Re:Inside Uber’s Aggressive, Unrestrained Workplace Culture
by taxicabjesus on Thursday February 23, 2017 @12:38AM
(#13711883)
Large cab companies have been using gps-enabled electronic dispatching systems since 2004.
I found a video on my old phone that I'd filmed to show how the system works:
http://www.taxiwars.org/p/electronic-taxi-dispatch-v1.html
Usually I'd make it to the address in about 7 minutes. Sometimes I was parked at the pickup address already (convenience store). I think there are two diaries titled 'instant taxi' on my site...
This isn't how taxi cabs typically operate, except maybe in very dense neighborhoods. It's common in low to medium density areas to see cabbies waiting (often in the same parking lot) for a call from their dispatcher rather than driving around at random waiting for a hail. And in dense neighborhoods with enough riders, such as Manhattan, taxi cab occupancy comfortably exceeds 50%, at least at peak hours.
From the 2014 NYC Taxicab Fact book (which actually seems to cover the whole city, not just Manhattan) [1]:
Aside from these spikes, other areas of high occupancy occur mostly at peak travel times. For weekday AM rush hours (between 8AM and 9AM), the average occupancy is around 56%. For the PM rush hours following the shift change (between 6PM and 7PM), the average occupancy is around 62%. On Friday and Saturday nights, peaks occur around midnight and again at 4AM, when bars close in NYC. At midnight on weekends, 56% of available taxis are occupied, on average, and at 4AM, about 49% of available taxis are occupied.
[1]: http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/2014_taxicab_fact_...