Cab Hailing Service Uber Collected Just $9M of Fares During 15 Months In Boston 112
curtwoodward writes "Uber, the well-funded startup that hails cabs and black cars with a smartphone app, is a pretty slick way to book a ride. But how competitive is Uber with the traditional, highly regulated cab market? According to results from the startup's move into Boston, not very. Figures released in a court case show that, over 15 months, Uber processed just $9 million in gross fares (the drivers get most of that). Meanwhile, Boston's overall cab industry is pegged at doing about $250 million a year in fares. Despite the publicity, Uber still has a long way to go."
Re:It seems that (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Explain (Score:4, Informative)
I either drive my car, take a bus, or schedule a pickup using the cab service website. About the only time when I do an impromptu taxi ride, it is fixed rate downtown and the taxis are everywhere.
So what is the advantage of a hailing program for a phone? Is it like the food delivery service for outlets that don't have delivery? I suppose that might be useful in some areas, but I just walk down a few blocks and get the food.
A number of places are hard to find cabs unless you are on the right street. It's even hard to get them to come by phone. If you call in a ride too short, but are too far off the beaten path, you'll not get a cab out, and any complaints will be met with complaints you weren't at the pickup site. But this service guarantees pickup. That's a greater value than calling in a pickup. I've personally been stranded more than once. I wasn't far off the beaten path for one, so I stopped calling in from that location, and instead walk to a nearby hotel, where there is always someone waiting. But with this, if it covered where I live now, I'd use it for all trips in that area.
Re:It seems that (Score:4, Informative)
1) Currently in San Francisco uberX (their lower-cost, non-town-car service) is cheaper than a yellow cab and, unless you live at a Caltrain or BART station, far easier to find.
2) If you were to reserve a ride with a cab company directly there's very little accountability for how long it will take to get a pick-up. All of these apps let you to see where your driver is while en-route and allow you to give feedback regarding the level of service received.
That adds a lot of value for me on top of the fact that I don't have to wait on hold.
Re:It seems that (Score:5, Informative)
I'd rather be able to speak to an experienced human on a 'phone when arranging a service than use another shitty automated middle man which can only deal with the simplest cases and which operates on volume rather than quality. There's always a significant cost to automation for the end user - it's just more profitable for the system's owner.
Outsourcing is logically less efficient, because someone else is always taking a cut of pure profit which they wouldn't if you provided a service in-house or cooperatively. Giving a middleman control of the initial sale (cf. Amazon, eBay) is one of the worst ways of permanently guaranteeing that a leech will make sure that you have to do an ever-increasing amount of work while they do very little new on your behalf. It's just not business sense.
Re:Not pointless at all... (Score:4, Informative)
American here. Filing suit for a taxi that never showed is a bit much but having been in that position I can understand the anger. Sometimes it's necessary to read "sue" as an American idiom for "Grrrr, I'm really mad and they should have done better."
That said, these crazy new-fangled smartphone app taxi services show me exactly who's coming to pick me up and how far away they are. That's a big step up from "we'll send someone as soon as they're available".
Voting with your dollars (euros, whatever) and putting them towards a better service will ultimately make a big difference. But, wait! Are you going to find another company to provide a taxi or file a complaint with regulators (generally run by livery companies in the US) (it's a problem, we know) while you're waiting for that cab who's taken another fare and won't be coming to pick you up after all?
It's probably best not to think of uber, sidecar, lyft, etcetera as taxi companies. They're providing a marketplace for that kind of service. Folks that don't play nice (cabbies who don't show and customers too drunk to sit without vomiting) get weeded out.
Re:Not pointless at all... (Score:5, Informative)
I've noticed weird trend among the middle classes to feel entitled when it comes to eliciting the services of those who they perceive as lower down in the pecking order.
Being a cabby is obviously a stressful and fairly tedious job (and I speak only as an occasional rider). More importantly, it's a job, not servitude. Of course they're going to prefer to the more profitable routes, and there are going to be some providers more competent than others. And if you were sat for an hour waiting for a single cab company in one place in a city, you were doing it completely wrong.
First of all, you're right: it's a job. They should do the job; particularly, they should do the job their dispatcher promised they would do on their behalf. If they have an argument with the dispatcher, that should be their problem, not mine. They're the ones who decided to be affiliated with Luxor instead of Yellow Cab, or Yellow Cab instead of Luxor, or who the heck ever. They have their hack license, and with it, they can pretty much pick what cab company they work for.
Second, I have no problem tipping well when someone has to go out of their way to accommodate me. Sometimes I forget that there are non-Americans on this site, and that most of them don't believe in tipping because they figure the person providing the service is being paid anyway. A cabbie going out of their way like this in America is going to *expect* a tip, where a European cabbie would just say "to heck with it" and pick up the nearest fare, knowing that the extra effort isn't going to be rewarded.
Third, I forgot one of the best things about Uber and similar companies: because they bill by GPS start and end point, you can't be "long hauled". The practice of "long hauling" is where the cabbie takes you on a longer route than necessary to run up the meter. When using GPS start/end points, "long hauling" will cost the cabbie, not you, so it stops the practice rather dead in the water. This is an incredible benefit, if you end up needing a cab at a trade show or conference in an unfamiliar place, since that's when you are most likely to be "long hauled".
Fourth, as far as "doing it wrong", I suppose you are suggesting that I, and my one friend, and my other friend with the walker, go 10 blocks down to 19th street and just hail a passing cab. You have obviously never had a physical disability.