I love UBER! (1 Viewer)

[Stan]

I'm not saying NYC dictates to anybody...I was just surprised they allow Uber at all because they make it so expensive and difficult to operate a cab there. I mean they also have tried to set limits as to what sort of cars are used as cabs with an eye toward greener more environmentally friendly vehicles.

Sorry about my "dictating" comment, nothing personal towards you.

But Uber is a really good service, never had a problem with them. There will always be a few bad ones, just like there are bad taxi cab drivers, but overall, it's pretty decent. I think a lot of any negativity towards Uber is taxi drivers that now have to deal with some competition.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

It's not about the competition between Uber and licensed cab companies and liveries...it's about the fact that the licensed companies have paid all the fees, met all the standards, complied with all state or city requirements...and in walks some kid with a Toyota and a cell phone and he does not have to comply with or pay for any of that. Just fills out some online forms, downloads an app and starts picking up fares.

That's really just a slap in the face to everybody involved.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Reggie beat me to it. The "competition" here is new services walking into a heavily regulated industry and sidestepping all the regulations. It's not really competition at all. The situation is extremely complicated because the regulations are mostly very local, which is why the likes of Uber and Lyft are constantly battling various county and city governments.

Whether one agrees with all the regulations or not, they are what they are.

 

[Stan]

It's not about the competition between Uber and licensed cab companies and liveries...it's about the fact that the licensed companies have paid all the fees, met all the standards, complied with all state or city requirements...and in walks some kid with a Toyota and a cell phone and he does not have to comply with or pay for any of that. Just fills out some online forms, downloads an app and starts picking up fares.

That's really just a slap in the face to everybody involved.

Don't want to start an argument with anybody here, but it is about competition. Cab companies in many cities have essentially created monopolies and now they're being threatened by Uber and others.

Time to adjust and get used to some different rules.

I've been a passenger in many cabs, and very rarely has it been pleasant, but it's often the only choice.

Well now there's a kid in a Toyota. A nice, decent person, fun to talk to, points out the different sights you might have never seen, car is clean, GPS so you go right to your destination... That's the guy who will get my business.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I've had mixed Uber experiences in NYC. Strictly in terms of price, that is. In terms of service, it's been fine. I don't take a lot of cabs around here anyway. In general, Uber sometimes costs a little more than a cab, because Uber bases its fare on both distance and time, where a yellow cab is just distance (as long as it's moving). Plus I live near where a lot of the cab companies have their home base, so they may just know how to navigate my neighborhood's weird blend of short and one way streets a little better than the Uber guys. All of the Uber cars I've taken in NYC were actually black car service vehicles with Jersey plates. So, at least for me in limited experiences, it's never been a kid in a Toyota in NYC but a professional driver who's working for a car service that just also happens to take Uber fares as well.

But outside of NYC, when I've gone on vacation, Uber has won hands down. Last October I went to Disney World in Orlando. One day I took a cab from Disney to Universal Studios and the fare was $45. I took an Uber back and the fare was $20. Same route, no traffic either way. So next time I'm in Florida, I'm definitely using Uber again and skipping the cab.

 

[KeithAP]

There was an incident recently in which a woman was raped by an UBER driver.

And there have been multiple incidents of taxi drivers doing the same thing. Search google if you are interested in finding more.

For Uber and Lyft, their biggest problem is that they are intruding on a corrupt money making business with political connections and the corrupt folks making the money don't like that very much.

Drivers (for both sides) are caught in the middle.

-Keith

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

The system for winning the contracts or medallions is certainly corrupt. I have heard a story about having to give a $5 million dollar payout to land a cab contract in a city. Same with landing towing contracts. Getting a liquor license in a major city is the same. There is the cost of the license and then the cost of the bribe to actually get the license and if you won't pay the bribe...you don't get the license. There is some really rotten stuff going on out there.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I'll be doing an uber today and just discovered you can't schedule it. You do it when you want it. I does one tip the driver? Is that done through the app?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'll be doing an uber today and just discovered you can't schedule it. You do it when you want it. I does one tip the driver? Is that done through the app?

They don't allow you to tip, and tips aren't supposed to be accepted. Some drivers will take them, and I had one try to solicit one once, but according to the terms of service, the price of the ride is just the price of the ride.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I tipped my driver. He gladly took it. But I was under the assumption that tipping was not supposed to be done. I just was happy for the ride and the cost of it.

 

[DaveF]

Planet Money did an episode last Summer about the price of taxi medallions in NYC.
http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/07/31/428157211/episode-643-the-taxi-king

 

[Johnny Angell]

I tried to use Uber. In the morning I downloaded, setup the account, and it told me it was about 2 minutes for a pickup. That's cool. Than later in the day, about 3:20 I tried to schedule it. Now pickup time is 39 minutes. That's too long, but I proceeded anyway. I could not get past the payment screen. I'd enter my CC and then I'd see what I thought was a button for Apple Pay, but it wasn't responsive. I could never get to the part about entering the destination. I couldn't find a way to proceed after the payment info. Don't know what was wrong.

So I drove myself. I was hoping to avoid driving because it would have simplified my evening, I made do.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

Planet Money did an episode last Summer about the price of taxi medallions in NYC.
http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/07/31/428157211/episode-643-the-taxi-king

The price of taxi medallions in NYC is insane.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

The price of EVERYTHING in NYC is insane!

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

 

[Stan]

Just got something in the mail from Uber. How to become a driver, or just use them as a passenger. No idea how they got my name/address, but just look at a website now and your personal info is sucked up into a mystery database.

A little bit late on their marketing by about two years or more, but I've only had good experiences with them. Sure there will be a few bad ones, but it's just human nature to complain, so those experiences get much more publicity.

The good ones far outweigh the bad, but the few negatives always get the exposure.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Greg,

Each of those videos are averaging about 12 minutes.

I am sure there is some of kind of news there that can be summed up in 2 minutes. I just can't sit through three videos of that length with people pretending to be authentic news people.

Can you sum up in a few words what their problems are with Uber?

 

[TonyD]

I'll be Ubering for the first time next week.
Riding to the airport and don't have a ride and don't want to park at a lot so it'll be Uber.

 

[Stan]

I'll be Ubering for the first time next week.
Riding to the airport and don't have a ride and don't want to park at a lot so it'll be Uber.

Should be perfectly fine. I've done the same thing in the past, using a taxi, and it was almost $40 for a very brief ride. I'm maybe ten miles from the airport, easy to get there, not like NYC or Seattle with tons of traffic.

Uber is a much better and much cheaper experience, $14.