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As a rider, I'm for this. I've had on more than one occasion a driver complain about how little I paid and checking their earning right in front of me. Maybe th

As a rider, I'm for this. I've had on more than one occasion a driver complain about how little I paid and checking their earning right in front of me. Maybe they were trying to guilt trip me into a higher tip, I don't know. Side note, ended up using a taxi in Orlando for the first time in years and it was surprisingly a much easier, cheaper, and faster ride (plus the driver knew the area and didn't need nav). Edit: I know they're doing this to screw drivers ultimately and that's not cool.

MuffinFlavored 7y ago
> Side note, ended up using a taxi in Orlando for the first time in years and it was surprisingly a much easier, cheaper, and faster ride (plus the driver knew the area and didn't need nav). Did you hail a taxi through an easy to use smartphone app?
- untog 7y ago
  What's easier to use than holding your hand up while on the street? Or going to a taxi rank at the airport? Don't get me wrong, these apps have made arranging a ride a lot easier. But they're not a requirement in 100% of cases.
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    > What's easier to use than holding your hand up while on the street? A smartphone app that essentially guarantees that the car will show up, and having shown up, won't listen to where you want to go and then refuse to take you there. > these apps have made arranging a ride a lot easier. But they're not a requirement in 100% of cases. When they are a requirement in cases as common as "it's raining", they might as well be a requirement in all cases.
  - smileysteve 7y ago
    > What's easier to use than holding your hand up while on the street? You won't find a taxi that way in a city like Orlando with the exception of a few hotels.
    - MuffinFlavored 7y ago
      Correct. I use Uber to go to and from the car dealership when I get service. Taxis are nowhere near where I live, or the car dealership.
  - cortesoft 7y ago
    Unless you are in Manhattan, very few places in the US are that easy to hail a cab.
- grawprog 7y ago
  About 99% of times I've taken a taxi I've called a number, spoken briefly with a dispatcher, then waited for my taxi. I'd say about the same ease as an app, maybe easier in the rain. Trying to enter info on a touch screen while water falls from the sky can be a trial.
  - cortesoft 7y ago
    That is not nearly as easy as an app... you have to talk to someone, you have to know where you are, and you have no information about how close they are. That is fine if that works for you, but the app is way easier for most people... which is why they have totally taken over most ride hailing business. If people agreed with you that calling a taxi is just as easy as calling an Uber or Lyft, those two would have never taken off.
    - dawnerd 7y ago
      Uber/Lyft took off because they were MUCH cheaper than taxis for a while - plus taxi drivers kind of gave themselves a bad reputation. Seems we've come full circle.
      - MuffinFlavored 7y ago
        > plus taxi drivers kind of gave themselves a bad reputation. I think it is usually "people who can afford to go into a taxi do not like mingling with people who are only worth a taxi driver's salary". I don't think most would say many positive things about a person that is only worth $x/hr on the economic market (where $x/hr is a taxi driver's average wages). Whether it is due to lack of education / opportunity, I do not know.
    - grawprog 7y ago
      I've never used uber or lyft, so I'm not sure how their apps work, but I keep my location turned off on my phone always, so I'm assuming the apps would have no way of knowing where I am without either turning it on or manually entering my location. Typically, I usually know where I am enough to give a cross street. I can't imagine getting an uber to a place where I couldn't describe my location. Every taxi place I've called, gives a wait estimate and generally tells me how far away the closest taxis are. The taxi companies here at least have actually released apps that let you call a taxi, track where they are generally many of the features uber and lyft's apps offer. To be honest, I don't trust taxi drivers much either, but they're regulated, they have cameras and they're accountable to somebody. The same can't really be said for uber/lift.
- wingspar 7y ago
  One major taxi company there has their own app, with dispatch and taxi tracking. https://www.mearstransportation.com/mears-apps/ https://www.mearstransportation.com/mears-apps/
- dawnerd 7y ago
  No, I walked up to the taxi booth and was in a car faster than I could have pulled out the lyft app. The theme parks have a horrible ride-share setup and recently Universal moved ride share pickups to their parking garage roof which has made the problem even worse. I literally waited an hour for a ride the night before which is why I decided the next day to just get a taxi.
mykowebhn 7y ago
I understand I will be downvoted for this, but don't you think you should tip more? I don't know where you live, but I do know in the US drivers depend on tip income and when you don't tip sufficiently it really hurts them.
- fosk 7y ago
  If their current job is unprofitable to a point that they rely on charity (aka “tips”) then they are probably in the wrong business or they should demand to be paid more by their employer.
  - untog 7y ago
    Tipping isn't charity, though. There is literally a legal loophole that lets employers pay less than minimum wage on the basis that the employee will receive enough in tips to make up the difference. Don't get me wrong, I hate tipping too. But it's disingenuous to describe it as charity when our legal system has made it legal to deprive workers of a wage because of an assumption that people will tip. So we should. And should support all efforts to remove the absurd loophole from the law.
    - refurb 7y ago
      Paying less than minimum wage and relying on tips doesn’t apply to Lyft drivers. And in addition, most employers need to pay minimum wage if the tips don’t bring it up to that.
      - icebraining 7y ago
        > And in addition, most employers need to pay minimum wage if the tips don’t bring it up to that. Exactly. Such laws means that for low-paying workers, tipping is a gift to the employer, not to the worker.
    - ping_pong 7y ago
      Tipping is 100% charity. In today's environment of 3% unemployment, if someone doesn't like their job, they can find another one pretty quickly. If they don't like the fact that restaurants can pay them less than minimum wage, they should find a new job.
amyjess 7y ago
So, back when I first started using Lyft, in 2014 or 2015, I thought it was customary to stay in the car until you rate and tip your driver. One day, as I was doing this the driver started aggressively demanding I tell him how much Lyft charged me. And of course I was having signal issues with my phone so the rate/tip screen was taking forever to come up. And he kept getting more and more impatient and demanding, and he repeatedly took screenshots on his phone during this time. Eventually, it came up, and he had creeped me out so much that I lied to him, told him I still wasn't getting signal, and I left. He had dropped me off at a bar, by the way. I went inside, ordered a drink, then went out on the patio to drink it (the patio is near the front entrance). As I was drinking it, I saw that he still hadn't moved his car and was staring right at me. I went right back in and was afraid to go back outside. That incident broke me of this habit, by the way. Now, as soon as I get to the destination, I quickly thank the driver, open the car door, and bolt. I don't even pull my phone out to rate/tip till I'm inside.
ipython 7y ago
I had the same experience with a few taxi rides in NYC. Uber drivers utterly reliant on sat nav, yet I give a yellow cabbie the destination address and they're able to get there with no problem. Hailing took less time than waiting for the uber and the ride was nearly 30% cheaper than what uber was quoting me - so I gave the cabbie a fat tip in cash. Wins all around.
dnautics 7y ago
> plus the driver knew the area and didn't need nav You really don't want that. Having the passengers be able to see the nav is a way to ensure transparency and make sure you aren't getting shafted by the driver. You want your driver to use the nav, even if they know the area like the back of their hand. When i was driving even if it was a route I had done hundreds of times before, I made sure the nav was on and in full view of the passengers.
- dawnerd 7y ago
  While I agree, it's a problem, especially in Orlando, when the drivers are new to the area and end up driving dangerously. I've only had a few drivers that had the nav on but drove like a responsible adult. I don't know if it's an Orlando problem or what, but it's really scary using ride-share there.

MuffinFlavored 7y ago

> Side note, ended up using a taxi in Orlando for the first time in years and it was surprisingly a much easier, cheaper, and faster ride (plus the driver knew the area and didn't need nav). Did you hail a taxi through an easy to use smartphone app?

untog 7y ago
What's easier to use than holding your hand up while on the street? Or going to a taxi rank at the airport? Don't get me wrong, these apps have made arranging a ride a lot easier. But they're not a requirement in 100% of cases.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > What's easier to use than holding your hand up while on the street? A smartphone app that essentially guarantees that the car will show up, and having shown up, won't listen to where you want to go and then refuse to take you there. > these apps have made arranging a ride a lot easier. But they're not a requirement in 100% of cases. When they are a requirement in cases as common as "it's raining", they might as well be a requirement in all cases.
- smileysteve 7y ago
  > What's easier to use than holding your hand up while on the street? You won't find a taxi that way in a city like Orlando with the exception of a few hotels.
  - MuffinFlavored 7y ago
    Correct. I use Uber to go to and from the car dealership when I get service. Taxis are nowhere near where I live, or the car dealership.
- cortesoft 7y ago
  Unless you are in Manhattan, very few places in the US are that easy to hail a cab.
grawprog 7y ago
About 99% of times I've taken a taxi I've called a number, spoken briefly with a dispatcher, then waited for my taxi. I'd say about the same ease as an app, maybe easier in the rain. Trying to enter info on a touch screen while water falls from the sky can be a trial.
- cortesoft 7y ago
  That is not nearly as easy as an app... you have to talk to someone, you have to know where you are, and you have no information about how close they are. That is fine if that works for you, but the app is way easier for most people... which is why they have totally taken over most ride hailing business. If people agreed with you that calling a taxi is just as easy as calling an Uber or Lyft, those two would have never taken off.
  - dawnerd 7y ago
    Uber/Lyft took off because they were MUCH cheaper than taxis for a while - plus taxi drivers kind of gave themselves a bad reputation. Seems we've come full circle.
    - MuffinFlavored 7y ago
      > plus taxi drivers kind of gave themselves a bad reputation. I think it is usually "people who can afford to go into a taxi do not like mingling with people who are only worth a taxi driver's salary". I don't think most would say many positive things about a person that is only worth $x/hr on the economic market (where $x/hr is a taxi driver's average wages). Whether it is due to lack of education / opportunity, I do not know.
  - grawprog 7y ago
    I've never used uber or lyft, so I'm not sure how their apps work, but I keep my location turned off on my phone always, so I'm assuming the apps would have no way of knowing where I am without either turning it on or manually entering my location. Typically, I usually know where I am enough to give a cross street. I can't imagine getting an uber to a place where I couldn't describe my location. Every taxi place I've called, gives a wait estimate and generally tells me how far away the closest taxis are. The taxi companies here at least have actually released apps that let you call a taxi, track where they are generally many of the features uber and lyft's apps offer. To be honest, I don't trust taxi drivers much either, but they're regulated, they have cameras and they're accountable to somebody. The same can't really be said for uber/lift.
wingspar 7y ago
One major taxi company there has their own app, with dispatch and taxi tracking. https://www.mearstransportation.com/mears-apps/ https://www.mearstransportation.com/mears-apps/
dawnerd 7y ago
No, I walked up to the taxi booth and was in a car faster than I could have pulled out the lyft app. The theme parks have a horrible ride-share setup and recently Universal moved ride share pickups to their parking garage roof which has made the problem even worse. I literally waited an hour for a ride the night before which is why I decided the next day to just get a taxi.

mykowebhn 7y ago

I understand I will be downvoted for this, but don't you think you should tip more? I don't know where you live, but I do know in the US drivers depend on tip income and when you don't tip sufficiently it really hurts them.

fosk 7y ago
If their current job is unprofitable to a point that they rely on charity (aka “tips”) then they are probably in the wrong business or they should demand to be paid more by their employer.
- untog 7y ago
  Tipping isn't charity, though. There is literally a legal loophole that lets employers pay less than minimum wage on the basis that the employee will receive enough in tips to make up the difference. Don't get me wrong, I hate tipping too. But it's disingenuous to describe it as charity when our legal system has made it legal to deprive workers of a wage because of an assumption that people will tip. So we should. And should support all efforts to remove the absurd loophole from the law.
  - refurb 7y ago
    Paying less than minimum wage and relying on tips doesn’t apply to Lyft drivers. And in addition, most employers need to pay minimum wage if the tips don’t bring it up to that.
    - icebraining 7y ago
      > And in addition, most employers need to pay minimum wage if the tips don’t bring it up to that. Exactly. Such laws means that for low-paying workers, tipping is a gift to the employer, not to the worker.
  - ping_pong 7y ago
    Tipping is 100% charity. In today's environment of 3% unemployment, if someone doesn't like their job, they can find another one pretty quickly. If they don't like the fact that restaurants can pay them less than minimum wage, they should find a new job.

amyjess 7y ago

So, back when I first started using Lyft, in 2014 or 2015, I thought it was customary to stay in the car until you rate and tip your driver. One day, as I was doing this the driver started aggressively demanding I tell him how much Lyft charged me. And of course I was having signal issues with my phone so the rate/tip screen was taking forever to come up. And he kept getting more and more impatient and demanding, and he repeatedly took screenshots on his phone during this time. Eventually, it came up, and he had creeped me out so much that I lied to him, told him I still wasn't getting signal, and I left. He had dropped me off at a bar, by the way. I went inside, ordered a drink, then went out on the patio to drink it (the patio is near the front entrance). As I was drinking it, I saw that he still hadn't moved his car and was staring right at me. I went right back in and was afraid to go back outside. That incident broke me of this habit, by the way. Now, as soon as I get to the destination, I quickly thank the driver, open the car door, and bolt. I don't even pull my phone out to rate/tip till I'm inside.

ipython 7y ago

I had the same experience with a few taxi rides in NYC. Uber drivers utterly reliant on sat nav, yet I give a yellow cabbie the destination address and they're able to get there with no problem. Hailing took less time than waiting for the uber and the ride was nearly 30% cheaper than what uber was quoting me - so I gave the cabbie a fat tip in cash. Wins all around.

dnautics 7y ago

> plus the driver knew the area and didn't need nav You really don't want that. Having the passengers be able to see the nav is a way to ensure transparency and make sure you aren't getting shafted by the driver. You want your driver to use the nav, even if they know the area like the back of their hand. When i was driving even if it was a route I had done hundreds of times before, I made sure the nav was on and in full view of the passengers.

dawnerd 7y ago
While I agree, it's a problem, especially in Orlando, when the drivers are new to the area and end up driving dangerously. I've only had a few drivers that had the nav on but drove like a responsible adult. I don't know if it's an Orlando problem or what, but it's really scary using ride-share there.