I don't have a huge problem with your suggestion although I wonder if several competing Uber-esque services would solve these sorts of problems much more effici

I don't have a huge problem with your suggestion although I wonder if several competing Uber-esque services would solve these sorts of problems much more efficiently. The idea of "fair" prices is a difficult one because the definition of the idea varies so widely. I happen to like Uber's variable pricing strategy, but many people don't regard it as fair. I work in Chicago and have a condo in the Near West area (basically Ashland and Madison). Cabbies who are already in the area love seeing me hail them for a downtown trip because they earn a few dollars driving where they would have gone anyway without a paying customer. If the industry was un-regulated, I might consider competing with Uber by offering people with less money than time a way to get an inexpensive cab ride from one of these "backhaul" areas. Imagine an Uber-esque service where a senior citizen who wanted to go to the grocery store sometime in the next hour but only wanted to pay $3 for her trip could place a bid for a pick-up. Cabbies who dropped off a premium customer nearby could at least pay for their fuel to reposition themselves for the next premium customer. Everyone wins. It's this sort of innovation which is stifled by laws deemed to be in the best interest of consumers.