Uber Must Submit CEO Emails 183
Rambo Tribble writes: Uber has lost its bid in U.S. federal court to avoid disclosing emails from Chief Executive Travis Kalanick in a California lawsuit accusing the popular ride-booking service of deceiving customers about how it shares tips with drivers. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen, in reference to U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu's ruling that the plaintiff in the lawsuit can receive emails from Kalanick and global operations chief Ryan Graves, wrote, "That Judge Ryu's order may require defendant to review approximately 21,000 documents does not represent an improper burden given the potential role of defendant's CEO and vice president of operations in defendant's challenged conduct." This comes amid mounting legal problems for Uber, including South Korea indicting Kalanick on charges he violated local licensing laws and numerous cities around the globe banning the service.
Stick a fork in, Uber is done. (Score:5, Insightful)
This is not an "editorial" on Uber as a service compared to traditional cab services, but rather an observation that growing government regulation (banning) of Uber (and similar services) and the liability of an almost certain stream of lawsuits will simply negate any way for services like Uber to continue.
Re:Stick a fork in, Uber is done. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Stick a fork in, Uber is done. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Stick a fork in, Uber is done. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Stick a fork in, Uber is done. (Score:4, Insightful)
They're simply making Uber play by the same rules which is fair. If Uber rather quit offering services to an area rather than comply with the law they're welcome to do that.
Yes, but that would "level the playing field" which would cut into Uber's financial advantage.
Re:Stick a fork in, Uber is done. (Score:4, Insightful)
No, they're just using the regulations meant to block competition that they put into place 100 years ago to block competition today.
Not supported by fact, and anyone who has looked into the various issues surrounding unregulated taxi services knows this.
Re:Stick a fork in, Uber is done. (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh look it's argument by irrelevance.
Taxi regulations were put into place a hundred years ago because taxi brokers were unscrupulous and taxi work was a big risk for both the driver and the passenger. Similarly, today we find Uber as corporation to demonstrate highly unethical behaviour, drivers to be exploited (being an Uber driver is unsustainable if you properly insure and maintain your car), and as for customers... well, the first hit's always cheap.
It requires a particularly maladjusted tin foil hat to believe these regulations can in any way be compared with those flag-waving laws which were introduced specifically at the time of the introduction of the automobile as a result of lobbying by those who didn't like 'em. "Here's one ridiculous law, therefore any law I don't like can be compared to it!" is the most sophomoric argument, and you are an intellectually dishonest embarrassment to have applied it.
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Regulations can improve public safety and fair trade if they just cover such things as meter accuracy, insurance, and driver background. But the moment you see a specified limit on the number of cabs in a city, that's when you know the fix is in and we need Uber.
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Regulations can improve public safety and fair trade if they just cover such things as meter accuracy, insurance, and driver background. But the moment you see a specified limit on the number of cabs in a city, that's when you know the fix is in and we need Uber.
This is where the ridiculous conspiracy theories start. "The Government"/Communist City Council/Oligarchical taxi company owners/Space lizards are all in it together against the poor consumer and brave little Uber.
What a pile of bollocks.
Re:Stick a fork in, Uber is done. (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, they're rigged in favour of businesses which meet certain requirements in order to be permitted to operate.
Uber's business model is based upon ignoring these requirements.
To be fair, either Uber needs to meet the same requirements as traditional taxi companies, or the conditions need to be lifted for all firms wishing to offer cars and drivers for hire.
Which is it going to be?
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Well, let's face it, the latter isn't going to happen. Last time Uber came up we were discussing India where the regulations spell out how many phone lines you need going to your (New Delhi based) HQ. The people running taxi licensing there hadn't even heard of Uber before some local media blowup. Taxi licensing is so scleroti
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I find it most interesting (and perhaps telling) that we never heard about how awful the taxi industry is, until Uber came along and started saying it is.
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Ding, we have a winner.
All of that crap is purely spin by Uber to paint themselves as some romantic underdog who is beating the big bad existing players.
It's a lie, of course.
Uber just wants to have a commercial car-for-hire service and act like the laws don't apply to them.
This is just complete bullshit and PR by a company who wants to re-frame the debate.
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In a lot of American cities licensing seems to have become some kind of horribly corrupt and utterly unreformable racket.
Even if this is true (and I'm not American so I don't know) it doesn't mean that it applies to the rest of the world.
Taxis just aren't really an issue in most places I've ever been.
Re:Stick a fork in, Uber is done. (Score:4, Informative)
Uber has a good service and a potential future. What they need to do is start acting as an order portal for regular taxis. So that means selling the online service to taxi companies instead of end users.
But the real hold up here, if they go that route only, is gonna be the disappointment on the faces of the executives and the VCs who thought they'd all make billions because they made a popular internet app, which is the dream these days.
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What they need to do is start acting as an order portal for regular taxis.
That would just make them a taxi company.
Re:Stick a fork in, Uber is done. (Score:4, Informative)
There are already phone apps for licences taxi companies.
For example Curb [gocurb.com].
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There are already phone apps for licences taxi companies.
For example Curb [gocurb.com].
Yeah, but gocurb.com doesn't have $50 billion in venture capital from Google and Goldman Sachs. They're not even in New York City.
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On the other hand... the main reason I don't take taxis anymore is because I started business travelling two years ago. During that two year time, every single taxi cab I ever took was shady in one fashion or another
I have travelled on business for thirty years, and I have never had a shady experience in a taxi.
That's not unrelated to the fact that if anything dodgy happened, I could report the driver and he and/or the firm could be easily traced and prosecuted.
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One of the preconditions for a working, efficient free market is competition and consumer choice. Uber doesn't meet the conditions of a free market.
One of the problems with the Internet economy is that it tends to eliminate competition and wind up with a single service provider.
For years, Microsoft dominated the business OS and apps market. Amazon dominates book sales (and anything that can be sold like a book). Google dominates search, email, and anything that is distributed like search.
When I studied econ
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One of the preconditions for a working, efficient free market is competition and consumer choice
But in reality, capitalism tends towards lack of competition and lack of consumer choice, which is why you need laws to balance things out.
You can try to argue that capitalism isn't "real" free market economics, but then you're into No True Scotsman territory.
Capitalism is what has developed naturally from unrestricted trade. If you're a capitalist, you want to increase the value of your money by any legal means necessary, and if there are no laws it will just be by any means necessary.
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For Uber to become a "monopoly" it would need to get ordinances passed that prevented other companies from competing in given cities. In other words, it would have to become a cab company.
Yes, like Microsoft had to get laws passed preventing people from buying anything other than Windows and Internet Explorer in order to be classed as monopolists.
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Precisely why Microsoft was never an actual monopoly. During that entire period, users had a choice of buying Apple for a little more or running Linux on their very Windows PCs, and for free
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Add to that lots of backlash for the surge pricing, which comes across as pure gouging.
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Surge pricing is an effective way to get drivers in the road. I am an Uber driver that only drives during surge because i can make $50 - $60 an hour. In other words, drivers are incentivised (sic) to drive on holidays, late nights and weekends because of the bump in pay. If there was no surge pricing on New Year's Eve more than half of the drivers would have been home with their families.
Unfortunately there is an enormous consumer resistance to paying $100 or $170 for a trip home from a bar, which is what Uber customers paid on New Year's in New York City. And there are very few customers who are willing or able to pay those rates.
If you only drive during the surge, you're not going to work that many hours, maybe 4-5 hours a day, and your commercial insurance, Uber's 20%, gas, maintenance and other expenses will take a big chunk of that. According to this article, http://www.businessinsider [businessinsider.com]
Re:Stick a fork in, Uber is done. (Score:4, Interesting)
This is not an "editorial" on Uber as a service compared to traditional cab services, but rather an observation that growing government regulation (banning) of Uber (and similar services) and the liability of an almost certain stream of lawsuits will simply negate any way for services like Uber to continue.
I think that Uber-like services are here to stay. They've simply been too effective at out-competing cabs, regulation can only slow down these things for so long, the question is what the eventual market looks like.
No matter what Uber-like phone apps are going to be part of the answer, the big question is whether the drivers will be "amateurs", driving their own cars and either working full-time or just making a few bucks on the side, or if they'll be medallioned taxis with all the artificial scarcity and extra regulations entailed with that.
If phone apps are the big things that make Uber better than traditional taxis might rebound and eventually kill the ride-sharing services.
If the marginal workforce (ie part-timers, students, etc) working for cheap and following high demand is what brings the benefits then I suspect the regulations will eventually find a way to allow them, and the future cab industry will consist of multiple small players signing up with driver networks.
Either way Uber is a bit of an interesting experiment business wise. They've got a massive first mover advantage to go with some horrible PR and it seems like a bunch of that first mover advantage comes from the fact that they're willing to be assholes and simply ignore the law.
They're one of those companies where I suspect a lot of people will jump ship the moment a viable alternative is available since there's so much borderline stuff going on. I suspect Lyft or one of the other services with slightly better PR will eventually surpass them once the regulatory environment has changed and the services start hitting critical mass so the network differences aren't as apparent.
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Uber & Lyft offer basically the same service and very similar pricing. Formerly I used Uber because (at that time) I slightly preferred their Android app over Lyft's app. Now I mostly use Lyft because they seem like a subjectively "nicer" company.
When there are multiple companies offering equivalent services, it doesn't take a lot to sway people's loyalty.
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Uber & Lyft offer basically the same service and very similar pricing. Formerly I used Uber because (at that time) I slightly preferred their Android app over Lyft's app. Now I mostly use Lyft because they seem like a subjectively "nicer" company.
When there are multiple companies offering equivalent services, it doesn't take a lot to sway people's loyalty.
Internet companies seem to devolve into monopolies -- Microsoft, Google, Amazon. Uber's $50 billion venture capital is a pretty high entry barrier. They can bribe governors with that. So there may not be any significant competition or consumer choice.
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That's a legit concern for the future. But at the present, in my particular city, there is real competition.
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Uber may be have some ethical issues compared to Lyft or Sidecar, but they're practically saints compared to the scum of the legacy cab companies.
For all of the bad press that seems to get heaped onto Uber, I really have a hard time understanding why people steadfastly refuse to look at the dirty laundry of the cab companies and their legacy of corruption, bribery, croneyism and nepotism, and sometimes outright violence. And that's before taking into consideration their absolutely appallingly poor service,
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I took Lyft home tonight, but I would have LOVED to take the Muni instead. I'm nothing if not cheap. It's good that SF has the all-night Owl service, but to be honest it sucks balls. A 15 minute walk followed by a 30 minute wait followed by a 15 minute bus ride followed by another 15 minute walk wasn't really worth it when the Lyft ride took under 10 minutes door to door.
Re: Stick a fork in, Uber is done. (Score:2)
Yeah. I know the feeling. The REAL solution here is, of course, to fix and enhance public transportation so that Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, taxis, and owning a car, are all unnecessary in the first place.
I despair of that ever happening in this country though because public transportation is, you know, communism and makes the baby jesus cry and all that.
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Adults who enter into an agreement with an Uber car for an unspecified price are very unhappy when that price unexpectedly turns out to be $100 or $150 for a ride that is 10 times the regulated price.
They also want to pick up a cab at an airport at 2am without paying $100 or $150. I've never come home to JFK or Laguardia without a line of regulated taxis waiting for me. And if I really want to ride share, I can find somebody to share a cab.
There is a niche market of people who can pay $100 or $150 for a lim
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Then don't use Uber. It's optional.
If Uber violates its price contract, then Uber will answer in litigation and loss of customers.
As I understand it, on New Year's Eve, Uber announced that surge pricing was in effect. People called an Uber cab, and the driver or the app told them that they would have to pay according to a certain formula (but not what the final price would be). They agreed, but they didn't realize that by the end of the ride it would cost $100 or more for a trip that would cost $10 or $20 for a yellow cab. Economists say that this is a market failure because they don't have enough information to make an informed buyin
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This happened regularly in the 19th century. Several businesses would compete in the steel or the railroad industry, and finally one would dominate the industry and eliminate competitors by competitive pricing or mergers. Then, the dominant player could raise prices without fear of competition. That's what Uber would do if it could.
It's called laissez faire capitalism, and it's what results when you believe that absolutely unrestricted markets are "free".
oops.. (Score:1)
"hard drive crashed and our backup mostly failed. sorry. here's what we could salvage. it's all we have.....honest!"
--Travis Kalanick, while typing one handed for some undisclosed reason.
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I think you're talking about the IRS where 8 hard drives serendipitously crashed.
Re:oops.. (Score:4, Insightful)
You think Uber comes up with their own ideas? That's priceless.
Taxi
Rideshare
Carpooling
Hitchhiking
Taxi dispatching via web (app)
Rideshare matching
Demand-driven pricing
Underinsured driving
Skirting or ignoring laws to save money
Hiring unqualified and/or unlicensed/permitted labor
The tomato (i.e. calling your stuff one thing when it's really another to save on taxes/tarrifs/costs)
These are all things that have been done before, and is, combined, essentially Uber's business model. Uber hasn't done anything except basically put it all in a pot and stir. So yes, he'll have gotten the idea from previous events, such as the one you mentioned.
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And if Uber was all that people disliked about these things, nobody would ride it.
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It works for the IRS.
Uber's in a completely different market (Score:5, Insightful)
Everyone I know uses Uber, at least once a quarter. It only takes 5 minutes for an Uber to arrive and typically it only costs $5 to get a ride back to your car, or $20 to get a ride back home. When calling a taxi, you may or may not have someone arrive within an hour, especially during peak hours. What's the point? If it takes an hour for a Taxi to arrive and you're going less than 4 miles, it's faster to just walk.
Taxi companies want the Uber business, of course they do. But Uber customers hate taxis. They're dirty, filthy, never arrive on time and dealing with change/tips is a real hassle. Especially if it's late and you've been out with friends all night. If Uber disappeared from my city I'd just stop using similar services. Uber makes it just this side of bearable. Taxis are a fucking disaster and unless I'm headed home from the airport in a foreign city, I doubt you'll ever see me in one. If Uber disappears, so does my desire to use "taxi" services.
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Re:Uber's in a completely different market (Score:5, Insightful)
I wish(!) My car developed a short last winter and I switched to commuting by bicycle most days, Uber on the rainy/colder days (somewhat rare here in Dallas). It's about $6.50 one way to my office downtown from my house. I smashed up my hand (partial cut to my index finger's extendor tendon) and ended up taking Uber every day for three weeks while I was unable to ride my bike. I spend about $90/month on uber rides in the winter, it's pretty fantastic. If the city of Dallas were to ban Uber, I'd buy another car and go back to driving on cold rainy days. Between gas insurance and parking downtown, Uber actually comes out about $0.70 a day cheaper than owning a car full time. And I don't have to drive in rush hour traffic, so I can respond to work emails "in transit" which means I can leave the house 15 minutes later than normal, and my correspondence is already caught up for the morning before I walk through the door.
Uber is reliable and someone always shows up in 5 minutes. I've never had a taxi arrive less than 45 minutes after I called for one. Here in Dallas taxi's primary purpose is going between downtown and the airport. With Uber I've been able to finally write off my main reason for owning a car - reliable transportation, and do it in a cost effective manner.
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Why are you expected to have responded to correspondence before arriving at work?
Re:Uber's in a completely different market (Score:5, Insightful)
I expect that you'll find taxis waiting at the airports, at busier hotels, at the sports venues during activities, at the convention centers during activities, at the more popular shopping centers, and possibly any of the higher-density downtown-type areas. Part of the reason you have to wait for a taxi in the suburbs is because they're going to pick you up after another fare into that part of the suburbs needs to be dropped off, so they can justify the trip out there.
The taxi services don't owe you anything. The taxi services are also operating within the law as the state, the counties, and the cities require, with commercial insurance, commercial vehicle inspections, and probably with extra screening for their drivers and their licenses. Uber, by claiming to be a ride-sharing service where the driver is supposedly already going your way and you're supposed to be reimbursing him for your portion of the drive, is cheating when the drivers are just picking up and dropping off fares without the drivers themselves having their own destinations to attend to along the route. Those drivers don't have the same insurance and don't have to have their vehicles inspected to commercial levels, and probably don't even have their drivers' licenses scrutinized.
Last time I took a taxi was in SF. Worked fine. Hailed one on the street and took it the few blocks I needed to go. That's a high-density city. I could have hailed one in London or in Paris, but I didn't need cabs in those cities. Either way, it would have been an easy option, where the population density was high enough to make it cost effective to have cabs roaming looking for fares.
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The first five miles around downtown are solidly urban, and Taxis fill a specific (and important!) gap between public transit and private transit. If the Taxis don't owe the city anything, why are they a protected and regulated monopoly? Why not just disband the taxi system entirely and let services like Uber replace them in cities with urban cores smaller than SF and NYC?
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Transportation Hire Regulations [dallascityhall.com]
It's pretty interesting stuff. While there appears to be a regulated cap on the number of taxis in Dallas, they have a lot of other regulations that are much more important, like age of the vehicle, condition of the vehicle, minimum insurance requirements ($500,000!), and the driving history of the operator.
Taxis with conventional drivetrains cannot be more than six years old. This means they're forced to be fuel efficien
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Have you read Dallas' rules governing livery?
No, I haven't... but since I live in Dallas, I suspect the written rules mean little...
Taxis with conventional drivetrains cannot be more than six years old.
Ha, yes I was right... this is a joke, many of the taxis here are older than this...
Uber might be able to operate as a Limo service, but would have to use vehicles that qualify as limos per Dallas' requirements, which must be luxury vehicles to qualify, and has otherwise most of the same insurance and driver record rules.
It is actually about $5 cheaper to hire a luxury sedan to take me to the airport than it is to hire a cab, the cabs are that bad...
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There's no need to "disband" anything. When cab companies are subject to competition from other services they adapt, just as Darwin and Smith said they would. In Phoenix, where taxi service is unregulated, the rise of Uber has motivated cab companies to hire English-spoeaking drivers and to start using smartphone apps to take orders.
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This is all fine but Uber can't simply add new taxis to the taxi pool without permission of the govt. So you should contact your local politicians to extend the taxi quota to uber.
The quotas exist for many reasons -- too many taxis means the typical taxi driver will starve due to over supply. And the flip side is, too few taxis means the customer will get price gouged.
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The quotas exist for many reasons -- too many taxis means the typical taxi driver will starve due to over supply. And the flip side is, too few taxis means the customer will get price gouged.
How is this different from any other service or business? What you just described is exactly how the market tends to self-balance. I'm not really sure why taxis merit that sort of regulation, but not other businesses. You could make the same argument with Chinese restaurants. If too many of them are built, it might force prices down, and they could not earn a living.
I get licensing, as they're transporting potentially vulnerable people around what may be an unfamiliar city. I just don't get the quotas.
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Taxis have a lower barrier to entry. It costs more to get real estate for a restaurant, competent cooks, waiters, and regular supply of meal ingredients compared to simply buying a used car to use as a taxi.
Also the taxi driver can live anywhere in the city or even in the cheap outskirts. A restaurant has to be in an expensive, relatively prime real estate wh
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But don't limousine companies have only a few cars to service clients? Uber has enough cars under its control to replace all traditional taxis. They don't seem comparable due to the scale. Uber is probably calling itself a rideshare/limo service to avoid being called a taxi service and be subject to regulations and limited q
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Taxis can pick up fares on the street. Private cars have to be arranged beforehand. This is a BIG distinction between taxis and Uber. BIG BIG. Taxi companies are terrible at arranging pickups, which is what Uber has replaced. The problem is that each Taxi driver is "independent" and has no quota of X% prearranged fares they have to pick up each week/month. If they want to sit at the airport and wait for a fare, they can. If they want to sit outside of a hotel and wait for a fare, they can. An uber driver ha
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Wrong. If you live in a low-traffic residential area, you have to phone someone to book a taxi. This is conceptually similar to uber's booking except they use old-school phones instead of smartphone apps. No taxi is slowly drifting through quiet neighborhoods looking for customers. Taxis only pick up fares on the street in busy areas such as the mall, market, and downtown areas.
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" quotas exist to prevent city streets from being clogged by taxis..."
No, the market exists to prevent city streets being clogged by unneeded cabs. Quotas exist to lock up the market and keep prices artificially high.
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So I live in Downtown Atlanta Ga which is far from suburban. There are plenty of taxi stands around but I prefer to use Uber. Why? Because almost invariably the taxis do not operate "within the law as the state, the counties, and the cities require."
When I walk up to a cab they ask me where I'm going, and if I'm not going very far they almost always refuse to give me a ride. Many also don't turn on their fare meters and make up rates (I've lived Downtown for 16 years, I know what a ride is supposed to cost)
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The situation in other cities might be different, but here, the cab drivers have dug their own graves.
This... The Taxis have taken their protected market for granted for so long, they have forgotten they have customers...
They won't be missed...
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In the suburban areas, it flourishes for the same reason, plus it offers faster service. So, there may be something valid about this model in a suburban setting.
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So you shop at almost Walm... er, wait, almost any retail shop in America.
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Tips? For a TAXI?
What the hell, people. Just pay the fare and you're done.
Longest I've waited for a taxi was 15 minutes. They've always been very clean. On time. No tips either. (though they ARE quite pricey)
I guess this quality difference in Taxi service might differ between countries. I'm from that socialist hellhole in northern Europe: Sweden.
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You should see how Las Vegas handles cabs. There are a million cabs, but you are only allowed to board them in special designated areas. At these areas is a guy who whistles for the next cab and asks where you are going, then tells the cabbie where you are going, and he expects a tip as well. As soon as you get in the cab, the cabbie again asks where you are going and then the iPad in the back seat starts running loud ads for you to watch. The cabs can only take you to deisgnated drop off points.
The bes
Re:Uber's in a completely different market (Score:5, Funny)
Well, you kinda expect to be ripped off in Vegas...
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The shoes of the lazy fatass smell like gasoline. Mine don't.
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Good luck with that when it's rained recently.
Re: Uber's in a completely different market (Score:2)
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I bet you don't even tip the other passengers after the plane lands, asshole.
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It sounds like that's the case in your 'hellhole' (as an aside, if Swedish women are a ubiquitous feature of 'hellholes' then I'm investing long in hellhole futures)
For the US, most towns and cities have virtually zero cab service. Very large cities do, and the customer satisfac
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See... if there is a narnia somewhere that the legacy taxi companies don't suck and aren't a bunch of scumbags, and Uber is unnecessary there... why not let it fail on its own merits instead of squashing it at the political level?
No corporation... not YellowCab, not LuxorCab, not Uber or Lyft... is entitled to its profits and whatever profits they bring in should *not* be protected by the law. If the legacy taxi companies really *do* provide better service in some area than Uber, then they should be able t
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Do you get a bonus? That's the corporate equivalent of a tip, so perhaps you should refuse.
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Not true everywhere (Score:5, Informative)
Anyway at least for germany I support the regulation and uber being forced to obey it. After all we do not have a medaillon system like in the US, everybody with the proper training driver licence, and the proper governemental check of their money counter, as well as the proper insurance (commercial passenger transport insurance) can become a taxi. In my city we have a lot of different taxi companies, some being simply a single person having repainted their own car (and having the proper papers). Nothing outrageous really, in fact those regulations make a lot of sense.
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And I suspect that eventually they will, for things like that, unless they are forced out by explicit bans. As you say, most of those regulations are not particularly bothersome ..... although unfortunately trying to fix problems with laws can go wrong so easily. For example if there's a regulation about a working money counter (meter), and Uber drivers don't use meters because the app is doing the calculations instead, th
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Uber's in a completely different market (Score:5, Informative)
Not sure where you live, but where I live, taxi's have to pay taxes. They have to pay social security. They have to pay for meters. They have to pay for insurance with passengers. Also for extra technical testing of the cars. And also for the taxi stands.
If you cut all that out, it is obvious that itwill be cheaper. Illegal, but cheaper. Just as if I would run a sweatshop. Illegal, but cheaper.
I'm willing to accept that the cars might be nicer (though not inspected regularly for passenger service purposes), response time might be better. The issue that bothers me is insurance. , and what happens when an Uber driver is in an injury accedent, and where the liabilities land:
The insurance secret that Uber doesnâ(TM)t want you to know [policygenius.com]
Leaked transcript shows Geicoâ(TM)s stance against Uber, Lyft [sfgate.com]
Uber Advises Drivers To Buy Insurance That Leaves Them Uncovered [buzzfeed.com]
People think that taxi licencing is all about monopolies and cartels, but there are many other valid issues that regulation addresses.
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In that case, the solution is to simply mandate the appropriate minimum insurance coverage, and be done with it. But that's not what these governments are doing, is it?
Actual restrictions on Uber and the like, rather than your simple insurance requirement, ARE there just to protect the monopolies and cartels that have sleazed their way into their protected positions. Said monopolies and cartels need to be broken. And the politicians supporting them need to be brought low. A pox on all their houses.
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Do you see how much nonsense is in your post?
Everyone I know uses Uber,
One person I know uses Uber, occasionally. Woo anecdotes!
at least once a quarter.
Four times a year? Then either they have very rare need for a taxi service, or they know that taxis are better and choose Uber as a last resort.
It only takes 5 minutes for an Uber to arrive
Maybe at a time of little traffic in the most densely Uber-populated city in the world.
and typically it only costs $5 to get a ride back to your car, or $20 to get a ride back home.
These numbers have no meaning to anyone. Are you twenty paces away from your car, and eighty paces from home? What the fuck are you trying to say, apart from writing shit that de
Re:Uber's in a completely different market (Score:4, Interesting)
Uber is an ethically-challenged company. They are repeatedly in the news for their unscrupulous behavior (e.g. DDoSing their competitors by requesting and canceling rides) and dragged into court by multiple jurisdictions for their negligence in matters of insurance, background checks for their drivers, and predatory business practices.
Uber's CEO's tone deaf call to harass journalists was the last straw for me and I stopped using Uber and began using their competitor Lyft.
If Lyft is as good in your city as it is in mine, you may be pleasantly surprised should you also choose to switch.
I'm personally sick of hearing about Uber acting like assholes in the news and, for my money, they can't go under quickly enough.
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Easy fix. Change taxi licensing laws, strictly one per customers. No douches bag buying as many as they can, creating completely artificial government corrupted by business cartels. Cartels that run down vehicle maintenance and pay crap wages, ensuring bad drivers. Basically a new business model, where the taxi licence holder, drives their taxi, owns their car and only pools booking via a co-op owned booking agency. Recover and auction off the licences every ten years and block direct transfers of licences
Re:Uber's in a completely different market (Score:5, Funny)
Sure Uber is cheap, it makes it's money by exploiting people who are desperate for work and have a drivable car. After a few months the driver is still desperate but no longer has a drivable car because he can't afford the tyres/maintenance. Worst still, if the driver fucks up and doesn't have the right kind of registration/insurance then he will be paying for it for the rest of his life.
Disclaimer: Ex-taxi driver, Melbourne, late 80's. I once had a complainer like you in the cab, he had flagged me down and was in a big hurry, as soon as we got going he started bitching I wasn't going fast enough. When I pointed out I was driving at the speed limit he just became more cranky and replied "it would be quicker by bus". I pulled over at the next bus stop and threw him out of the cab, I let him keep the $5 on the meter, the look of shocked disbelief on his face was worth it.
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Before these "ride sharing" services happened, folks who weren't in profitable parts of the city didn't even get a *chance* to be a dick.
Before taxi driving I worked and lived in a sawmill town, the nearest taxi was 2.5hr drive away, the nearest store 30min away, unprofitable means "not worth the effort", so what's your point?
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Cute how you lot will defend the legacy taxi companies under-serving people in areas where they don't prefer to go; but scream bloody murder when Uber initiates surge pricing in order to get the people who need rides in those areas served.
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Well a). You won't stop doing stuff even if you don't use taxis, but nice threat on slash dot, I'm sure everyone here cares.
B) did I mention that no one cares or will notice when you stop?
Your just going to stay home? Walk? Drive? What did you do before uber? The world hasn't changed irrevocably because you've used uber the last couple of years ... Has it?
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Now that Uber's there, a lot of people choose not to own cars, or people who used to depend on buses and subways go out to certain places that were not convenient before, more often.
So if it goes away, they'll just go back to their old routine, which is fine. Point is, taxi cabs are NOT worth the trouble. If I have the choice between going to restaurant A by subway, or B by Uber, it may just come down to which restaurant I like most. If my choice is A by subway or B by Taxi, its going to be A, no contest.
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But Uber customers hate taxis. They're dirty, filthy, never arrive on time and dealing with change/tips is a real hassle.
Jesus Christ where the hell do you live??
In London we have a taxi company (booked only) called Addison-Lee. They've been high tech for ages and have had on line tracking (your assigned car is GPS tracked and you can see exactly how far away it is when it's on the way) and so on since before Uber became well known. You can pre-pay trips too by card. Except instead of getting in some rand
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dealing with change/tips is a real hassle
Are you a slightly backwards eight year old? Or are you just too much of a precious snowflake to carry dirty old cash?
Oh no, I forgot, you're probably part of the astroturfing team that Uber are spending some of their billions of venture capital on.
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Just kidding, hah. All in all, I think Uber is the greatest gift to us customers in the history of taxis. I've had enough of taxi drivers lying, cheating, and just plain driving badly. Regulators might do well to acknowledge that Uber provides more accountability of drivers and power to the customer than any taxi regualtion has yet.
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People do the same thing with mortgages and probably home owner's insurance as well. They live in their first home for some years, then move on to a nicer home. The original, still being paid for, becomes a rental even though neither the mortgage nor the insurance allow for it.
I'm split on this one. What's the difference between using a car for Uber versus a really social person frequently carting around friends and family? The typical non-Uber driver probably won't drive their car nearly as much, but i
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What's the difference between using a car for Uber versus a really social person frequently carting around friends and family?
First, the difference is that your insurance doesn't cover it. The insurance company has the right to decide what they want to cover and what they don't want to cover.
Second, your driving changes. You are driving strangers which has its own risks. You drive lots of drunks which carries its own risks. You drive people who are not your friends so more insurance claims will be made. You are driving for money so you will be more in a hurry to make more money which increases the risk, and you will be driving
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Yea, yea, yea.. put the law aside. I'm not suggesting the law allows taxi service with non-commercial insurance. I don't argue your first point.
Second point, now you're on it. Your driving does not change. If I run red lights with non-paying passengers, I run red lights with paying passengers. If I speed habitually, I speed regardless of who is in the car with me. My friends are drunks, my paying passengers are drunk. No difference in risk. My friends are back stabbing capitalists, so are my paying
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I understand the legality, I don't accept the logic. How is the risk of operating the motor vehicle different if your passengers are paying versus if they are not? It's still x number of people in the same exact vehicle with the same driver and same roads. You're pretty much highlighting my point. If the driver is getting a cut, then the insurer wants a cut too. Yet if you do the same amount of driving with the same number of passengers (same exact risk) and they're not paying, you're fine under your n
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We're all liars. How many EULAs have you "agreed" to without even reading them?
0. No, personal insurance does not account for distance traveled or driving style. Maybe some do, but not any I've ever witnessed. I have given guesstimates of commuting miles, but I've never been asked to supply miles driven per year, and they have absolutely no way to monitor driving style other than through accidents or citations. Yea, there are those OBDII recorders, but those will never be installed in a vehicle I own.
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But Uber drivers are a different category. An easily identifiable different category with a higher risk. There's no reason why an insurance should accept a high risk group for the same premium.
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If insurance could prove you drive more miles than average without being a commercial driver, would you be okay with them dumping you?