>Having taken a $30 Uber to drive 15 minutes lately, when a taxi would’ve cost $10 or so, I don’t think they’ve ultimately created much value with their rideshare service. They’ve basically just moved the entities around, and now it takes a lot longer to get a taxi.
You forget just how terrible the taxi industry was prior to Uber. I would walk for miles rather than take a taxi. I would gladly pay 2-3x more for an Uber than taking a taxi. There are signs that traditional taxi companies are waking up to their enormous service issues, but it only took their imminent demise.
This implies that there are some taxi companies out there that are worth a massive amount of money, since they are capturing all the profit. Can you point to a single company worth even one tenth of what Uber is worth? I'm sure some companies do very well, but I don't think there are any taxi billionaires out there.
But it matters little anyway. The pie is divvied up so many ways. You pay the fare, some goes to the driver, some goes to the middle man. When you pay a smaller fare, there is less for the driver, middle man, or both.
How much of Uber's valuation is based on that pie (the number of people desiring taxis) growing?
>Uber is definitely not perfect as a business but the taxi companies are horrible all over the place. If taxi companies would just enter the 21st century, I would maybe never use Uber but the thing is, they don't.
I never really understood this sentiment. This may be different in other countries, but in Western European cities, taxis are usually dependable and affordable. Just walk to the next taxi stand or hail the first one coming by.
> Honestly, does any one believe that the reason of taxies being sparse or terrible is because the taxi companies doesn't give a shit? If they could make more money by having cars on the road, then why shouldn't they work towards that?
No, they were sparse and terrible because of the medallion system limiting the supply.
>Taxis are incredibly expensive today. Sure you save a lot of money when you don't have to pay a driver, but is it really enough to make car ownership undesirable?
This seems to be a point that is often missed. In denser cities--where utilization can be relatively high--drivers make maybe $15 per hour. (Maybe a bit higher when actually carrying passengers which is probably the relevant metric.) So it's not clear to me how these hypothetical vehicles are going to so revolutionize the way people get around by cutting costs by maybe $15/hour (ignoring other labor costs associated with cleaning or any incremental cost of the vehicle).
> Is it just me, but the headline itself just underlies Ubers business model - business travellers are not avoiding taxis. They are taking taxis from an unlicensed taxi firm.
I'm about to travel for business to where taxis only take cash; I don't care at all if Uber is licensed or not, I'm using them.
>Don't misunderstand me, taxi service in my country is horrible, they're useless and rude and service is generally bad, but just because that's the situation, we should try and improve that, instead of allowing companies like Uber to exploit the situation.
I don't really understand this mentality. You don't want to let them exploit the situation by profiting off of making things better for consumers?
> The prices in the local taxi market didn't go down a few % it got fractionally cheaper - it went from being barely affordable and only used in exceptional cases to a substitute for car ownership and not having to think about using it (depending on your daily commute).
That's because they loose money with every ride?
I mean it really can't be cheap to have your have your personal driver for your daily commute.
> This being about local taxi that bent the law to become entrenched themselves.
Can you give an example? I've never heard of that. They usually lack any power at all.
> nearly every municipality had a taxi service with negative press
Everyone seemed satisfied in my experience. I did see Uber's talking points everywhere on social media - how terrible taxis were. Unforunately, taxis lacked the money to run their own information campaign.
> Uber pays their drivers too little and is exploitative
Taxis are even worse until you own your own medallion and car. If you are on the low end of the totem pole in the taxi system, then taxis are way more exploitative than uber.
That has never existed in any of the 3 countries I have lived in. Taxis were always ordered by phone. At least since the 1960s drivers were offered trips via radio by the taxi switchboard, in 2000s the available trips appeared on a screen on the dashboard.
Well, it might depend also on the density, but at least outside of massive city centers some kind of booking has always been required.
> None of that requires either Uber specifically or a ruthless gig-worker model
Exactly.
> a clear argument for why app-powered taxis in general should be able to bring taxi prices down
We are on HN, so I assume few would resist to use IT to optimize a problem. However, my expectations of how much such systems really save costs in the end would be rather moderate. Don't underestimate human optimization if experienced drivers pick their rides from a list. As mentioned, technology for that has existed since the 1960s. Does Uber really offer anything better for the driver?
> my ride to the hospital to be 30 minutes late, to refuse to turn the music down, and to tell me the credit card reader is broken
As much as I'd like to stick it to taxis because of their decades of price gouging due to being granted a monopoly, I have not had many bad experiences riding a taxi. If I had to put a number on it, I'd say that less than 5% of my taxi rides were in any way unpleasant other than for the cost. What city or country are you in if I might ask? Are taxi experiences really that bad for most people?
> I’ve used Uber three or four times in my life and each time was a worse experience than a taxi.
Every time I call an Uber in London, an extremely professional and courteous driver shows up within a couple of minutes in a Mercedes S-class or equivalent, at a price only slightly above that of a black cab.
I doubt that you can find a better taxi service anywhere.
>>However, that is how regular taxi services work... and they're profitable.
That really depends on the location, and many are not profitable and in some area many only service some parts of the town / city.
Sure if you are in a large city like NYC, LA, Chicago etc, then it would be different but if you start getting out of the top 50 cities the profitability starts to drop
Also clearly taxi's are not providing the service at the value demanded of users or Uber would not exist
I’m imagining how gross a taxi would be that doesn’t have a driver to provide passengers a low level of behaviour moderation.
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