How is uber not given massive credit for reducing the dangerous waiting-around-in-some-random-place-you-don't-know time from 30mins+ to 3mins+
That must have saved a few thousand muggings on its own by now.
Is this true in London? Do people privately own black cabs?
I think London has a 2-tiered taxi system - black cabs and minicabs - and I suspect faking a black cab would be much harder?
At the end of a night outside clubs, there'd be (illegal) minicabs everywhere, offering to take you wherever for much less than a black cab, and sometimes that's just all the money you have left. Usually they'd get lost or be terrible in some other way very well-described above.
Ref. https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-uber-britain-tax/uber-face...
Unless you're a taxi driver, when you need to register regardless. They carved that out.
The ato claims this is because[1]: 1) to avoid the confusion that would be created if some taxis had to charge GST and others did not 2) avoiding the added problem that would arise if a passenger was using a taxi for a business trip (creditable acquisition). In this instance, the passenger would want to be able to claim an input tax credit for the GST included in the fare 3) meter rates are set by each state authority and after 1 July 2000 all meters were adjusted to reflect the GST. If some drivers were registered and others were not, all would be collecting the higher rate. This would disadvantage drivers who had to be registered if the ordinary registration turnover threshold applied.
Interesting point of view in that specific case.
[1] https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/GST/In-detail/GST-issues-reg...
https://www.icaew.com/insights/viewpoints-on-the-news/archiv...
This is the problem with having conversations about tax law: the vast majority of people have no idea what they're talking about. Worse: the vast majority of people think they know what they're talking about.
Taxis, Uber, they're all the same. Give me public transport anyday.
never experienced this. does that actually work? I thought the initial quote was binding.
> Driving dangerously because you're on 5 apps and hitting cyclists
I've certainly had some aggressive uber drivers, but nothing that stood out as less safe than the typical cab experience.
public transit is great when it goes where you need it to. unfortunately I live in the US so...
Secondly, uber drivers have ratings (unlike cabs) and a set of consistent low ratings for dangerous driving will flag the dangerous behavior
So there's a strong incentive for them to act properly - unlike a black cab where they know full well they'll never see you again.
* Quite possibly just someone in a car pretending to be a taxi.
* 20 minutes on the phone to 3 different companies, to find out they won't come for two hours and they don't turn up anyway.
* Dirty.
* Terrible driving.
* Rude.
* Refuse to go where you've asked after you've already hailed one and got in.
* Only take cash.
* Take the long way to run the meter up.
* Use other tricks to get paid more - 'Oh the meter's broken. That'll be $lots'
* No way to see when they might arrive, or if there are any in the area.
* No way to know anything about your driver.
* No way to see which is your taxi when it arrives.
* ...
Taxis around here since Uber:
* Some have an app that only works for their company, and is terrible.
* Some have signed on to an app that works for more than one local companies, and is terrible.
The rest is pretty much the same.