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It all depends on what your goal of the taxi market is. From a regulatory standpoint, the role of taxi regulations is to manage supply in a two-sided market. T
by exelius 13y ago
It all depends on what your goal of the taxi market is.
From a regulatory standpoint, the role of taxi regulations is to manage supply in a two-sided market. The goal of managing this is often to balance availability of taxis with the ability of the taxi drivers/companies to make a profit without gouging the customer. Uber just formalizes the type of price gouging that these regulations are designed to prevent. It's consumer-hostile to take a market where fixed prices are the expectation and then say "Oh, well everyone else needs a taxi right now too... so you have to pay more." I'm not saying anything about its economic viability, but it makes the user experience of Uber suck ass.
More problematic is the attitude many taxi drivers take towards money. Uber assumes that every driver is trying to maximize profit; which is not always the case. In my experience (and I take taxis on a daily basis in many cities) the prevalent attitude is "well I needed to make $800 this week to pay my bills. I've made $800, so I'm going to stop working and go hang out with my family instead." Taxis drivers are generally independent contractors, so they can do this. If this happens in a place with a regulated number of drivers, helping them maximize profit quickly reduces the overall availability of taxis, again driving up prices.
Frankly, I hate using Uber. Whenever I need it, the price is jacked up to ridiculousness thanks to surge pricing. That makes it unreliable to me because I'm not paying $50 for a 3 mile cab ride. It's gotten to the point where I usually don't check Uber anymore. Thankfully, most of the local cab companies have similar mapping apps now that replicate enough of Uber's functionality that I am willing to use them.
- AJ007 13y agoWhat city do you live in? My ratio of good to bad Uber experiences is moving toward bad. In NYC it is about 1:1 now, while other cities still weigh heavily toward positive.
- exelius 13y agoPhiladelphia. It's not hard to hail a taxi in most places anywhere near downtown, but when you can't find one, Uber's not really a better option unless you're willing to pay over $50 for a ride. Uber definitely has a niche where it is useful, but it's not going to displace taxis as a whole. IMO Uber was born out of a specific fucked-up regulatory marketplace for taxis in San Francisco. Most of the taxis there are "limousine services" that are allowed to answer hails on the street. I found the situation pretty annoying, because rates are negotiated up front and are always more than what a metered taxi would cost. Many cities prohibit this because taxi drivers routinely use it to scam tourists (hence why taxi regulation exists.) Uber is a great solution for the regulatory situation in SF; but most big cities have better taxi regulation than SF.
- viscanti 13y agoWhat do you mean by "whenever you need it"? Are these situations where taxis are unavailable due to demand? If so, that seems to back up Uber's point that raising prices during high demand times creates a reliable transportation system. It seems like the point is to incentivize people to look for other options (or to wait) when demand is at it's highest, so that it can always offer a ride. The price for that ride might be higher, but it's there. The price for the taxi (in those high demand times) might be lower, but if it's unavailable, that price doesn't do you any good.
- SilasX 13y agoIf you prefer not to pay the gouging rates, nothing stops you from using the normal cabs at the expected rates, so long as you're willing to wait in times of high demand. I don't see how Uber has made things any worse for you; if anything, they've made it better in terms of your options.