If you want a larger car, you can get it. You'll just pay a bit more.
> Aren't the levels of Uber that allow a Prius to be used much, much cheaper than a black cab? If you want a larger car, you can get it. You'll just pay a bit more.
> On paper, sure. In practice, I find that Uber is nearly constantly in surge pricing in London. I've had it several times now where I Was riding in a group, same start point same destination - some people in ubers, some in black cabs. Again, with normal pricing Uber should be cheaper, but since it's very often at 1.5x-2x multiplier, it works out the same or actually more expensive than a black cab. And sure, there is the higher tier of ubers too, but it's usually showing me 20-30 minute wait for a cab for a nicer car.
Seems like the fact that there is constantly surge pricing and long waiting time means that there are too few Uber drivers, even in "low quality" cars, to meet demand. Your complaints sound like the old joke about prison food: it tastes terrible and the portions are too small.
What an odd thought leap! It seems like your comparison to the prisoner would apply to anyone who thought the price of something was too high for what you were getting, so doesn't actually seem like a compelling point.
Everyone wins. Even if you prefer black cabs in all circumstances, as there’s now less competition in flagging one ;-)
The barrier to entry for becoming a black cab driver far exceeds that required to be an Uber driver.
Drive for Uber: get a PCO license (about £400-600); own an appropriate car; have appropriate insurance.
Drive a black cab: do the knowledge (2-4 years); get a black cab license (in excess of £1k); get a black cab (likely at least twice the price of a Prius); have appropriate insurance.
Pretty sure the number of Uber drivers who might have been black cab drivers is very, very small.
In my experience this is only true since the rise of Uber. Prior to that it was rare to find a cab which took card in London and even if you were in one, often the card machine was conveniently out of order
Comparing a Prius to one of those black cabs ("Hackney carriages" as they're called) is like comparing a car to a cattle truck. The former at least attempts to be comfortable, the latter is just designed to move cattle as efficiently as possible (for the operator) without any concerns for the cattle itself.
So now you have a bunch of "gig-workers" scraping by, often mis-accounting for the deprectiation of using their own vehicle, while often not being properly insured to carry passengers commercially. Meanwhile, Uber corporate is a money burning enterprise.
However, for wealthy urbanites, they can now get to where they are going cheaply and conveniently, so the trade off is "good".
I remain confident that if Uber (and its drivers) had to charge "true costs" this entire story changes.
If those all those new gig workers are just scraping by today what were they doing before Uber was even an option?
Let's not blame Uber for our economic policies and the lack of steady employment caused by our shared desire to live in as "efficient" and cheap a world as possible.
And let's not imagine that Uber is all that stands between people and "good jobs."
Guide dogs are basically the same thing. Dogs shed, and some people are allergic, so drivers avoid them since they don't recoup lost time or money if they have to clean their car afterwards. That one's easier to fix, though. Uber is just going to have to take a hard stance on it.
I am curious if the drivers know that they are legally required to allow guide dogs. I also wonder if Uber drivers are liable under the ADA in the states where they are still independent contractors.
Both Uber and Lyft have been hit with a pretty steady stream of lawsuits around ADA compliance, and Lyft has an active settlement with the US Justice Department requiring frequent driver education as well as compliance reporting[1].
[1] https://www.engadget.com/lyft-settles-justice-department-dis...
Additionally, private entities providing
taxi service cannot discriminate against
individuals with disabilities by refusing
to provide service to individuals with
disabilities who can use taxi vehicles
and/or use service animals, refusing to
assist with the stowing of mobility
devices, or charging higher fares or
fees for carrying individuals with
disabilities and their equipment than are
charged to other persons.
[1] https://adata.org/factsheet/ADA-accessible-transportation
You're basically saying that Uber should just close and we get back to the fraudsters that are minicabs. Awesome! Let's make people poorer because "social justice".
How is that a government concern? Or, how is that your concern? Drivers know what they’re doing and if they don’t, they’ll be out of business. That’s how markets work. Nobody is forced to ride or drive Uber.
I call the taxi company its automated asks me to push 1 or 2 for the last two trips or 0 for an operator.
I tell the operator where I want to go and my name and I get a sms message with a link to a map and another one when it has arrived.
Secondly black cabs will pick you up from taxi ranks or if you hail them in the street (which Uber and minicabs can not). They are not really that comparable.
Meanwhile, the last time I got a black cab, the card machine was broken, and the driver "helpfully" offered to take a detour to an ATM, with the meter running, on my dime of course.
Of course, only do that at the end of the ride.
They are not allowed to pick up passengers if the machine (or meter, or lots of other things) is broken. If it’s genuinely broken and you still want to pay, you can call the number displayed below the machine and pay over the phone.
It's not as satisfying as yours but my general technique that works everywhere in the world where cabs are competing is: ask them if they take credit cards and their reader is working before you get into the cab. If they say no you find another cab. (In my experience they never say no anyway. But I learned to do this every single time I use a cab anywhere because this scam is so unbelievably common everywhere in the world.)
I got on Uber really early and cashed in big time on those sweet £20 bonuses for EVERY referral.
I'd just stand up at the end of a party and shout "WHO WANTS TO GET HOME FOR FREE" and be set for taxis for the next month or so.
:)
This is a fun way to make tourists feel insecure.
Call them out, where you wait on a foreign police, prove your identity, file a report -- in a non native accent / language -- in the best case...
or in the worst case, where they'll take you where you don't want to go (or other cabs to pickup), potentially drive off in a dangerous way as you forcibly exit the vehicle, and blacklist you from other cars
-- all while you're hoping to make it to a hotel, airport, tour safely and on time.
Most people forget that. Tourist places are a literal gold mine for fraudsters and other kinds of bad people.
I was using electronic payment with black cabs almost 20 years ago, contactless came in ages ago. I genuinely find it hard to believe you've used a black cab, at least in this century.
And my husband has been asked for a blowjob at least twice in London.... some black cab drivers are a little bit too "friendly"...
Black cabs have been required to have a functional contactless card reader in them for some time now. Any that don't are asking to be reported for it.
I know that doesn't address all their issues.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was TFL trying to force the black cabs to modernise and compete with uber.
And a year before we had a luxury vehicle ride booked with Uber in London.
So before uber there was already a service which complemented black cabs.
How hard would it have been for black cabs to have an app offering Uber’s features - easy location-aware ordering and seamless payment? Technologically, it wouldn’t have been terribly hard... but of course they had their own misaligned incentives to not do so.
So on this front... bravo, Uber.