Uber South Africa Launches $500 a Month Car Lease Which Includes Replacing Tires 83
An anonymous reader writes: Taxi hailing platform Uber has experimented with vehicle financing schemes around the world this year: it launched a pilot program for car loans in three US towns in the summer and had a two year relationship with Santander too. It's South African arm has gone one step further, however, with an official vehicle leasing — rather than purchase — scheme backed by local lender Wesbank. For about $500 a month which covers the car, maintenance and even tire wear, drivers get access to a mid-sized sedan. Hertz and other car hire firms are also joining in with similar schemes to boost the number of Uber drivers in the country.
$500 for a lease? (Score:2)
Seems a bit pricey. Unless it includes all mileage for a full-time taxi service, it's not all that attractive and if you do have a full-time taxi service, you might as well outright buy the car.
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Exactly. We pay significantly less than that for a minivan in the US.
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That being said, you can find an older beater car for between $1000 and $2000 if you
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Exactly. We pay significantly less than that for a minivan in the US.
Don't bother comparing with your US prices. Vehicles generally cost less for Americans than they do in other countries. More important is how it compares with other deals available locally. (That said, $500 USD every month is probably out of reach for most South Africans).
You also need to take into account the financing costs -- as with all loans, it's likely to be more expensive for those with a weaker credit history. The price has probably been thought through carefuly based on who the deal is aimed at an
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But I guess the biggest point here is to ask what relevance this whole thing has to Slashdot?
I get down-voted every time I ask questions like this... :(
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what relevance this whole thing has to Slashdot?
I get down-voted every time I ask questions like this... :(
The post is an advert. The question remains unanswered though.
In the UK, AFAIK long term car hire schemes are total packages, including services and tyres. The sort of people who have such hires, mostly though their company like travelling reps and PHBs, would never dream of stooping to look at their tyre wear anyway.
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Re:$500 for a lease? (Score:4)
It's an interesting story because it means getting Uber cars on the road in places they haven't got to yet. I live in one of those places so I hope it works out and they come to me.
It has to be risky for Uber, I'm imagining that Africans who want to be Uber drivers don't have much in terms of credit scores.
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It's an interesting story because it means getting Uber cars on the road in places they haven't got to yet..
And why is that interesting? We don't see stories here about, say, Hertz opening new branches.
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I you think Hertz isn't a disruptive technology, wait until they have one million cars.
Terms (Score:2)
Read the terms of the lease, they are usually distance-limited.
This would make them useless for even a part-time taxi-style service.
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Read the terms of the lease, they are usually distance-limited.
This would make them useless for even a part-time taxi-style service.
And the distance limitation is usually something pretty low like 5000 miles a year (in the UK). They're not even that useful for regular commuting unless you live in London and do ten miles a day.
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While you can get a lease for $300 a month here the article states that they are basically writing the car off after five years of use because some of the drivers are driving 11,000 km a month. To get a $300 a month lease you normally get around 20,000 to 25,000 km. Even the drivers mentioned in the article that weren't doing much distance were still doing 3,000 to 5,000 km a month. I went onto Toyota Canada's website and the most that they will let you put onto a lease is 40,000 km a year which is prett
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Leases are often good because they have complicated and confusing rules that can be gamed by buyers.
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I'd expect at that cost it is a full cost car lease including fuel and servicing. If that is the case it isn't that expensive.
I have a full cost lease, which covers finance, fuel, insurance, servicing, registration, tyres etc and it costs $483.15 for fortnight on a $50,000 car budgeted at 27,000 km per year.
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In addition to this I would highly recommend against buying your vehicle if you plan to do long term commercial work with it. You end up with a capital asset which is not tax deductible except for the depreciation schedule, which is often not that accurate. Also once they reach a certain mileage and age you will start to see problems that can put your business at risk. You are much better operating on a lease and turning the vehicle over regularly.
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I agree with the in-house mechanic. The ambulance service where my sister worked for a number of years is co-located with a mechanic. The ambulance service gets their vehicles serviced for practically nothing, and the mechanic pays practically nothing for the space. It's a good deal for both of them.
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My mid sized sedan repayments are around R4 800/month. Cars are significantly more expensive here then in the US.
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My mid sized sedan repayments are around R4 800/month. Cars are significantly more expensive here then in the US.
The last car I bought was at R1.8k/m. Once it was paid off I simply kept it.
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That was either an entry level vehicle, or a long time ago. I will likely simply keep my car once it is paid off, it seems the best answer. By comparison, my brother in the states pays nearly half what I do for a similar vehicle.
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That was either an entry level vehicle, or a long time ago. I will likely simply keep my car once it is paid off, it seems the best answer. By comparison, my brother in the states pays nearly half what I do for a similar vehicle.
Long time ago. Plus, the car was a demo model, not new. The car now has +300000km under its belt and still serves me well. I might have to fork out money for a new car soon, but I sure as hell wouldn't be financing it. Buying cheap, 2nd hand with cash.
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You're off by a factor of 2 there buddy. A Hyundai elantra is around R320k. That's US$22 000. And they're considered reasonable value.
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In Russia, you pay taxi company to drive for it! (Score:2)
>> For about $500 a month, (Uber) drivers get access to a mid-sized sedan (that they can use to drive people around for Uber)
In Soviet Russia*, you pay taxi company to drive for it!
(*=for values of Soviet Russia equal to "South Africa")
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In * you pay taxi company to drive for it. Where * is every country in the world.
Uber should provide its employees... (Score:3)
...everything they need to do their. jobs.
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Sorry, that's not a business plan you can sell to the Silicon Valley vultures.
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Silicon Valley "Vultures", given their ultra intellect, should know better than anyone that can't sustain a viable economy without people who have money to spend on their services.
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On the other hand, making them treat all drivers as full-time employees will exclude the people who really want to do part-time, own-schedule work. I've gotten a couple of Uber rides from stay-at-home moms who are just making a few extra bucks while the kiddos are in school. They like that they can work when they have time, and simply not bother to log in on days they have stuff to get done.
Trying to force all jobs into one mold screws those who don't want a job that fits the mold.
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They're not trying to force all jobs into one mould. They're just trying to keep them safe and fair for the employee.
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Well we shall see how it all pans out. There is a person in Canada who is trying to sue Uber because they got into an accident with their minivan and it was a total write-off and the insurance company wouldn't pay for it due to commercial use. As more of these happen it is hard to see how 'a few dollars' here and there is going to cover it.
I agree that Uber should provide better insurance, which would solve that problem. They currently provide liability coverage, but they need to provide collision coverage, and medical coverage in countries that don't have socialized medicine (a Canadian shouldn't have an issue there, right?). It would be fine for them to charge drivers for this coverage, or allow drivers to find their own. They should also probably offer short- and long-term disability coverage. Those are typically very cheap.
They're not trying to force all jobs into one mould. They're just trying to keep them safe and fair for the employee.
... by forcing
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The problem is... on one hand you have people who want to make 'a few bucks' doing this. Should they be able to? It's beyond debate that allowing this to happen will harm the livelihoods of a million cab drivers who were told by the government that it was save to sink life savings into it because they were protected by a set of regulations.
Buggy-whip makers.
I note your point about how this is different because government regulation was involved, but I really don't see it. Many industries are erased or restructured by technological progress, and whether or not the change is related to government regulation doesn't make any difference. Also, I think your claim that people were "told by the government that it was safe" is simply false. Government never said any such thing. Government merely said that taxis must have medallions and people made
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There is still a problem with your argument, and here is why it is unfair to compare them to buggy whip makers. The regulations are there because unregulated, things didn't work.
Of course, because without some mechanism for being able to determine the trustworthiness of driver, regulation is required. Networked mobile devices provide an alternative reputation system.
Taxis in my area have to have safety shields and emergency lights... in fact one Uber driver just got attacked; face slammed into the drivers side window and a shield would have helped him
Safety shields are one option. Another is the more normal societal mechanism for discouraging that sort of thing... prosecuting the violent criminals. This is particularly easy with Uber/Lyft, since the company has the rider's contact information on file. Drivers also have the option of making use of technology to insta
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To be fair, you didn't even grant us the dignity of waiting for a vote to be called. You just went ahead and tread on our world.
As far as I can tell, Uber isn't actually breaking laws, not unequivocally. That's why they're still operating, in the space that is also operated by contract limousines and livery companies, which have never followed the taxi laws, because they're not taxis. Where Uber is clearly not allowed by the law, they've been shut down.
One good example is Las Vegas. Vegas determined that they were not complying with the laws and shut them down until the appropriate agency made a new set of regulations for them, wi
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But by allowing Uber to exist and perhaps using Uber, you have already been allowed to make your vote. How long do you think I will have to wait to make mine?
As long as you're alive and able to communicate with your elected representatives.
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Also, then you have to accept other areas where people have found to skirt the laws.. such as murder for hire on Silk Road. Perhaps we should stop hunting for these people and just see what life becomes like if we just let the markets work without regulation.
What are you on about? Conspiracy to commit murder is illegal. That's not an edge case at all.
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Fine, but it's still gaming the system. No different than a person who realizes they can live off welfare all their lives.
If the system is set up to allow that, that's what the system allows. If that's not what we want, then we should fix the system.
Also they are breaking the law in most juristictions.
So you say. The officials charged with reading and enforcing the laws don't agree. If you can identify the specific letter of the law being broken, you should take it to your elected officials and get them to pressure the relevant agencies to enforce the law. But I would be very surprised if you could do that, because if they were actually breaking the law that would already have h
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Ok so let me get this straight. Uber is willing to stop doing business until I talk with my elected representatives? I think you are dreaming.
Why in the world would they do that? They'll continue operating until it's demonstrated that they're violating existing laws or new ones are passed to shut them down. That's as it should be. The presumption is that you can do whatever you like unless it's specifically restricted. Would you really want to live in a world where it's necessary to ask permission for anything you want to do?
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They will be prosecuted, I'm assuming. Too many municipalities where there are clear restrictions for taxi services.
They can only be prosecuted if Uber actually meets the definition of a taxi service. Not the generic notion of what we think taxi services are, but the specific legal definition. This is why Uber is legal in many areas where taxis are regulated, because the legal definition of "taxi" includes things like street hailing, etc., that Uber doesn't do. This issue has been gestating long enough that I suspect Uber has already been shut down everywhere it's actually illegal.
From my perspective, of course, I hope
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On the other hand, making them treat all drivers as full-time employees will exclude the people who really want to do part-time, own-schedule work. I've gotten a couple of Uber rides from stay-at-home moms who are just making a few extra bucks while the kiddos are in school. They like that they can work when they have time, and simply not bother to log in on days they have stuff to get done.
Trying to force all jobs into one mold screws those who don't want a job that fits the mold.
You can work part time as a taxi driver too, you know. There is nothing new in what Uber offers.
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You can work part time as a taxi driver too, you know. There is nothing new in what Uber offers.
Yeah, you just try calling up a cab company and telling them you want to work random hours, or not, on a whim and without any pre-scheduling.
Uber uber Alles (Score:2)
"A prefixal use of uber, adverb and adjective, with the basic meaning "over, beyond."..."
Soon we can expect Uber insurance company, Uber auto manufacturing, Uber legal defense fund, Uber uniform company, and special Uber discounts at Disney World, all for Uber drivers (who may or may not be employees).
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Right, Uber will struggle because every respectable South African will have a "boy" to drive him already.
Plenty of unrespectable ones though, I suppose.
$500??! (Score:4, Funny)
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For the kind of cars i drive, $500 would buy me a replacement car every month.
And Uber wouldn't allow you to use that kind of car to transport its customers. Of course, I imagine you have no desire to transport Uber's customers anyway, so it works out, but it means your car-buying habits aren't relevant to the conversation.
Get your ass to South Africa (Score:3)
"Hellua day, huh?"
liability and labor issues (Score:2)
Now this does make uber more liability in case of accidents and This can also lead to labor issues like with FedEx and there drivers that had to Lease / rent or buy FedEx trucks but where not W2's and the courts said that they can be 1099's due to the rules. Now if this really there car to use then they should be able use it on lift / for other stuff as well.
So Uber is a taxi company (Score:3)
So Uber is admitting it's a taxi service but doesn't believe it has to abide by rules for taxi companies, nor do its drivers who don't have a business license or insurance to protect their passengers.
Good to know people can make up whatever shit they want. I think I'll open a theme park, with blackjack and hookers, and call it recreation sharing. I'll make a ton of money since I won't have to worry about paying taxes or dealing with any ridiculous licensing or permits.
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Taxi hailing platform Uber. . .
So Uber is admitting it's a taxi service
Actually it was "An anoymous reader" who called it a taxi service.
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and outsource to "Technicians" to prescribe and fill prescriptions.
Yawn... it's been done already (Score:2)
Yawn.... same old model. Cab companies have been leasing to prospective drivers for years and car companies, rental agencies, and dealership have been leasing for years to other drivers.
Wake me when they come up with something truly innovative. You know, something that is new and not just has "on a mobile device" or "on a computer" tacked on the end.
Someone having a chuckle in TFS? (Score:2)