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this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2024
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I'm sure glad uber "disrupted" the industry from what it was to a marketplace of bidding for a taxi. The system we had previously where you said "I want a taxi" and then a taxi came, and then you paid for it and the driver was paid appropriately was obviously unworkable after working for a hundred years.
This isn't a dynstopian nightmare at all.
Lol
Waving a taxi down could work like the movies. And they often say around bars to take people home.
But if you wanted picked up from a home by a taxi, you'd call and a taxi would show sometime between 5 minutes and 2 hours. Sometimes longer, sometimes not at all.
Taxis fucking sucked
Totally agree, but I feel like the problem was the booking system, not the taxi.
I was traveling recently, and Uber had partnered with a local taxi company to handle ride requests. It was awesome. You get the convenience and speed of calling an Uber, but the vehicles and drivers are all regulated and paid by the taxi company. No questionable gig economy work, no wondering if the driver is getting paid fairly, no concerns over shady drivers, no ill-kept vehicles.
Uber is a cancer on society, but taxi's didn't just come when called.
Here's how it would work: call cab company at 6AM and request taxi pickup at 8:00 to take you to airport.
At 8:15AM, call dispatch back and ask where you taxi is. Dispatch tells you they're almost there.
8:45AM call dispatch again, and they'll tell you they're about to pull up.
9:30AM call dispatch and cancel pickup
9:32AM Taxi arrives and it smells like the physical manifestation of 1970s porn set that allowed smoking.
There is a reason why the taxi industry got wrecked so quickly: it sucked, badly.
Tell me you didn't take taxis without telling me you didn't take taxis.
From not showing up for hours to weird routes to drive up the meter to "malfunctioning" credit card readers, taxis sucked. And the medallion system in places would give companies something of a monopoly.
Pre covid, I needed an Uber pool to go a few miles. We go halfway and wait for his other pick up. We sit and wait the seven minutes or whatever. The person never comes. So I eventually get dropped off.... And then Uber charges me the full rate. So not only did I arrive at least seven minutes later than I should have, but I paid MORE than agreed for the pleasure.
Being (justifiably) upset about 7 minutes late and having to pay the full rate shows how far we've come from taxis of a couple decades ago.
I mean it depends on where... In London the taxis, although expensive and often not the politest to other road users, are nearly universally great service for the customer (and mathematically it very rarely makes sense to run up the meter due to how demand and the fare system works) and also pay the drivers a decent wage as they generally don't have a middleman to pay other than the government for their licence
That said, in the US (specifically New York) my experience was that ubers are generally nicer than taxis, but it's definitely not universal