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Is there any evidence Uber is using ANY drivers who don't have the proper licenses to work as commercial drivers in the cities they work? You're suggesting som

Is there any evidence Uber is using ANY drivers who don't have the proper licenses to work as commercial drivers in the cities they work? You're suggesting something that I haven't read anywhere. What common good is being protected by requiring a towncar be booked 30+ minutes in advance? And if that was for the public good, why didn't those regulations come back when booking regulations were original drafted (apparently pre WW2)? The only people I've seen who have argued that Uber is against the "common good" are people who associate common good with the best interests of taxi medallion owners, and I haven't heard a compelling argument for how this regulation will help protect the common good (especially how it will outweigh the destruction of common good a free market with choice over transportation provides that would be killed).

tptacek 14y ago
A friend booked an Uber car I rode in recently whose driver informed me that he drove Uber because license suspensions prevented him from driving for any normal black car service. Jason Fried recently said that he had made a point of talking to every Uber driver he rode with, and that he had gotten uniformly glowing assessments from those drivers about Uber. I'm running the same experiment later than he is, and getting very different results.
- viscanti 14y ago
  I've read a number of statements from Uber, and talked to every driver I've had. My understanding is that they all are required to be licensed (and in fact are already limo drivers who are filling free time). I haven't run into a driver yet who drove for Uber full time. I've also found that I've gotten uniformly glowing assessments from all my drivers about Uber. This past weekend, my driver told me that "Uber is the best thing to happen to the transportation business ever". He had driven taxis, limos and worked as a delivery driver before. I hear similar stories from all my other drivers. It's certainly a different experience than riding in a taxi, but it's always hard to generalize from my limited number of rides/drivers.
  - tptacek 14y ago
    I have not gotten uniformly glowing assessments, but none of the bad things I've heard were Uber's fault, so much as they were reasons why the Uber business model in Chicago is sometimes inferior to that of the conventional black car model. My friend's driver didn't tell me he wasn't "licensed"; what he was telling me was that he was, for conventional livery companies, uninsurable. It seems clear to me that Uber checks drivers differently than black car companies do.

tptacek 14y ago

A friend booked an Uber car I rode in recently whose driver informed me that he drove Uber because license suspensions prevented him from driving for any normal black car service. Jason Fried recently said that he had made a point of talking to every Uber driver he rode with, and that he had gotten uniformly glowing assessments from those drivers about Uber. I'm running the same experiment later than he is, and getting very different results.

viscanti 14y ago
I've read a number of statements from Uber, and talked to every driver I've had. My understanding is that they all are required to be licensed (and in fact are already limo drivers who are filling free time). I haven't run into a driver yet who drove for Uber full time. I've also found that I've gotten uniformly glowing assessments from all my drivers about Uber. This past weekend, my driver told me that "Uber is the best thing to happen to the transportation business ever". He had driven taxis, limos and worked as a delivery driver before. I hear similar stories from all my other drivers. It's certainly a different experience than riding in a taxi, but it's always hard to generalize from my limited number of rides/drivers.
- tptacek 14y ago
  I have not gotten uniformly glowing assessments, but none of the bad things I've heard were Uber's fault, so much as they were reasons why the Uber business model in Chicago is sometimes inferior to that of the conventional black car model. My friend's driver didn't tell me he wasn't "licensed"; what he was telling me was that he was, for conventional livery companies, uninsurable. It seems clear to me that Uber checks drivers differently than black car companies do.