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There’s something to be said for being able to not be forced to deal with a person, but I see something different personally. I’m “old” (40s) so I didn’t grow

by MBCook 1y ago

There’s something to be said for being able to not be forced to deal with a person, but I see something different personally. I’m “old” (40s) so I didn’t grow up with Uber. Maybe that colors my take. I don’t want to hire random Joes. If I wanted to buy a lift from a random person, I’d expect it to be very cheap. If I’m hiring someone to drive me from A to B I want a professional service. I want professional drivers in a fleet of maintained cars. With Uber/Lift you don’t know. Many drives do a great job and treat their cars/passengers like they’re professionals. Others don’t. The taxi industry sucked. They had no competition and could get lazy and do a terrible job and people still had to use them anyway. That needed fixing. But I don’t think the lesson we should learn is “taxis bad” but “bad service is bad”. And Uber/Lyft being so variable is not a plus at their prices.

reddalo 1y ago
I think that the best thing about Uber/Lyft is that they've been a wake up call for the taxi industry. I don't think I'd be able to book taxis (and pay in advance) using an app in my country, if Uber/Lyft didn't exist.
- Scoundreller 1y ago
  Mysteriously their credit card machines work a lot more often now
  - nottorp 1y ago
    Yes, I'm shocked! Some traditional taxis in my area now have a sticker on the window saying they take credit cards!
sagarm 1y ago
Black cars existed before Uber and Lyft -- in fact, that was how Uber started. Uber, in fact, still offers black cars (professional drivers) as an option.
- ghaff 1y ago
  But a lot of people basically wanted VC-subsidized cheaper cabs. Even if the easier and more reliable ordering was a bonus.
  - theamk 1y ago
    I don't think "cheap" was the main factor, at least for me and my friends. Predictable pricing, predictable arrival, automated booking, and an ability to complain to someone was significantly more important. (From what I've read, this happened naturally in other countries, but in US, the taxi monopoly was so bad, we needed something crazy like Uber)
    - datadrivenangel 1y ago
      Ubers were often half the cost of a taxi as well, and the drivers were getting paid more than you were paying uber, so this definitely impacted how many of my peers were taking uber instead of public transit.
    - user_7832 1y ago
      > From what I've read, this happened naturally in other countries, but in US, the taxi monopoly was so bad, we needed something crazy like Uber Depends on the city but definitely not the case everywhere in India. Uber and Ola (a local Uber alternative) massively forced taxi/auto (tuktuk) unions to weaken their bargaining position. There’s still a mafia eg in Goa where they literally threaten Uber drivers, but it’s relatively very different post Uber.
    - hattmall 1y ago
      Cheap and easy were the big factors, in roughly equal proportions, with a nod towards cheap. I did a lot of things I didn't need to do and just wouldn't have done at all if I would have had to pay taxi prices for several years while Ubers were cheap. Taxi's were also only easily available in very limited circumstances. Taxi's here worked one of two ways. You either negotiated a price before leaving, or they ran a meter and went some crazy route then when you got to the destination clicked a bunch of buttons and the total went up by $15-$20. When negotiating a price, it was usually $10 per person, for about a 3-4 mile ride, and they wouldn't take you right away if less than 4 people. They would encourage you to load like 8 or 10 people in (All Taxi's were vans) and would try to pick up other people along the way. Tipping was all but mandatory. So add another $2-3 per person. Uber/Lyft on the other hand was $5-6 or $2-3 for the shared one. An SUV was like $12-$20 that could seat 7, and the whole booking on the phone and tracking was excellent. Uber was so cheap that I would frequently book them because it was easier than going down into the parking garage since I could just meet the Uber on the street. A cheap ride in 5-10 minutes was available pretty much 24 hours a day. Now surge pricing was a whole different beast, but I never got caught in that. Not only that, the first 2 years it was completely free. Because I got a $25 credit for signing up and then $25 for ever referral. I had a prepaid phone from some spring MVNO that let you change your number by just texting a shortcode. I would just make a new account every night before I went out and have $50 in free rides. Now Lfyt and Uber are expensive, there's practically none available unless it's the middle of the day. Taxi's are down to pretty much $5 per person to go most places, but they are just completely destroyed unsafe cars. The last one I took was a longer ride $10 or $20 and it had no seat belts and the driver was so large I have no idea how he got in and out of the car.
bitmasher9 1y ago
The professional driver in a professional fleet service exists. It existed in the taxi era too. If you ever see an aggressive driver cutting their way through traffic in a perfectly maintained Escalade or Navigator heading towards the airport, that’s them.

by MBCook 1y ago

reddalo 1y ago

I think that the best thing about Uber/Lyft is that they've been a wake up call for the taxi industry. I don't think I'd be able to book taxis (and pay in advance) using an app in my country, if Uber/Lyft didn't exist.

Scoundreller 1y ago
Mysteriously their credit card machines work a lot more often now
- nottorp 1y ago
  Yes, I'm shocked! Some traditional taxis in my area now have a sticker on the window saying they take credit cards!

sagarm 1y ago

Black cars existed before Uber and Lyft -- in fact, that was how Uber started. Uber, in fact, still offers black cars (professional drivers) as an option.

ghaff 1y ago
But a lot of people basically wanted VC-subsidized cheaper cabs. Even if the easier and more reliable ordering was a bonus.
- theamk 1y ago
  I don't think "cheap" was the main factor, at least for me and my friends. Predictable pricing, predictable arrival, automated booking, and an ability to complain to someone was significantly more important. (From what I've read, this happened naturally in other countries, but in US, the taxi monopoly was so bad, we needed something crazy like Uber)
  - datadrivenangel 1y ago
    Ubers were often half the cost of a taxi as well, and the drivers were getting paid more than you were paying uber, so this definitely impacted how many of my peers were taking uber instead of public transit.
  - user_7832 1y ago
    > From what I've read, this happened naturally in other countries, but in US, the taxi monopoly was so bad, we needed something crazy like Uber Depends on the city but definitely not the case everywhere in India. Uber and Ola (a local Uber alternative) massively forced taxi/auto (tuktuk) unions to weaken their bargaining position. There’s still a mafia eg in Goa where they literally threaten Uber drivers, but it’s relatively very different post Uber.
  - hattmall 1y ago
    Cheap and easy were the big factors, in roughly equal proportions, with a nod towards cheap. I did a lot of things I didn't need to do and just wouldn't have done at all if I would have had to pay taxi prices for several years while Ubers were cheap. Taxi's were also only easily available in very limited circumstances. Taxi's here worked one of two ways. You either negotiated a price before leaving, or they ran a meter and went some crazy route then when you got to the destination clicked a bunch of buttons and the total went up by $15-$20. When negotiating a price, it was usually $10 per person, for about a 3-4 mile ride, and they wouldn't take you right away if less than 4 people. They would encourage you to load like 8 or 10 people in (All Taxi's were vans) and would try to pick up other people along the way. Tipping was all but mandatory. So add another $2-3 per person. Uber/Lyft on the other hand was $5-6 or $2-3 for the shared one. An SUV was like $12-$20 that could seat 7, and the whole booking on the phone and tracking was excellent. Uber was so cheap that I would frequently book them because it was easier than going down into the parking garage since I could just meet the Uber on the street. A cheap ride in 5-10 minutes was available pretty much 24 hours a day. Now surge pricing was a whole different beast, but I never got caught in that. Not only that, the first 2 years it was completely free. Because I got a $25 credit for signing up and then $25 for ever referral. I had a prepaid phone from some spring MVNO that let you change your number by just texting a shortcode. I would just make a new account every night before I went out and have $50 in free rides. Now Lfyt and Uber are expensive, there's practically none available unless it's the middle of the day. Taxi's are down to pretty much $5 per person to go most places, but they are just completely destroyed unsafe cars. The last one I took was a longer ride $10 or $20 and it had no seat belts and the driver was so large I have no idea how he got in and out of the car.

bitmasher9 1y ago

The professional driver in a professional fleet service exists. It existed in the taxi era too. If you ever see an aggressive driver cutting their way through traffic in a perfectly maintained Escalade or Navigator heading towards the airport, that’s them.