If you were in a big city like New York or Los Angeles and you had to get across town, taxi's used to be the way you did that. With the introduction of Uber and Lyft, which both tended to be cheaper on average, the taxi industry has taken a major hit. This completely disrupts their respective labor market. There are a lot of taxi drivers in the world who have been working with taxis for a long time and don't have expertise in many other trades. People who work for Uber and Lyft on the other hand aren't always using it as a full time job.
Uber's are better in almost every way than taxi's. You can call them to any location, they tend to be nicer, and they are cheaper. Uber/Lyft have expanded their empires across the world and can be found almost anywhere you travel. Unfortunately that is about to change.
London, Uber's largest market in Europe, just revoked the companies license to operate in the city. This means that Uber is losing roughly 3.5 million customers.
With London's decision, is it possible we will see other large cities follow suit in order to preserve their traditional taxi system?
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I definitely think that Uber is doing so well due to the convenience and like you said, the advancements in technology. With Uber, you can order a ride wherever you are to go wherever you would like, and already know the price. You can even order rides ahead of time to come pick you up later, or to have your food delivered to you. Uber is popular because there's no room for doubt. With a taxi, you don't know how easy it will be for you to find one, you don't know how long it will take to get somewhere, and you don't know how much it will cost. Uber creates a safe and confident environment for its users, and I think it's doing a really great job at that.
ReplyDeleteAs convenient and helpful Ubers and Lyfts are, I believe extra security and background check should be taken place before listing these drivers. It all really boils down to the location in terms of arguing which is better: Taxi or Uber. In some areas, a classic taxi cab can be cheaper than Uber as cited, "Even without surge pricing, UberX can be more expensive than taking a taxi, especially for shorter trips. Uber charges a minimum fare of $8 for simply getting into the car, compared with $2.50 for New York's yellow cabs". As for background checks and safety precautions, there has been a lot of reports about Uber problems from various types of people across the nation which also raises the question of how safe they really are.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.consumerreports.org/personal-finance/uber-vs-taxi-which-is-cheaper/
https://www.theclever.com/20-shocking-uber-horror-stories-you-wont-believe/
Although background checks aren't as prominent in car services like uber and lyft like they are with taxi drivers, all their information can be tracked back to them if any complaints were filed. As you mentioned, the convenience aspect of the apps are much easier and more desirable than hailing 10 different taxis with passengers already in them before successfully finding an vacant one.
ReplyDeleteI would not have guessed that London would be one of Uber's main consumers. But according to Mari's comment, I think that background checks are vital for Uber. A smart technique that Uber uses is having multiple sizes of cars. For example, UberX. However, for taxis, one downfall that occurs is that there is relatively one size only. For a large group of people, you would need to order multiple taxis, so I do think that cost would relatively cancel out.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting concept that I think is very similar to the recent rise in self-driving car technology. At one point, it was uber vs taxi, but soon we will observe a shift to uber vs self-driving taxi. The self-driving taxi service will prove to be far more economical for consumers, due to cheaper costs and shortened commute times, and as a result, we may see a decrease in use of services like Uber and Lyft.
ReplyDeleteI think that in London where there is a large number of taxis and the proper infrastructure for this mode of transport, revoking Uber's license may have been the right move in preserving the business. When I traveled in London, it was pretty difficult to get an Uber because there just weren't that many of them to begin with. I think that Uber is a great addition when there are not a lot of taxis like in the Bay Area.
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