3 ms·

Surge pricing is a feature for customers, not a bug. It means you can pay more to actually get a ride, rather than waiting 30 minutes to multiple hours for a ca

Surge pricing is a feature for customers, not a bug. It means you can pay more to actually get a ride, rather than waiting 30 minutes to multiple hours for a cab. I paid $50 extra in surge pricing once to avoid missing a $1000 flight, and I made it through security with minutes to spare. If I had waited for a taxi I would have been screwed. Customers that are more price sensitive or need to get where they are going less urgently can arrange alternative transport or wait for prices to drop.

Calavar 4y ago
I disagree. I flew out to a professional society meeting a few months ago (i.e. high triple digits number of people converging on the convention center) and the airport taxi stand was packed. The line was moving very quickly. I'd estimate probably ten passengers being picked up every minute, but well over 100 people in line, which meant there was still a decent wait. The ride share pickup area was almost completely empty, with maybe one car stopping every two to three minutes. People were willing to wait 20 minutes in the cold, squeeze into a cab with two to three strangers, and put up with the extra stops/dropoffs because the of the price difference (Uber was charging something like 2.5x the airport taxi flat rate that night). If algorithmic pricing is a "feature" that incentivizes more drivers to get on the street, why were the airport taxis operating on a fixed pricing model moving so many more people in a surge situation? Uber/Lyft want to call surge pricing a "feature" but the reality is that (like many other companies in this tech bubble) they have been so irresponsible with staff bloat and overhead that switching to a premium pricing model whenever the opportunity arises is the only way they can keep the balance sheet near even.
- pseudo0 4y ago
  That seems to indicate that taxis can't compete with Uber/Lyft's dispatch and logistics system, so they just wait somewhere with guaranteed customers. That's great if you happen to be at a hub where taxis hang out, but it sounds like lots of other people in the area also wanted a ride and didn't have a convenient airport taxi stand, causing the surge pricing for the region. For those people taxis are unavailable (because they are all queueing at the airport) so it's better to have the option of a ride at 2.5x than nothing.
Jochim 4y ago
If you had an airport flight why would you ever be waiting for a taxi instead of having pre-booked one? Uber, at least in my city, has given us a lower quality, less reliable, more expensive service. To the point that it's physically impossible to get a car at certain times of day. With Uber, instead of pre-booking a taxi and the company making sure they have someone available or otherwise notifying me. I basically have to gamble that a driver happens to be using Uber and is willing to take an airport fare. I won't be able to make alternative arrangements because by the time I find out whether or not there's a driver available It'll be too late.
- crazygringo 4y ago
  In my experience, prebooked taxis in large cities frequently simply don't show. I can't even begin to guess why, except that there's so much demand there's no negative consequences to not showing. I'm sure something like a black car service is more reliable, though I don't know from experience. Small cities are much better with prebooking since it's probably harder to find another customer. But with Uber there's always a driver around somewhere nearby in a large city. They might take 15 min to show but who cares? It sounds like you're in a smaller city where it's less reliable though.
  - alsetmusic 4y ago
    > In my experience, prebooked taxis in large cities frequently simply don't show. My father had a habit of booking two competing Bach companies for biz trips to the airport because of this.

Calavar 4y ago

I disagree. I flew out to a professional society meeting a few months ago (i.e. high triple digits number of people converging on the convention center) and the airport taxi stand was packed. The line was moving very quickly. I'd estimate probably ten passengers being picked up every minute, but well over 100 people in line, which meant there was still a decent wait. The ride share pickup area was almost completely empty, with maybe one car stopping every two to three minutes. People were willing to wait 20 minutes in the cold, squeeze into a cab with two to three strangers, and put up with the extra stops/dropoffs because the of the price difference (Uber was charging something like 2.5x the airport taxi flat rate that night). If algorithmic pricing is a "feature" that incentivizes more drivers to get on the street, why were the airport taxis operating on a fixed pricing model moving so many more people in a surge situation? Uber/Lyft want to call surge pricing a "feature" but the reality is that (like many other companies in this tech bubble) they have been so irresponsible with staff bloat and overhead that switching to a premium pricing model whenever the opportunity arises is the only way they can keep the balance sheet near even.

pseudo0 4y ago
That seems to indicate that taxis can't compete with Uber/Lyft's dispatch and logistics system, so they just wait somewhere with guaranteed customers. That's great if you happen to be at a hub where taxis hang out, but it sounds like lots of other people in the area also wanted a ride and didn't have a convenient airport taxi stand, causing the surge pricing for the region. For those people taxis are unavailable (because they are all queueing at the airport) so it's better to have the option of a ride at 2.5x than nothing.

Jochim 4y ago

If you had an airport flight why would you ever be waiting for a taxi instead of having pre-booked one? Uber, at least in my city, has given us a lower quality, less reliable, more expensive service. To the point that it's physically impossible to get a car at certain times of day. With Uber, instead of pre-booking a taxi and the company making sure they have someone available or otherwise notifying me. I basically have to gamble that a driver happens to be using Uber and is willing to take an airport fare. I won't be able to make alternative arrangements because by the time I find out whether or not there's a driver available It'll be too late.

crazygringo 4y ago
In my experience, prebooked taxis in large cities frequently simply don't show. I can't even begin to guess why, except that there's so much demand there's no negative consequences to not showing. I'm sure something like a black car service is more reliable, though I don't know from experience. Small cities are much better with prebooking since it's probably harder to find another customer. But with Uber there's always a driver around somewhere nearby in a large city. They might take 15 min to show but who cares? It sounds like you're in a smaller city where it's less reliable though.
- alsetmusic 4y ago
  > In my experience, prebooked taxis in large cities frequently simply don't show. My father had a habit of booking two competing Bach companies for biz trips to the airport because of this.