| Yeah, anyone who uses taxi drivers as an example of destruction either don't know what they're talking about (because they never experienced it) or they're crying crocodile tears. I had cab drivers nearly drive off with me hanging off the car in San Francisco, because they were far more concerned with screening my destination than, say, not killing me. If Uber destroyed that industry, it was only a net benefit to society. They created immense value, and the "destruction" was only to eliminate a layer of corrupt parasites who made money by preventing a free market (in this case, the medallion owners, but the entire industry was corrupt from top to bottom). |
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| ▲ | thisislife2 10 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Don't entirely agree that a local Taxi service is necessarily costlier than Uber. In my indian city, Uber and Ola cannot compete (and have been nearly wiped out) because a local Taxi service (that now dominates the market) is very competitively priced and professionally run. They charge their drivers a fixed percentage (unlike Uber or Ola, and lower fees than them) and release their payments timely in a transparent manner. The price per km, and all extra charges (late night fees, overtime driver charges etc., permit fees in case of long distance travel, toll fees etc.) are transparently conveyed to the customer too. And there is no bullshit practice of price gauging through "surge pricing" or "convenience fees" or "platform fees" etc. | | |
| ▲ | satvikpendem 6 hours ago | parent [-] | | Reminds me of Empower in the US, it charges drivers a fix fee, not even a percentage, and then the drivers take all the upside from their rides. |
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| ▲ | bwhiting2356 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | It's about efficiency not just corruption. When you call taxi dispatch a human answers and coordinates with other humans. Takes longer and they sometimes drop the ball. | |
| ▲ | timr 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | So basically, you’re saying that “most places” had uncorrupt, put-upon taxi industries who simply cannot survive against Uber because Uber is anti-competitive, and it has nothing at all to do with delivering a better product? Yeah, I don’t believe you. It sounds like you’re making a just-so rationalization for why taxis are good and Uber is bad. In pretty much any mature taxi market Uber is as expensive (if not more expensive!) than the conventional alternative. And yet Uber survives. | | |
| ▲ | inigyou 9 hours ago | parent [-] | | Have you ever met an Uber driver who makes decent money? Honest jobs should be compensated with honest money, not starvation wages. | | |
| ▲ | timr 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Yes, many, in fact. But more importantly, nobody is making drivers take these jobs. The restated version of your comment is simply “I think drivers should get paid more,” which is fine, but not an argument. Everyone who has ever had a job thinks the same thing. | |
| ▲ | nunez 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Black drivers used to make pretty good money many years ago, but Uber + market externalities redesigned their systems to "fix" that (mostly through decreasing payouts and high car rental costs) Most of the drivers providing that service split their time between Uber, Lyft and traditional corporate black car service. Lots of posts on this topic in the UberDrivers subreddit. | | |
| ▲ | inigyou 8 hours ago | parent [-] | | You see that whenever there is value, above starvation wages, flowing to laborers, capitalists see that as a problem and reduce it. Does this seem sustainable? | | |
| ▲ | irishcoffee 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | It’s really interesting how you’ve couched the concept of price discovery. | | |
| ▲ | inigyou 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Somehow only laborers get price discovered. Amazon hasn't got price discovered, not has Google, in decades. Weird. It's almost like Econ 101 isn't the whole story. | | |
| ▲ | irishcoffee 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | You mean, maybe selling shitty cheap chinese plastic to the lowest bidder has fucked with price discovery? I agree! |
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| ▲ | satvikpendem 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Yes, many in fact. |
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| ▲ | retired 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I don’t know a single place in Europe where taxis aren’t scamming tourists. |
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