Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So I landed at the Irvine airport and go out to the taxi area and ask the guy where I can stand to wait for my Uber car and he bites my head off and tells me to leave the entire area.
Uber, Lyft, whatever, these services are so much better than cabs. Nicer cars, no dealing with cash or handing someone your card, or tipping. It's clean, and you can rate the driver afterward. All app based.
I do think Uber should be regulated though. I don't know how much it is now, but for instance, only people with excellent driving records and no felonies are people I want driving me anywhere. But Taxis should not have a monopoly.
My son drove taxi for a 18 months, first with a local company in my little town, then for the last six months for Uber. He drives an Uber leased car, so he has a TCP number and can enter airports by paying a very modest fee. He tells me that Uber drivers who drive their own cars must pay a hefty fee to enter SFO to pick up or drop off, and this makes the fares unprofitable.
My son tells me he has certain issues with the way he is paid under this arrangement. Since he leases from another Uber driver (it amazes me how people figure out all these different ways to leverage their Uber relationship into a little car leasing business of their own!) Uber sends all payments to the owner of the car, who then forwards the money due to my son. The issue is the paperwork. Doing things this way means my son does not see all the fre info, and has to trust the car owner that he is getting everything due him.
As for his observations about his passengers, he generally likes it.However, he does not like the rules. He cannot speak unless spoken to, and being quite gregarious, he misses being able to interact as much as he did when he drove for Yellow. He also does not like the fact that he cannot kick an unruly passenger out of his cab. He must maintain a high "like" level or he will lose his job. I think, though, that Uber passengers are in general of better class than Yellow passengers. Maybe a better way of putting that is that there is a much lower percentage of unruliness among Uber users. While he too can rate passengers, I dont know that Uber has any means or interest in excluding passengers with low driver approvals.
Traditional cab companies are rife with corruption in several aspects. Apparently the 1099 their drivers at a certain amount, a number low enough that most drivers make far more than that. So I assume based upon what my son says, cabbies to not pay their fair share of taxes. Uber drivers do, because all of their income as issued by the company is reportable. On the other hand, as with any business, Uber drivers can deduct all their expenses. Still, they would be paying their fair share of taxes.
Also, my son says that with traditional cab companies, in addition to the expected expenses of cab rental and fuel costs. drivers must "tip" the garage manager in order to be considered for getting a cab. This being cash, I'm willing to be that the manager does not report the income.
So from my third party perspective, based upon conversations with my son plus my bias against government supported monopolies I would say that from top to bottom and business to customer, Uber is doing things right.
This is probably more than you wanted to know, but I hope you and other readers enjoy the gossip.
There are a number of good reasons that "hackney drivers" have been required to be licensed in major cities around the world for the last several hundred years.
Among them are concerns about public safety, insurance, public health, honesty, and others. Now Uber and Lyft and other online services are challenging the traditional taxi services the way Airbnb and others are challenging the traditional hotel business. It's a disruptive model, and there's naturally going to be friction points.
Not the least of these friction points will be over city revenues. But even more telling, over time, will be how well they wear on the public's perception. The high profile war between Uber and Lyft, with drivers for each service making reservations on the other, then cancelling at the last minute, are making them both look bad.
A few high profile accidents, or worse, violent crimes could change the trajectory of these services very quickly. And anecdotally it seems the early adopters are heavy on Millennials, who seem eager to embrace new ideas but can also be very fickle, so it's impossible to predict whether these services will wear well over time.
It's early in the game. It will be interesting to see whether this lasts.
Here's the problem, at least the way it is in my area.
Taxis are regulated. Their drivers must carry certain insurance, adhere to certain standards as far as drug and alcohol testing, have a clean driving and criminal record, and pay for a yearly license to ensure that those things are all checked on an annual basis. Uber and Lyft? Just assume that the company really does as thorough of a job as they say they do. No regulation whatsoever.
The other big issue is that taxis must pick up everyone, anywhere, and take them wherever they want to go. A taxi driver doesn't get to pick and choose his customers based upon their race, sex, residence, or their history of tipping. They must pick up everyone and must take them wherever they want to go. They also must do it for an established rate. That's not the way it is with Uber and Lyft. Their drivers get to pick and choose their customers, avoiding the less desirable ones who don't tip and also avoiding the more seedy areas of town. Their rates can also change based upon demand, which isn't the case for a taxi. I'm also waiting for the day an Uber driver refuses to transport someone's service animal and the company (and the driver) gets sued into oblivion.
I get the point behind services such as Uber, but they should also be held to the same regulatory standards as regular taxis and their drivers. There are legitimate reasons that the taxi industry became a regulated industry pretty much everywhere. One of the reasons was to avoid discrimination, which is exactly what Uber and Lyft cater to. People with bad ratings (for whatever reason it may be due to) don't get rides.
Taxi companies are a monopoly. When you dig into the ownerships, you will find only one or two companies owning the taxis. Licenses are highly restricted so a big market exists for the licenses. The politicians support the monopoly because of the contributions.
The 'public protection' runs very thin when taxi fares become a license to rob due to no actual competition.
Here's the problem, at least the way it is in my area.
Taxis are regulated. Their drivers must carry certain insurance, adhere to certain standards as far as drug and alcohol testing, have a clean driving and criminal record, and pay for a yearly license to ensure that those things are all checked on an annual basis. Uber and Lyft? Just assume that the company really does as thorough of a job as they say they do. No regulation whatsoever.
The other big issue is that taxis must pick up everyone, anywhere, and take them wherever they want to go. A taxi driver doesn't get to pick and choose his customers based upon their race, sex, residence, or their history of tipping. They must pick up everyone and must take them wherever they want to go. They also must do it for an established rate. That's not the way it is with Uber and Lyft. Their drivers get to pick and choose their customers, avoiding the less desirable ones who don't tip and also avoiding the more seedy areas of town. Their rates can also change based upon demand, which isn't the case for a taxi. I'm also waiting for the day an Uber driver refuses to transport someone's service animal and the company (and the driver) gets sued into oblivion.
I get the point behind services such as Uber, but they should also be held to the same regulatory standards as regular taxis and their drivers. There are legitimate reasons that the taxi industry became a regulated industry pretty much everywhere. One of the reasons was to avoid discrimination, which is exactly what Uber and Lyft cater to. People with bad ratings (for whatever reason it may be due to) don't get rides.
I agree. And many of the Uber drivers are just doing this on the side to earn a few extra bucks. Unlike taxi drivers, they have no reason not to break the rules. They could be drinking, etc. They get fired, no big deal. And not having a commercial DL or insurance is just a disaster waiting to happen. There are already lawsuits and complaints. One lawsuit involves violation of the ADA.
I'd never get into a car with a person who had not gone through the background checks, commercial licensing, and insurance requirements for a commercial driver.
I like Uber....used it a few times in the past month & it's very convenient, as well as half the price of a taxi.
Only drawbacks are the drivers asking for my number, lol
Uber/etc. are gypsy cabs.
AirBnb is a network of underground hotels. "Sharing", in these cases, as @Lurker says, seems to mean, "underground". I'm not really sure how cities are still allowing these services to float above ground...
If Al Capone had a slick iPhone app, could he have a "Liquor sharing" service?
Quote:
It's the Bespoke Economy/Bespoke Consumption. The mass production, one-size-fits-all economic model that allowed everyone to have, say, their own lawnmower for their personal use, is over. A world of networked consumers can now have a fraction of those lawnmowers at high use tempos (rather than a multitude of lawnmowers used only rarely). We're moving into an era of radical efficiency where maximum value is squeezed out of latent, underutilized capital, with wastefulness is expensive and efficiency is valuable. exciting times.
Quote:
Boatrocking, Boatrockers. Noun or Verb.
The taxi industry just got boatrocked by newcomers Uber and Lyft.
The new boatrocker taxi service, Uber, finds itself in a legal no-man's-land in several large cities across the country. Taxi organizations and city governments are trying to "scuttle" this new start-up, because it is disruptive to the high profit monopoly on taxi services in their locales.
Here's the problem, at least the way it is in my area.
Taxis are regulated. Their drivers must carry certain insurance, adhere to certain standards as far as drug and alcohol testing, have a clean driving and criminal record, and pay for a yearly license to ensure that those things are all checked on an annual basis. Uber and Lyft? Just assume that the company really does as thorough of a job as they say they do. No regulation whatsoever.
The other big issue is that taxis must pick up everyone, anywhere, and take them wherever they want to go. A taxi driver doesn't get to pick and choose his customers based upon their race, sex, residence, or their history of tipping. They must pick up everyone and must take them wherever they want to go. They also must do it for an established rate. That's not the way it is with Uber and Lyft. Their drivers get to pick and choose their customers, avoiding the less desirable ones who don't tip and also avoiding the more seedy areas of town. Their rates can also change based upon demand, which isn't the case for a taxi. I'm also waiting for the day an Uber driver refuses to transport someone's service animal and the company (and the driver) gets sued into oblivion.
I get the point behind services such as Uber, but they should also be held to the same regulatory standards as regular taxis and their drivers. There are legitimate reasons that the taxi industry became a regulated industry pretty much everywhere. One of the reasons was to avoid discrimination, which is exactly what Uber and Lyft cater to. People with bad ratings (for whatever reason it may be due to) don't get rides.
Taxi must pick up anyone, that's hillarious their are countless of people who say that taxis don't even arrive sometimes. Also if your are a certain ethnic group, taxis will drive right pass you. Bottom line taxis need to change their business model or die.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
