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The previous market making mechanism for this industry was for a buyer to stand on a street corner, hold their hand up, and hope that a vendor who sold that ser

The previous market making mechanism for this industry was for a buyer to stand on a street corner, hold their hand up, and hope that a vendor who sold that service drove by. That's insane.

snowwrestler 9y ago
You could call for a cab, which worked fine. The app-based experience is undoubtedly better though.
- Uehreka 9y ago
  I disagree. When I was in college (09-12 in Baltimore) it was impossible to get a cab unless it was a weekend night (in which case they’d all line up outside the dorms). I remember calling cab companies, being told “we put out a call on the radio, someone will probably be there in the next half hour.” And then nobody showing up. The ability to rate drivers and the ability of the system to punish drivers who won’t pick up mildly inconvenient fares has vastly improved this industry (at least from my POV).
- pfarnsworth 9y ago
  You must not live in SF. In SF you would call a cab, and then hope that the cab would come. After 30 mins you would call again asking where the cab was, and they would send another cab. After another 30 mins you gave up and drove. Same goes for trying to hail a cab from the streets. Empty cabs would drive past you because they wanted to only drive passengers to the airport. I'm glad they are all going out of business.
- criddell 9y ago
  In theory you could call for a cab. In practice, you couldn't.
stephenr 9y ago
Do taxi companies in the US really not have apps or, you know, phones?
- dorfsmay 9y ago
  In Canada, none had an apps until Uber arrived.
- chaostheory 9y ago
  until Uber and Lyft rose in popularity, taxi companies were resistant to apps
- oaktowner 9y ago
  They do now in San Francisco. But only because they lost so much business to Uber. This was an industry that was effectively a monopoly -- not one company, but one type of provider. And none of the players was improving the experience for the customer. Calling for a cab was extremely unreliable here. You could easily wait for an hour (because any driver coming to pick you up could, without ill effect for him/herself, stop to pick somebody up on the street). Some cabs took credit cards, some didn't. Some claimed to take credit cards but then "the machine was broken" so you had to pay cash. Uber improved on every single aspect of the customer experience. And they did it while offering lower prices for the consumer. However: to me, they haven't proven it's a viable, long term model. I highly doubt that they are paying their drivers enough to cover the cost of wear and tear on the cars (many/most of the drivers I see with Uber and Lyft are doing it full time, so they are crazy if they aren't factoring in the cost of the car and maintenance as part of their cost). And AFAIK neither company has proven they can make money. So: this industry was due for a shakeup. But it needs to be done by a company without rampant management problems, and it still needs to prove that there is a viable, long term business model that works for the company, the drivers and the consumers. [edit: and, yes -- long term, there won't be drivers in these cars. But Uber has to find a way to survive until then, and I don't believe they can burn cash that long]
  - BurningFrog 9y ago
    > I highly doubt that they are paying their drivers enough to cover the cost of wear and tear on the cars Since Uber/Lyft has no problem attracting drivers at the rates they pay, this argument rests on drivers being financially ignorant enough that they don't notice they're losing money doing it.
dragonwriter 9y ago
In a couple urban cores where both customers and providers were extremely dense so that that simple method could work, surez that a mechanism in play; everywhere else (and often also available on those same areas) it was “customer calls dispatch agency on the phone, dispatch agency routes to service provider via radio (or mobile phone)”; Uber replaces the dispatch agency and changes the communication mechanism on both sides from a phone to an app on the phone.
- santaclaus 9y ago
  And the third step after dispatch, cab finds another rider on the way and dispatch doesn't call back to tell you your cab isn't coming.
nsxwolf 9y ago
This mechanism actually works pretty well in Chicago.
- gregorymichael 9y ago
  It didn't work when I wanted to take a cab from Logan Square to work. Called the dispatcher. The cab showed up somewhere between 15 and 60 minutes later.
  - nsxwolf 9y ago
    "Pretty well". We just tried to get an Uber in the French Quarter and had to cancel 2 different drivers because they couldn't figure out how to route around the barricades.
chris_7 9y ago
Also, hope that you are white.
- Mikeb85 9y ago
  I'm going to wager that wearing a suit and/or other indicators of being of a higher social class are far more important than race. I've never seen a rich minority person discriminated against...
  - saint_fiasco 9y ago
    A rich enough person has a car, sometimes even a private driver.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - bighi 9y ago
      It's not like people sign a contract agreeing to never use taxis when they buy a car.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - akgerber 9y ago
    Maybe because you're not a rich minority? Plenty of them have filed complaints: http://people.com/celebrity/al-roker-files-complaint-after-new-york-cab-passes-him-for-white-man/ http://people.com/celebrity/al-roker-files-complaint-after-n... http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/04/nyregion/danny-glover-says-cabbies-discriminated-against-him.html http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/04/nyregion/danny-glover-says...
    - Mikeb85 9y ago
      If I wear shorts, flip-flops and a t-shirt I get passed by all the time by cabs. If I wear a suit, almost never. Also, both those articles suggest something more to the story than outright racism. Most cabbies aren't comfortable with me riding in the front seat, and I wouldn't really blame them either.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

The previous market making mechanism for this industry was for a buyer to stand on a street corner, hold their hand up, and hope that a vendor who sold that service drove by. That's insane.

snowwrestler 9y ago

You could call for a cab, which worked fine. The app-based experience is undoubtedly better though.

Uehreka 9y ago
I disagree. When I was in college (09-12 in Baltimore) it was impossible to get a cab unless it was a weekend night (in which case they’d all line up outside the dorms). I remember calling cab companies, being told “we put out a call on the radio, someone will probably be there in the next half hour.” And then nobody showing up. The ability to rate drivers and the ability of the system to punish drivers who won’t pick up mildly inconvenient fares has vastly improved this industry (at least from my POV).
pfarnsworth 9y ago
You must not live in SF. In SF you would call a cab, and then hope that the cab would come. After 30 mins you would call again asking where the cab was, and they would send another cab. After another 30 mins you gave up and drove. Same goes for trying to hail a cab from the streets. Empty cabs would drive past you because they wanted to only drive passengers to the airport. I'm glad they are all going out of business.
criddell 9y ago
In theory you could call for a cab. In practice, you couldn't.

stephenr 9y ago

Do taxi companies in the US really not have apps or, you know, phones?

dorfsmay 9y ago
In Canada, none had an apps until Uber arrived.
chaostheory 9y ago
until Uber and Lyft rose in popularity, taxi companies were resistant to apps
oaktowner 9y ago
They do now in San Francisco. But only because they lost so much business to Uber. This was an industry that was effectively a monopoly -- not one company, but one type of provider. And none of the players was improving the experience for the customer. Calling for a cab was extremely unreliable here. You could easily wait for an hour (because any driver coming to pick you up could, without ill effect for him/herself, stop to pick somebody up on the street). Some cabs took credit cards, some didn't. Some claimed to take credit cards but then "the machine was broken" so you had to pay cash. Uber improved on every single aspect of the customer experience. And they did it while offering lower prices for the consumer. However: to me, they haven't proven it's a viable, long term model. I highly doubt that they are paying their drivers enough to cover the cost of wear and tear on the cars (many/most of the drivers I see with Uber and Lyft are doing it full time, so they are crazy if they aren't factoring in the cost of the car and maintenance as part of their cost). And AFAIK neither company has proven they can make money. So: this industry was due for a shakeup. But it needs to be done by a company without rampant management problems, and it still needs to prove that there is a viable, long term business model that works for the company, the drivers and the consumers. [edit: and, yes -- long term, there won't be drivers in these cars. But Uber has to find a way to survive until then, and I don't believe they can burn cash that long]
- BurningFrog 9y ago
  > I highly doubt that they are paying their drivers enough to cover the cost of wear and tear on the cars Since Uber/Lyft has no problem attracting drivers at the rates they pay, this argument rests on drivers being financially ignorant enough that they don't notice they're losing money doing it.

dragonwriter 9y ago

In a couple urban cores where both customers and providers were extremely dense so that that simple method could work, surez that a mechanism in play; everywhere else (and often also available on those same areas) it was “customer calls dispatch agency on the phone, dispatch agency routes to service provider via radio (or mobile phone)”; Uber replaces the dispatch agency and changes the communication mechanism on both sides from a phone to an app on the phone.

santaclaus 9y ago
And the third step after dispatch, cab finds another rider on the way and dispatch doesn't call back to tell you your cab isn't coming.

nsxwolf 9y ago

This mechanism actually works pretty well in Chicago.

gregorymichael 9y ago
It didn't work when I wanted to take a cab from Logan Square to work. Called the dispatcher. The cab showed up somewhere between 15 and 60 minutes later.
- nsxwolf 9y ago
  "Pretty well". We just tried to get an Uber in the French Quarter and had to cancel 2 different drivers because they couldn't figure out how to route around the barricades.

chris_7 9y ago

Also, hope that you are white.

Mikeb85 9y ago
I'm going to wager that wearing a suit and/or other indicators of being of a higher social class are far more important than race. I've never seen a rich minority person discriminated against...
- saint_fiasco 9y ago
  A rich enough person has a car, sometimes even a private driver.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - bighi 9y ago
    It's not like people sign a contract agreeing to never use taxis when they buy a car.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- akgerber 9y ago
  Maybe because you're not a rich minority? Plenty of them have filed complaints: http://people.com/celebrity/al-roker-files-complaint-after-new-york-cab-passes-him-for-white-man/ http://people.com/celebrity/al-roker-files-complaint-after-n... http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/04/nyregion/danny-glover-says-cabbies-discriminated-against-him.html http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/04/nyregion/danny-glover-says...
  - Mikeb85 9y ago
    If I wear shorts, flip-flops and a t-shirt I get passed by all the time by cabs. If I wear a suit, almost never. Also, both those articles suggest something more to the story than outright racism. Most cabbies aren't comfortable with me riding in the front seat, and I wouldn't really blame them either.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]