4 ms·

Prior to the advent of Uber and its clones, there were and still are radio taxis. You call a number and a cab turns up and you pay by the meter or an agreed upo

by yashg 3y ago

Prior to the advent of Uber and its clones, there were and still are radio taxis. You call a number and a cab turns up and you pay by the meter or an agreed upon price. How did it work then? Ride hailing apps need to go back to same business model. Act as a marketplace, connect two parties let the figure our a fair price and just charge the service provider for providing them a platform. But then it won't be a sexy business for the VCs and it won't make anyone billionaire.

dotnet00 3y ago
That would bring back the biggest issue taxis had, where, especially for airport rides, the taxis would fleece the customer by either just charging something crazy or taking an unnecessarily winding route. The main value add of Uber etc is that they manage the trip so you can have a higher baseline of trust.
supertrope 3y ago
The medallion system was a significant barrier to entry. Uber used the carpooling loophole as the thin end of a large wedge to exploit regulatory arbitrage. The 100% "independent contractor" driver workforce lets them skirt minimum wage laws, vehicle costs, unemployment costs, worker's compensation, Social Security tax, etc. They intentionally flood the market with drivers so customers only have to wait 5 min. Many drivers eventually learn that it's only profitable to drive during high demand times, within urban cores. Logging in during the work day, or in the suburbs simultaneously reduces revenue and increases mileage and time costs. Transportation networks have a fundamental trade off between quality of service and total area serviced. Cellphones existed before, but not with the ability to install a non-carrier blessed app, with GPS functionality (again keeping wait times down).
taway1237 3y ago
>You call a number and a cab turns up and you pay by the meter or an agreed upon price. How did it work then? Badly. I was scammed multiple times in different countries (I travel a lot), including my own. And there's a lot of uncertainty and stress involved (no guarantee you share a language with your driver, in case they need to ask any questions). And I hate talking over the phone. As long as that's an option I'm staying with Uber.

by yashg 3y ago

dotnet00 3y ago

That would bring back the biggest issue taxis had, where, especially for airport rides, the taxis would fleece the customer by either just charging something crazy or taking an unnecessarily winding route. The main value add of Uber etc is that they manage the trip so you can have a higher baseline of trust.

supertrope 3y ago

The medallion system was a significant barrier to entry. Uber used the carpooling loophole as the thin end of a large wedge to exploit regulatory arbitrage. The 100% "independent contractor" driver workforce lets them skirt minimum wage laws, vehicle costs, unemployment costs, worker's compensation, Social Security tax, etc. They intentionally flood the market with drivers so customers only have to wait 5 min. Many drivers eventually learn that it's only profitable to drive during high demand times, within urban cores. Logging in during the work day, or in the suburbs simultaneously reduces revenue and increases mileage and time costs. Transportation networks have a fundamental trade off between quality of service and total area serviced. Cellphones existed before, but not with the ability to install a non-carrier blessed app, with GPS functionality (again keeping wait times down).

taway1237 3y ago

>You call a number and a cab turns up and you pay by the meter or an agreed upon price. How did it work then? Badly. I was scammed multiple times in different countries (I travel a lot), including my own. And there's a lot of uncertainty and stress involved (no guarantee you share a language with your driver, in case they need to ask any questions). And I hate talking over the phone. As long as that's an option I'm staying with Uber.