The first judgement the passenger tries to make when he/she are getting into a vehicle is weather or not the person behind the wheel is a good driver. Most importantly - a SAFE driver. Everything else comes second to that. In my opinion things like cleanliness and car maintenance come second after the passenger establishes confidence in their driver. Seven out of ten times, the passenger will only establish that confidence with a cab driver rather than a rideshare appdriver, the reasons are obvious.
Cab drivers have more experience on the road than rideshare drivers. In my personal experience with rideshare drivers, I've notice them being a bit nervous at times and their handling of the vehicle isn't all that smooth, things only a professional driver would notice. In my opinion if the ride really matters to the passenger or customer they shouldn't depend on the rideshare driver but try to plan in advance for a professional driver (like one working for an established transportation company).
The benefits of ride sharing apps is the technology behind it which makes things a lot more transparent and upfront for both drivers and passengers. But now that the technology exists, why are we letting Uber run a monopoly? More and more taxi business are starting to develop their own local ride sharing apps specifically designed for them (like my company is).
Obviously ride sharing app companies like uber have a ton of money when it comes to advertising and they are able to push anyone around should they please. They just love to spend that money from their advertisement budget most of time recklessly, like in areas and cities where they do not provide any service at all. …
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The first judgement the passenger tries to make when he/she are getting into a vehicle is weather or not the person behind the wheel is a good driver. Most importantly - a SAFE driver. Everything else comes second to that. In my opinion things like cleanliness and car maintenance come second after the passenger establishes confidence in their driver. Seven out of ten times, the passenger will only establish that confidence with a cab driver rather than a rideshare appdriver, the reasons are obvious.
Cab drivers have more experience on the road than rideshare drivers. In my personal experience with rideshare drivers, I've notice them being a bit nervous at times and their handling of the vehicle isn't all that smooth, things only a professional driver would notice. In my opinion if the ride really matters to the passenger or customer they shouldn't depend on the rideshare driver but try to plan in advance for a professional driver (like one working for an established transportation company).
The benefits of ride sharing apps is the technology behind it which makes things a lot more transparent and upfront for both drivers and passengers. But now that the technology exists, why are we letting Uber run a monopoly? More and more taxi business are starting to develop their own local ride sharing apps specifically designed for them (like my company is).
Obviously ride sharing app companies like uber have a ton of money when it comes to advertising and they are able to push anyone around should they please. They just love to spend that money from their advertisement budget most of time recklessly, like in areas and cities where they do not provide any service at all. Their business will fail in those areas though and all these huge tech startups pushing Uber clones will continue to go belly up. The reason? They can't beat the local taxi companies in the areas of infrastructure and professionalism. Ubers business model doesn't allow for this level of customer service, and customers will seek and choose other options as they become available.
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RIDEGURU
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Interesting read and some good points, I think.
London taxi drivers have long said the same thing, after all they must pass an extremely rigorous exam ("The Knowledge") before they are even allowed to drive a taxi. They claim to be able to beat a GPS, and I believe it. I think local knowledge like this gained through years of daily driving in a city is invaluable and -- at least for now -- irreplaceable by any technology. Even with real-time traffic data, a good driver knows all the nuances of a city's traffic patterns that enable them to get from A to B fast.
Another change over the past year that I've started to really notice is rideshare drivers complaining about earnings. For the first few years drivers seemed really happy, it was almost a dream job -- make your own hours, drive when you want, and make a comfortable $XX/hour. But it seems that rideshare companies, led by Uber, are on a downward spiral to try and gain market share and force upstarts out. It's predatory pricing, a…
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Interesting read and some good points, I think.
London taxi drivers have long said the same thing, after all they must pass an extremely rigorous exam ("The Knowledge") before they are even allowed to drive a taxi. They claim to be able to beat a GPS, and I believe it. I think local knowledge like this gained through years of daily driving in a city is invaluable and -- at least for now -- irreplaceable by any technology. Even with real-time traffic data, a good driver knows all the nuances of a city's traffic patterns that enable them to get from A to B fast.
Another change over the past year that I've started to really notice is rideshare drivers complaining about earnings. For the first few years drivers seemed really happy, it was almost a dream job -- make your own hours, drive when you want, and make a comfortable $XX/hour. But it seems that rideshare companies, led by Uber, are on a downward spiral to try and gain market share and force upstarts out. It's predatory pricing, and it seems largely at the expense of drivers. I have to start to wonder whether drivers will start to drop off when they decide they can't make a living doing it, giving taxis another advantage until Uber is forced to respond by raising rates again.
There's no denying the convenience of rideshares, though. Clearly taxi companies have to play catch up in that regard. The taxi industry is less nimble than the rideshares, but I do think they will get there before too long. I really don't see taxis going anywhere.
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Defintely agree with cabbies being able to beat a gps. And yes, in my opinion, uber is shooting itself in the foot with their biz model. When drivers OR customers aren't happy, they will seek other options. I used uber every day for months when I lived in Los Angeles and it was just becoming popular. Back then, it was this amazing new tech and it was 1/2 the price of a normal cab - of course the taxi industry took a big hit as they became popular. But now... all uber has left is the tech, and I don't care how pretty their app is when it comes with surge pricing and the other headaches.
I know a transportation company in brooklyn that almost went out of business when uber came to NYC, but after two years, everything has normalised and they actually get more calls now than they did before uber! If I didn't learn about that, I probably would have been conviced with all this rideshare hype and got out of the taxi industry. But that just goes to show you that the market is saying something here, and like you said - the taxi industry is not going anywhere :)
That's fascinating. I think one thing that it shows is that the entire concept of local travel is changing as a result of all of this. While at first, rideshares were seen as a displacement for taxis, it's now becoming clear that they're changing the whole game. People are starting to ditch car ownership, instead relying on taxis and rideshares for getting around. If that's true, then the market for all of these services is going to explode over the next few years. This is good for anyone who drives a taxi or a rideshare.
And of course, as a taxi and rideshare rider, I want taxis to continue to do well in order to keep rideshares on their toes.
No doubt the market will re-adjust and re-normalize. We are currently at a very disruptive rough patch, but eventuay capitalism will rebalance the whole industry. IMO
I was speaking to a driver friend of mine (Yellow in NYC), and he told me that many of his friends are coming back to driving the Yellow cabs, because due to the price war between Uber, Lyft, Juno, Hailo, etc., the payout is now DEFINITELY LOWER than driving Yellow cabs. The drivers will go to where the money is.
Interesting take Chawes. I was going to comment on this thread that while professional experienced drivers are most definitely an important factor for choosing a rideshare/taxi company and even bigger factor for most people is price. Consumers love to save a buck and if Uber can take me to my destination for half the price than Im going with Uber. However, I have also heard many stories about Uber drivers making next to nothing or even OWING Uber money at the end of a trip (not quite sure how that works out). After hearing these stories, I cannot imagine that Uber will be able to keep these insanely cheap prices for ever. Eventually, they will have to raise their prices to satisfy their drivers and to stop losing the billions of dollars that they are reportedly losing. At that point when the prices level out, I would think Taxis would once again take a stronghold as their experienced drivers would factor into a consumers decision more.
Very true about the technology catching up. It theoretically isn't difficult to place technology behind every car, whether it's Uber or a Taxi. It's an excellent point about how the taxi drivers are experienced and safer in that regard. I am sure that's day-and-night over UberX's part-time drivers. Everyone talks so much about safety in regards to regulations and backgroudn checks; while they are absolutely right, I think people are overlooking the fact that professional drivers are just..better. Why are we squeezing them out?