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LAX becomes largest U.S. airport to allow Uber, Lyft pickups
- DrScump 11y agoit will be short-lived unless they overturn this ruling: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-uber-suspended-20150715-story.html http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-uber-suspended-2015071...
- leereeves 11y agoThat seems to be about failure to file some required reports. I'm sure Uber will comply before they're suspended in California. > The judge agreed with utility commission staff who said Uber has not filed all required reports, specifically about how often it provided disabled-accessible vehicles when requested, places where drivers tend to turn down ride requests, and the causes of accidents. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/uber-fined-7m-keeping-info-california-regulators-32479254 http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/uber-fined-7m-kee...
- chrisper 11y agoWhy overturn and not just provide the data instead?
- pbreit 11y agoWhat are the main, reasonable arguments for disallowing paid airport pickups? Safety? Traffic? Control?
- gcb0 11y agohere is the main argument against uber in general: for taxis to keep their medalions, they must not refuse pickup/drop off on the worst parts of town. or for someone they don't like. and a certain percentage of licenses are given to drivers with vehicles that can accommodate handicapped passengers. uber is fine when you are a white, able guy living in a good neighborhood.
- jeff18 11y agoSorry if I am missing any sarcasm, but this seems totally backwards! Taxis are famous for racial discrimination while Uber drivers accept fares sight unseen. Also, taxis are well known (at least in San Francisco) for illegally refusing fares to distant neighborhoods. Uber drivers simply can't refuse. Finally, flagging a taxi is nearly impossible in a remote location, but calling an Uber driver from the app will work pretty much anywhere.
- kd5bjo 11y ago> Uber drivers simply can't refuse. Sure they can; I've had an Uber driver call me after accepting the fare to tell me to cancel and re-request.
- sbisker 11y agoYeah, that's a trick drivers play on customers so they don't take a hit to their rating. If Uber catches a driver canceling too often, they'll boot them or freeze them from picking up more fares. (Conversely, if a customer is doing the same thing too often, a similar penalty of fees or the like will happen to them as well.) So next time they try that, feel free to hold your ground by using Lyft instead or something. You don't have to cancel - they must, by their own rules, either cancel themselves, or pick you up.
- jackvalentine 11y agoAnd was your response "You cancel and take the hit if you don't want the fare" ?
- ariwilson 11y agoI had an even sneakier issue on a full fat Uber (not X) fare where the driver called me, asked me where I was going, told me he'd be there soon (location 5 minutes away), and just never came (15 minutes). I didn't know what to do with that as I actually did want to go home so I just cancelled and re-requested.
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- knorby 11y agoSome airports, e.g. ORD (or at least it did), have special provisions for medallioned taxis to get priority access to the highly structured taxi line. It isn't just a tax on the special nature of the ride. In the case or ORD, some particular extra fuel-efficient fleet cars got priority on the generally highly lucrative rides. There are other car services available and such, but in general airports fall under extra special taxi regulations given how much these rides rake in.
- SilasX 11y agoProbably the same ones that justify most airport fees and franchising: "Hey, these airports are really expensive to set up, let's recoup the cost from people who use them, so charge extra fees to any business benefiting from air travel." Hence why restaurants and everything else at the airport are more expensive, and why they also want a cut from paid taxi rides to/from the airport.
- pbreit 11y agoBut if you're leasing property to a captive audience, that kinda makes sense.
- prostoalex 11y agoTraffic control mainly. During busy time, everybody is trying to squeeze to the curb, double- and triple- parking is common. Which is why taxis and hotel shuttles are relegated to their own orderly line.
- jedberg 11y agoIt was already allowed. I took an Uber from LAX a few weeks ago. The catch was that they had to buy a $5 "temporary taxi license" (that Uber paid for) when they came in for each ride, which delayed them 5 minutes. Now they won't have to stop, which is nice.
- marcc 11y agoUberPlus and up are allowed at LAX, just UberX isn't allowed, unless the UberX driver has a TCP sticker -- something most don't have.
- jedberg 11y agoNot true, I rode an UberX without a TCP sticker. That's why he had to get the temporary license.
- wcfields 11y agoI would just take the Parking Spot shuttle to the one near the In-N-Out and hail an UberX from there. Tip the driver and it's perfectly fine.
- jczhang 11y agoReally? They usually check for ur parking permit? If this works for everyone this is a nice hack.
- mdorazio 11y agoYou don't even need to go to a parking structure. Pick up the first hotel shuttle that comes by and then Uber from there. I've done this many times with no issues. Obviously it takes longer than getting picked up at the airport directly, but it still beats taking a cab.
- mayneack 11y agoAs recently April, uber wouldn't even let you try to call uberX within the airport.
- SovietDissident 11y agoI used to live in Playa del Rey, which is maybe 10 minutes from LAX. There's a minimum fare for cabs of something like $17, which I was forced to pay. But the worst part was that every freaking time the cab driver would give me attitude for the short fare (ostensibly because they have to wait in that long line). What do you want me to do? Walk an hour home carrying my luggage? Uber and Lyft are a complete blessing. Despite all these taxi regulations which are supposedly there to protect the consumer, all they did was create an entrenched oligopoly, where taxi companies were complacent because they basically lacked competition and didn't have to increase the quality of their service. But now that people have an alternative and are eschewing cab services in droves, they are crying bloody murder. Stop blaming the consumer, lobby to get rid of the medallion/regulatory model, and get ready to finally compete (or perish)!
- MrAlmostWrong 11y agoI live in Playa del Rey now and absolutely detest thinking about taking a cab home. I almost have to ensure I mention a nice tip so the cabbie doesn't roll his eyes. Usually I just say that I'll give turn by turn directions instead of just saying where I'm going.
- lifeisstillgood 11y agoSo is Uber less expensive than the taxi 17usd? Or just polite about it? Or coming in from out of the city to get you ? I don't get why 17 bucks to an uber driver is worse or better than 17 to taxi? Uber has to wait for their next to surely ?
- weaksauce 11y agoa ten minute drive on uber near me was around 7 bucks.
- throwawaymsft 11y agoHave you ever used uber? There's no tipping, no "credit card isn't working" bs, cars are generally nicer/have water, drivers more polite (because there are ratings)... I'd pay more to use an uber to be honest.
- unabridged 11y agoHow can they tell the difference between an Uber driver and a friend I called to pick me up?
- marcc 11y agoYou don't normally ride in the backseat when you friend picks you up. Your friend doesn't have an Uber sign in his front windsheld. Sure, they could hide that sign and request that you sit in the backseat (I've actually had Uber drivers at LAX request this). But then they would be asking drivers to take steps to knowingly break the law.
- baddox 11y agoI don't normally ride in the backseat of an Uber. In fact, I've never done that except when someone else in my party is in the front seat.
- marcc 11y agoI think many people do. I even had an UberX in LA a couple of weeks ago tell me "no, ride in the back", when I opened the front door.
- qq66 11y agoI always ride in the backseat. It gives the driver his or her personal space, lets them use the front seat for their snack or bag or whatever, and feels more professional/businesslike to me.
- rhino369 11y agoBy subpenaing Uber records and fining them for allowing pick ups at the airport.
- mayneack 11y ago> To work at the airport, drivers cannot have convictions for reckless driving, hit and run, driving under the influence, sexual crimes or terrorism I get that some of these are sort of taxi or driver specific and that the rules are a little odd anyway, but it seems that murder should be on this list too?
- mickeyrooney 11y agoRecently released full details on the process Uber uses. Looks like murder is covered: http://newsroom.uber.com/2015/07/details-on-safety/ http://newsroom.uber.com/2015/07/details-on-safety/
- ChrisNorstrom 11y agoHow to get around Uber Airport bans: Take a taxi ride just outside the airport and from there get an Uber ride. It's still much cheaper. Perfect Example: Orlando International Airport, is a jail. It has no sidewalks leading in or out of the airport. It's about 1 mile of 60mph road and ramps leading in and out of the airport with NO shoulders and NO sidewalks. Look it up on Google Maps. It's impossible to leave. After 11pm I arrive and the buses are not working, friend can't pick me up. A 6 mile taxi ride is $55 dollars! Uber ride is about $12. I try to hop on the Parking Spot / Rental car shuttles to get just outside the airport ban radius but they've caught on and no one will let me on. I'm not paying $55. So I just grabbed a taxi and had him drop me off just outside the airport at a Denny's. Cost: $13 for 1 mile. Grabbed an Uber for the remainder of the trip which was $11. Paid $24 instead of $55.
- bsder 11y ago> How to get around Uber Airport bans: Take a taxi ride just outside the airport and from there get an Uber ride. It's still much cheaper. Free hotel shuttles work just as well.
- MicroBerto 11y agoNot at LAX. Minimum fare is $17, which is ridiculous if you are going somewhere near the airport. Someone else commented on that. Good night taxi industry. It hasn't been fun and it wasn't good knowing ya!
- HappyTypist 11y agoMuch easier way: Put your pin near the airport, and call the driver saying you're actually at the airport. I have done this dozens of times. No driver has ever refused.
- unknownzero 11y agoSomewhat off-topic, it's interesting the article lists LAX as the third busiest airport, when I googled to see what the first two were out of curiosity it was shown right in the search results as the second busiest. That data on google appears to come from the wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_i... for "Busiest US airports by total passenger boardings". LAX then appears to be listed as fourth busiest in "30 busiest US airports by total passenger traffic". These numbers obviously vary by year and it seems the one google picked up was from preliminary FAA data. No idea why this stuck out to me but for some reason I want to know why the author settled on third busiest here out of the myriad choices.
- grapevines 11y agoWhat are the chances that somebody would do LAX to Santa Barbara ?
- xasos 11y agoI'm assuming that LAX is the largest U.S. airport to allow regular Uber pickups? You can request an UberTaxi or Uber Black car at ORD [0], which is the second largest airport in terms of traffic in the world [1]. [0] https://www.facebook.com/uber/posts/601574873216135 https://www.facebook.com/uber/posts/601574873216135 [1] http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140924/BLOGS02/140929936/ohare-regains-half-the-crown-as-worlds-busiest http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140924/BLOGS02/1409...
- ransom1538 11y agoMy wife had a girls trip in Chicago. She made the error of just getting a "cab" and not using her UBER app. It turns out, what she got into was some kind of cab that didn't have a till. The driver was angry she didn't have cash, drove her around to an ATM, demanded $100, refused to let her have her items out of the trunk. Personally, I am no longer comfortable with her getting into cabs or non-uber black cars - it is becoming unsafe. If that driver decided to do something -- he would be off the grid.
- msellout 11y agoWhat that driver did was illegal. She could have called the police. It sounds like she was taken by some pirate taxi, not one from the taxi stand.
- ransom1538 11y agoYes. He probably preys on woman.
- Flammy 11y agoHello, non sequitur logical fallacy.
- enjo 11y agoThe cab didn't have a till, it was most definitely illegal but not because of the credit card. It was almost for sure an unlicensed cab...
- _asummers 11y agoI've taken a lot of cabs in Chicago. Sometimes I actually read the little "Bill of Rights" thing that they display. One of the things that they say is that you can always pay by credit card. http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/bacp/supp_info/2012_passenger_information.html http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/bacp/supp_info/20... Doesn't help now but she should have called 311 after taking down the driver info. If something like that ever happens again, she should do so and the driver will get into huge trouble with the city.
- ransom1538 11y agoMy wife had a girls trip in Chicago. She made the error of just getting a "cab" and not using her UBER app. It turns out, what she got into was some kind of cab that didn't have a till. The driver was angry she didn't have cash, drove her around to an ATM, demanded $100, refused to let her have her items out of the trunk. Personally, I am no longer comfortable with her getting into cabs or non-uber black cars - it is becoming unsafe. If that driver decided to do something -- he would be off the grid.
- kkt262 11y agoAwesome. Being in LA this is really good news.
- mhartl 11y agoI usually Uber to the airport and taxi back. The latter costs almost 50% more. If this policy goes through, it will be a welcome change.
- chatterbeak 11y agoLAX is the second largest (by passenger boarding) airport in the country. So until ATL allows Uber, I guess this is true.