Uber runs contrary to everything the government tries to scare you with. “We” must license and limit the number of taxicabs in a city because:
– drivers won’t carry insurance
– passengers will rob drivers (and rape female drivers)
– drivers who don’t know how to drive will cause accidents and get lost
– drivers will cheat or rob passengers
– there won’t be a cab when you need one
– cars won’t be properly maintained and be unsafe
Enter uber, the antigovernment solution.
In Chicago, I decided to take a conventional taxi between my Apartment and O’Hare a couple times. Leaving from O’Hare there didn’t appear to be many options. The airport has constant announcements blaring that it is illegal to get in a cab outside of the official process – which involves a single file line of cabs being supervised by some Taxi Police guy (who collects a city fee). You get the next cab in line – which might be a suburban cab not familiar with Chicago outside of the major destinations. It’s almost certain the driver will not understand English and have no driving skills.
Getting to the airport was a much different experience. Using an app called Taxi Magic, I tell my iPhone I want to go to O’Hare now. A lot of taxi drivers lived in my building, but Taxi Magic was a captive app of only one taxi company. The phone knows exactly where I am, and knows my credit card information. Upon my announcing “I want a cab to O’Hare”, within a minute or two, I get a message saying “I’m on the way” along with a driver name and cab number. The cab shows up, takes me where I wanted to go. There is no cash, and the driver never sees my credit card. The service logs when I asked for the cab, when I arrived. After arriving, I tap on the phone that I have arrived, and specify the tip – the driver is notified that he has been paid, and everyone is happy – but I’m still a captive of a single Taxi company and the driver is a captive of a system that rents him the cab by the day and forces him to drive nonstop just to cover the daily rental fee.
Enter Uber – same basic idea, except your driver is just your average American driving their own car without a government license. They drive when they want. They may well be a commuter and going where you wanted anyhow.
Insurance is handled by Uber. The pickup mechanism is similar, other than ANY uber driver can pick you up. Payment is handled by uber.
The riders rate the driver on every trip. A driver who can’t understand English, gets lost, gets belligerant with the rider will quickly wash out. The driver also can rate the passenger. Were you intoxicated? Vomit in the back seat? Ask the drive to “wait, I’ll just be a minute”?
The passenger has their phone number and credit card on file, along with their riding history – so it’s pretty low risk even for a female driver. Your profile contains a picture. Driver doesn’t like your looks – they are under no obligation to respond to your request.
I would love not having a car if I had a comfort level that I could get a ride when I needed one. It’s not my relatives’ job to take me places, but as I grow older I’m less interested in driving my own car – but I generally don’t trust taxis.
I have the app installed and registered and it appears to be available in Charlotte. I might have to give it a go.
I liken it and the old schoool approach to the rules regarding passing a bad check before there were credit cards. Today, you can swipe your credit card at gas stations and places like Costco and you don’t need to show ID or even sign anything.
Look, UBER knows exactly who you are and who the driver is. It is eBay for rides. You develop a reputation either as a bad apple either as a driver or as a passenger and you are not part of the club any longer.
I never used Uber, but suspect they may be doing it as a club. That is now many cities have bars that never close despite the law against selling booze to the public past their cuttoff time. I stumbled upon one 30 years ago and had to pay a $5 one time fee to become a member before they could sell me beer at the club’s “private event”.
It’s funny. For decades, the government has encouraged and set up tax-payer funded programs to encourage ride sharing. They even build special lanes on the freeways and hire people to fine the non-ride-sharers who use them.
The moment people do it on their own, without the need of and dependance on the government’s union employees, they try to shut it down.
Yes – the reason this is getting attention now is Virginia is trying to pass a law making it illegal. Cities with big taxi commissions handing out medallions (that become worth a large amount of money) have generally tried to stop über and the competing Lyft, going so far as to arrest drivers – although it would be hard for a passenger who is a government employee to get picked up more than once.
It may well be the car that shows up will be actual taxi – but with all taxis being dispatched from one pool, and based on which cab that is available can be where you are the soonest.
Do they hand out medallions, or do they sell them? Generally they charge all kinds of licensing fees and even prohibit pickups from people that don’t pay them.
One of the biggest ineffectiveness in the NYC area is that taxis from the NJ and CT suburbs (am perhaps the NY suburbs) must return back with an empty car – no pickups in NYC allowed. That results in the fares needing to include the costs of the round trip rather than the one way trip.
A common complaint in Chicago is “I’m black, and taxis refuse to pick me up – even though it’s the law”
There are several reasons for this. While racial distrust is obviously part of it, black taxi drivers will freely admit they don’t want black passengers. Why?
– the passenger downtown is most likely headed to the gang infested South side. Even if things go well, the chance of a return fare back to downtown or an airport are small
– fear of being robbed
– fear of being stiffed for the fare at the destination
– a belief that black people will not tip, which is a big part of the income for a driver (über automatically adds 29%)
Undoubtedly, this concept of a taxi as a public service that doesn’t discriminate could be leveraged against ride sharing apps, but at the same time it creates opportunity for women who can’t work 40 hours a week to earn an income without chasing phony work from home schemes
While uber covers the insurance issue, I could see the people who lease cars trying to prohibit this. Leasing a car has an excess mileage charge for driving too many miles. Über could become a trap where people lease a new car, and don’t set aside the fare money to repay the mileage overage charge.
Does über send the driver an IRS 1099?