Comment by MBCook

Comment by MBCook 3 days ago

22 replies

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There’s something to be said for being able to not be forced to deal with a person, but I see something different personally.

I’m “old” (40s) so I didn’t grow up with Uber. Maybe that colors my take.

I don’t want to hire random Joes. If I wanted to buy a lift from a random person, I’d expect it to be very cheap.

If I’m hiring someone to drive me from A to B I want a professional service. I want professional drivers in a fleet of maintained cars.

With Uber/Lift you don’t know. Many drives do a great job and treat their cars/passengers like they’re professionals. Others don’t.

The taxi industry sucked. They had no competition and could get lazy and do a terrible job and people still had to use them anyway. That needed fixing.

But I don’t think the lesson we should learn is “taxis bad” but “bad service is bad”. And Uber/Lyft being so variable is not a plus at their prices.

reddalo 2 days ago

I think that the best thing about Uber/Lyft is that they've been a wake up call for the taxi industry.

I don't think I'd be able to book taxis (and pay in advance) using an app in my country, if Uber/Lyft didn't exist.

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  • Scoundreller 2 days ago

    Mysteriously their credit card machines work a lot more often now

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    • nottorp 2 days ago

      Yes, I'm shocked! Some traditional taxis in my area now have a sticker on the window saying they take credit cards!

      Reply View 0 replies
bitmasher9 2 days ago

The professional driver in a professional fleet service exists. It existed in the taxi era too.

If you ever see an aggressive driver cutting their way through traffic in a perfectly maintained Escalade or Navigator heading towards the airport, that’s them.

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sagarm 2 days ago

Black cars existed before Uber and Lyft -- in fact, that was how Uber started.

Uber, in fact, still offers black cars (professional drivers) as an option.

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  • JumpCrisscross 2 days ago

    > Uber, in fact, still offers black cars (professional drivers) as an option

    In my experience, Uber Black means the driver owns a professional-grade car. Whether they’re a professional driver who treats their clients professionally, e.g. not taking phone calls during the ride, is another matter.

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    • notyourwork 2 days ago

      This, black car service is not what uber offers. They offer a uber driver with a black car.

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  • ghaff 2 days ago

    But a lot of people basically wanted VC-subsidized cheaper cabs. Even if the easier and more reliable ordering was a bonus.

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    • joshstrange 20 hours ago

      Cheap factored in for some but easy of use and reliability were my main reasons for using Lyft/Uber.

      Maybe if you lived in a bigger city the taxis were good but I assure you that in Lexington, KY they were terrible. You had to call into a dispatcher, the connection/quality was terrible, they were blunt/rude, and you got a general idea of when someone might show up. I tried once to schedule for 8:45am pick up (I called around 7:30) and someone showed up at 7:45am mad that I wasn't ready. On top of all of that _no one_ took credit card and the drivers were rude and often hard to communicate with.

      With Lyft/Uber I could see where my driver was, my destination was already entered, and it was all charged to my card. I cannot stress enough how much better this was and I was happy to see the taxi companies go down in flames.

      Uber and Lyft have _many_ problems but they are still leagues ahead of taxis. I recently traveled to Italy and absolutely hated the lack of Uber-like services and the need to use taxis. It felt like going back in time, I was shocked at the state of things there.

      Lastly, nothing boils my blood quite like watching the meter all the way to the destination, then the driver pressing some buttons and the total jumping 20-50%. WTH is that? Whatever it is, I hate it.

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      • vdqtp3 16 hours ago

        > Maybe if you lived in a bigger city the taxis were good

        I lived in a suburb of San Diego around 2012, and I switched to Uber after I missed two flights for work because taxi's just wouldn't show up on time. I don't love the rideshare services but taxis were simply so bad that anything was better.

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        • ghaff 11 hours ago

          I switched from shared ride services which were a PITA and then just just drove for a time which had a couple of issues. With my last job, I just started getting a private car which I used for both business and subsequent personal travel.

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    • theamk 2 days ago

      I don't think "cheap" was the main factor, at least for me and my friends.

      Predictable pricing, predictable arrival, automated booking, and an ability to complain to someone was significantly more important.

      (From what I've read, this happened naturally in other countries, but in US, the taxi monopoly was so bad, we needed something crazy like Uber)

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      • hattmall 2 days ago

        Cheap and easy were the big factors, in roughly equal proportions, with a nod towards cheap. I did a lot of things I didn't need to do and just wouldn't have done at all if I would have had to pay taxi prices for several years while Ubers were cheap. Taxi's were also only easily available in very limited circumstances.

        Taxi's here worked one of two ways. You either negotiated a price before leaving, or they ran a meter and went some crazy route then when you got to the destination clicked a bunch of buttons and the total went up by $15-$20.

        When negotiating a price, it was usually $10 per person, for about a 3-4 mile ride, and they wouldn't take you right away if less than 4 people. They would encourage you to load like 8 or 10 people in (All Taxi's were vans) and would try to pick up other people along the way. Tipping was all but mandatory. So add another $2-3 per person.

        Uber/Lyft on the other hand was $5-6 or $2-3 for the shared one. An SUV was like $12-$20 that could seat 7, and the whole booking on the phone and tracking was excellent. Uber was so cheap that I would frequently book them because it was easier than going down into the parking garage since I could just meet the Uber on the street.

        A cheap ride in 5-10 minutes was available pretty much 24 hours a day. Now surge pricing was a whole different beast, but I never got caught in that.

        Not only that, the first 2 years it was completely free. Because I got a $25 credit for signing up and then $25 for ever referral. I had a prepaid phone from some spring MVNO that let you change your number by just texting a shortcode. I would just make a new account every night before I went out and have $50 in free rides.

        Now Lfyt and Uber are expensive, there's practically none available unless it's the middle of the day. Taxi's are down to pretty much $5 per person to go most places, but they are just completely destroyed unsafe cars. The last one I took was a longer ride $10 or $20 and it had no seat belts and the driver was so large I have no idea how he got in and out of the car.

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        • ghaff 2 days ago

          I don't disagree. As a business traveler, it was probably about ease. When I'd go down to one of our other company locations semi-regularly, I'd usually grab a cab at the airport because it was easy. Going the other way, I'd usually grab a Lyft. The Lyft was a bit cheaper but eh.

          I admit I'm usually taking public transit while traveling if it's reasonably convenient but cheaper ride-share (or taxi) options can tilt the balance when public transit is complicated/awkward. Rent a car for long distance and rural. (I did start using Uber/Lyft in some situations in areas like Silicon Valley where I would previously have reflexively rented a car.) Around where I live, driving my car is the only real alternative except in special cases. And I essentially always take a pre-booked private car back and forth to the airport.

          So, for me, more about ease but if I tended to rely on taxi-type services in cities more, it would probably be more about cost which is probably the case with many people commenting here.

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      • datadrivenangel 2 days ago

        Ubers were often half the cost of a taxi as well, and the drivers were getting paid more than you were paying uber, so this definitely impacted how many of my peers were taking uber instead of public transit.

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      • user_7832 2 days ago

        > From what I've read, this happened naturally in other countries, but in US, the taxi monopoly was so bad, we needed something crazy like Uber

        Depends on the city but definitely not the case everywhere in India. Uber and Ola (a local Uber alternative) massively forced taxi/auto (tuktuk) unions to weaken their bargaining position.

        There’s still a mafia eg in Goa where they literally threaten Uber drivers, but it’s relatively very different post Uber.

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    • noosphr 2 days ago

      In 2010 getting any taxi in the us by phone was a crap shoot. Hour long waiting times with the car always being just 10 minutes away. Multiple calls. Unpredictable pricing.

      Uber just worked.

      People forget just how terrible taxi companies were when they were the monopoly.

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  • seb1204 2 days ago

    What qualifies a professional driver? Lots of uber trips? A taxi licence? A chauffeur cap? A clean car? A person being employed by a company? Not sure but I suspect it's highly subjective. You can book a premium Uber. Or a limousine like the one some airlines offer as a business class package.

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    • buildsjets 2 days ago

      A sober, competent driver who has not been on duty more than 8 hours would be a good start.

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      • seb1204 2 days ago

        I agree. Just FYI, Uber limits driving time to 10 hours, the requires 8 hours of break. Does not stop the driver from using Lyft during the break time though.

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    • singleshot_ 12 hours ago

      A “professional driver” does not have the ability to rate me on a scale of one to five.

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