i know uber is awesome, and I love it.
But the first time I tried it was in NYC, and it was extremely frustrating, and I canceled the ride. The dude didn’t speak English hardly at all, and kept peppering me with questions....
In that particular situation, I resorted to a cab...
I do love uber, however....
This is, of course, bad news for old-world taxi cab monopolies —
...
And the crooked politicians who get their palms greased.
Uber is an example that things can still go right in America in spite of the politicians.
Do Uber drivers undergo police background checks? Is the driver even in the country legally? Cheap rates? Ya, like the kind you get when the illegals mow your lawn; let's bring them all in, right? That way, they can undercut all the drivers that are out there doing it for a living. And after you drive out all the established taxi companies, then you can unionize the Uber driver, start to regulate them, and end up right back where you started.
How about yearly safety inspections on their cars? Do they get these done? Do they have to carry industrial insurance? Who checks on this? What about the cameras in the cars, that the regular taxi drivers are required to have? Are the Uber drivers going to be forced to put these in? If not now, they will be the first time one of them gets robbed or killed. Are they all going to be willing to pay the money to have them installed in their own cars? How about dress codes? The city (Seattle) got tired of being embarrassed by crappy looking drivers picking up tourists at the ritzy hotels, so they instituted a dress code. Is Uber going to have to do that too?
I hear, on this thread, all kinds of happy stories from people about their experience with Uber. But in real life, I have yet to hear anything good about Uber (and I hear LOTS of cab stories). If some driver is just out there with super cheap meter rates, you can bet that he is going to be trying every trick in the book to boost your fare. And who are these Uber drivers? These wonderful college student just trying to pay their tuition, the same as strippers? Pffft. Go hang out at the city licensing office. Most of the Uber drivers are fresh off the boat from Somalia or Ethiopia. They barely speak English, they don't know their way around town, and they don't have 20 or 30 years experience driving on American roads.
The Uber drivers will swarm out on Friday and Saturday nights to pick up all the party and bar crowds, but where are they on the cold, crappy, rainy Tuesday and Thursday nights? It's the money that the real taxi drivers make on Friday and Saturday that allows them to also be out on the crappy nights, providing service 24/7.
So the Uber driver is out there in his 'own' car. How is this any different than a guy who 'owns' his own taxi? And this app that 'just puts the customers in contact with a driver', how is that any different than a phone call to a taxi dispatcher? Yellow cab 'just puts the customer in contact with a driver'. How is one of them a business, and the other not a business?
People (and Uber), are trying to advance the theme that Uber and their drivers are not really a taxi service, just "ride sharing". B.S. They are out there operating a business, just like any other business. If they want to operate as a taxi in a city, then they should have to play by the same rules as any other taxi business. If not, then stop regulating the real taxi drivers. Level the playing field with no regulations for anyone. Then watch the whole thing sink down to the lowest common denominator.
People ask me what I think of this whole Uber thing, and the answer I give them is this: at some point, there are certain economic and social realities that are going to start rearing their ugly heads, starting with 'there's no free lunch', and ending with 'you get what you pay for'. Gee, maybe rules and standards exist for a reason.