Posted on 12/02/2015 4:44:12 PM PST by Kaslin
Let me guess — you’ve never used Uber.
Companies are seeing customers go more and more to ecommerce, and they are figuring out how to deliver orders faster and faster. Why not use Uber drivers? You order something from the Target website, and 30 minutes later its delivered by Uber. UPS and Fedex canât do that.
That's exactly my point about the cheap labor. How much is anyone going to be willing to pay for a 30-minute delivery time that would otherwise cost about $15 through UPS or FedEx for the next day? Unlike personal transportation, there are economies of scale in transporting cargo that make a 30-minute delivery in the trunk of a personal automobile completely impractical in most cases. Under these circumstances, the Uber driver who thinks he's making a decent bit of cash is always going to be undercut by some Mexican who is willing to do the same job in his 1987 Oldsmobile.
This is true. I think Uber's real interest is in selling their app to small and mid-sized commercial establishments that operate fleets of vehicles for passenger or cargo service. I'm sure they know better than anyone else that gypsy cabs are not a good growth industry.
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