From everything that I've observed taking both legitimate taxis and Ubers around the world, Uber's policies keep drivers far more well behaved than do the policies of the official taxi agencies. And the poster you were replying to is right...the consumer experience is considerably better. The simplified payment and upfront pricing alone make Uber better for riders.
- jacquesm 10y ago
  I've done my share of traveling and I've yet to be scammed by a taxi driver, maybe that's just luck but the number of days I spent abroad is probably higher by now than the number of days I spent in my home country. I'm far more ware of the police abroad than of taxi drivers.

n72 10y ago

I'm in a taxi at the moment driving home from Orly. There are lots of those 'chauffeurs' out there like there are at many airports in the states. I walked by them to the taxi stand about 15 feet from the airport exit and am now in a taxi as comfortable as any uber I've been in in NYC. Two weeks ago I returned to Paris from Amsterdam by train at Gare du Nord (a major train station in Paris) and the experience was almost identical to the one I am currently experiencing. In short, there is no need for uber to save your ass in the circumstances you describe since your ass doesn't need saving in the circumstances you describe.

nikanj 10y ago
Search for "stockholm taxi scam" for a great example of why your ass might indeed need saving
- atomwaffel 10y ago
  True, that's quite scummy, but surely it's an example of under-regulation, not over-regulation. This scam (not sure that's the right word since what they're doing is perfectly legal albeit morally reprehensible) literally cannot happen in places where taxi fares are fixed.
  - nikanj 10y ago
    In my opinion, I'd rather not have to research the taxi legistlation of countries I visit. Uber provides a globally uniform service at an uniform price, and like it or not, taxis do not.
    - atomwaffel 10y ago
      That's fair, I guess. It seems like a relatively minor point in the grand scheme of cultural differences you will have to deal with whenever you travel somewhere else and I find it hard to relate to the desire for standardisation and uniformity that I notice mostly from people in the tech community, but I'm not going to pretend that variations in taxi legislation are a charming cultural quirk worth preserving, so nothing makes my opinion more valid than yours.