5 ms·

I don't agree that they screwed over taxi drivers. In a lot of places (like SF, often cited as the original motivation for Uber) the taxi drivers actively screw

by vosper 10y ago

I don't agree that they screwed over taxi drivers. In a lot of places (like SF, often cited as the original motivation for Uber) the taxi drivers actively screwed over their customers, and got away with it all the time: 1. Taxis would not come outside of the city core to pick you up. Or if you booked a ride they would find a more convenient fare, take that and never show 2. The card machine was always "broken" and they would insist on cash, maybe make you go to an ATM 3. They would drive people on poor routes to drive up fares. Especially foreigners. I had this tried on me. 4. They wouldn't take you to destinations they didn't want to go to. Try getting out to Yerba Buena Island (I used to live there) I'm generally for worker solidarity, and in fact I wish we had more of it in software engineering, but do I feel bad for the taxi drivers in SF? No, they had it coming.

rahoulb 10y ago
Whereas the city I live in in the U.K. had excellent taxi services - both licenced and private hire. Now the private hire is shit as they barely have any drivers and the licences is still expensive.
- vosper 10y ago
  So the private hire drivers moved over to Uber? Is that because they made more money under Uber, or had better conditions (maybe more flexibility?)? And, if so, does that mean that effectively Uber is a replacement for the old private hire system?
  - Ntrails 10y ago
    uber offers a way better set of coverage than any single private hire company could, and without any real costs as no "staff" to pay. I suspect the drivers make more because they get more consistent fares?
  - rahoulb 10y ago
    A while back I asked a few and they said Uber paid them extra for their first year - basically all the time they were working whether they had a fare or not.
- SirHound 10y ago
  London is shit though. Last night I booked an Uber, if I'd been asked to imagine a reasonable price for the trip I would have come up with something a lot like the price I was charged. If it was a normal taxi I'd have been charged at least £20. I don't have any sympathy.
  - foldr 10y ago
    Uber is able to sell rides at those prices by subsiding the drivers with investor money.
  - rahoulb 10y ago
    I expect licensed taxis to be expensive. The problem is now I have no choice but to get an Uber because the private hire firms don't have enough drivers and don't show up. And from speaking to the drivers it's because Uber is paying them way above market rates for their first year.
tajen 10y ago
and it was never possible to know the price beforehand. Unfortunately startups try to cut down prices and screw the providers (see Spotify, Uber, Netflix which clearly aren't expensive enough), but the simple new way of offering a service is already a revolution. Booking a taxi by credit card and without negociating, paying for PopcornTime service, etc.
HenryBemis 10y ago
In some countries (European south) the normality is that taxi drivers will rip off EVERYONE with their meters running anything from +10% to +50% of the fare. In that sense Uber is doing the right think by taking away a big portion of their income. BUT that doesn't justify all the nasty things they've been doing. Yes Uber is a game changer but they are not here to serve us, they are here to take over the taxi industry globally and make billions out of it (you need to spend money to make money).
- tdb7893 10y ago
  From an economics standpoint it would be best to have an app that showed fares from multiple different companies and they let the consumers pick what they wanted. Hopefully this model would win eventually as it encourages robust competition but currently all the players (taxis and Uber especially) seem invested in creating monopolies

by vosper 10y ago

rahoulb 10y ago

Whereas the city I live in in the U.K. had excellent taxi services - both licenced and private hire. Now the private hire is shit as they barely have any drivers and the licences is still expensive.

vosper 10y ago
So the private hire drivers moved over to Uber? Is that because they made more money under Uber, or had better conditions (maybe more flexibility?)? And, if so, does that mean that effectively Uber is a replacement for the old private hire system?
- Ntrails 10y ago
  uber offers a way better set of coverage than any single private hire company could, and without any real costs as no "staff" to pay. I suspect the drivers make more because they get more consistent fares?
- rahoulb 10y ago
  A while back I asked a few and they said Uber paid them extra for their first year - basically all the time they were working whether they had a fare or not.
SirHound 10y ago
London is shit though. Last night I booked an Uber, if I'd been asked to imagine a reasonable price for the trip I would have come up with something a lot like the price I was charged. If it was a normal taxi I'd have been charged at least £20. I don't have any sympathy.
- foldr 10y ago
  Uber is able to sell rides at those prices by subsiding the drivers with investor money.
- rahoulb 10y ago
  I expect licensed taxis to be expensive. The problem is now I have no choice but to get an Uber because the private hire firms don't have enough drivers and don't show up. And from speaking to the drivers it's because Uber is paying them way above market rates for their first year.

tajen 10y ago

and it was never possible to know the price beforehand. Unfortunately startups try to cut down prices and screw the providers (see Spotify, Uber, Netflix which clearly aren't expensive enough), but the simple new way of offering a service is already a revolution. Booking a taxi by credit card and without negociating, paying for PopcornTime service, etc.

HenryBemis 10y ago

In some countries (European south) the normality is that taxi drivers will rip off EVERYONE with their meters running anything from +10% to +50% of the fare. In that sense Uber is doing the right think by taking away a big portion of their income. BUT that doesn't justify all the nasty things they've been doing. Yes Uber is a game changer but they are not here to serve us, they are here to take over the taxi industry globally and make billions out of it (you need to spend money to make money).

tdb7893 10y ago
From an economics standpoint it would be best to have an app that showed fares from multiple different companies and they let the consumers pick what they wanted. Hopefully this model would win eventually as it encourages robust competition but currently all the players (taxis and Uber especially) seem invested in creating monopolies