In my area there is a lot of press on Uber. Cabbies are losing their minds! My thoughts on the subject is more competition is always a good thing, Uber's business model is one of the newer business models made possible by technology. I think it's a great advantage to the consumer. Poor people have been getting gouged for years by the cab companies and this is a great way for them to keep more money in their pockets.
I love the idea. I can see why the taxi drivers are going crazy though, now people have an alternative to paying their RIDICULOUS fees. Seriously, I know I live in one of the most expensive countries in Europe but here during nighttime just getting into a taxi costs about 8 euros. Yup, that's right. The starting fee is about 8 euros, then it starts adding up according to time & distance traveled. And it's a regulated business, all taxis have the same fees. So yes, I love the fact that uber provides competition. It's the only way to keep the price down.
Uber have just started up in the city where I live here in the UK, and while I've not used them myself, from the mixed reaction I'm not sure they're going to be too successful. One of the major issues is that they charge various prices for the same trip, depending on cab availability and time of the day, so you can make the same journey, 5 days a week, exactly the same distance but at different times, and be charged 5 different prices.
Same here! Taxi drivers are protesting all around my city, I kind of feel sorry for them but I agree with you, sometimes they take financial advantage of poor people and it's not fair. In the other hand, Uber offers really good prices and an excellent costume service, so I prefer Uber.
But what's the issue seeing as all of those 5 prices are going to be lower than a traditional taxi? And you do get notified of the price before you book (right?!) so you can anticipate how much it's going to be. And if for some reason all the available ones are more expensive than traditional taxis then you can just call one of those. Competition is always good for the consumer.
I agree that competition is good and taxi drivers were needing this because most of them are rude and unprofessional. I hope this makes them change their ways.
I don't know about this Uber until I tried it last Thursday. Here in Manila, the taxicab is as rare as the dinosaur during the day hours. I used my phone to get a Uber ride. None in the area. On the 4th try, there was a positive response for me to wait within 10 minutes. And it came and gave me a ride to where I was going. Understandably, there is a premium of 50 pesos but that add on is worth it. Big taxi companies are starting to question the validity of Uber since most of their vehicles are not registered taxicabs but mere car, private vehicles (such that one that I took).
I am glad that we now have a choice in how we want to get where we are going. Cabs are very expensive and a lot of the drivers are rude. At least with Uber you can take a comfortable ride and meet good people.
I have had friends tell me that the higher ups of Uber are terrible people and that they read articles to prove that, but I can't find that online. Can anyone attest to this?
Yeah, but equally as much, Uber rides are not as trustworthy due to the fact that the people driving your car might try to kill you either by violence or by crashing the car, which has happened before.