Uber. Good or bad.

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Darrell

Hardcore MB Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 15, 2006
Messages
12,096
Location
Back in Mill Hill but sometimes in Skiathos
Car
Gixxer 6, Citroen Berlingo, 911 C4S, Dacia Duster and lots of bicycles.
Me, wife and daughter went to the London Boat Show today and because of engineering works and the tube strikes we got an Uber taxi from Blackfriars Stn to Excel.

The whole process was quick, efficient and pain free.

Taxi turned up which in two minutes, the app told me the drivers name, the plate and make of the vehicle. The driver was polite and very helpful.

The cost was £13.

Now the problems start. Two of my mates are black cab drivers and I just had a chat via Facebook with one of them. He went crazy at what I did. He has accused me of taking food off his table, using a rogue company that have bribed their way in with their un-qualified drivers and cheap vehicles.

What does the panel think. Uber seem to be peeing off a lot of people all over Europe at the moment.
 
Uber are providing a service that is less expensive to the man on the street than hailing or booking a rank cab. Now I know cabbies have to make a living, but some of the fares are just extortion to me. The problem is unless they have their own plate and own the vehicle then they are working for a wage for the cab owner.
The problems for me would arise if these "unqualified" drivers don't have the necessary insurance etc should there be an incident.
As far as the condition of the cabs, some of the mini cabs flying around look far more dodgy.
 
Good.

In the UK at least their drivers are licensed mini cab drivers, and in my experience the cars far better than our local mini-cab company ever provides, and certainly more comfortable then the black cabs.

Booking, tracking and paying is easy.

Black cabs are ****** off as they have had to wake up...
 
Wasn't there a recent legal ruling that Uber drivers should actually be classed as employees as opposed to self employed?

Question, How are they undermining Black Cabs any more than the mini cab industry?

Daughter uses Uber a lot, I tend to use Black Cabs in London the 6 or so times a year I go in and don't drive.
 
As a owner of a taxi firm i hate uber, but i would, its competition, bit like a large supermarket moving in on a small village and putting the local shops out of business, there like the plague, people will use them, novelty idea i think, government dont give a toss, black cabs London, total class, know the job, years of training, now some foreigner that knows bugger all,takes over, enough said, another British institution down the swanny,
 
As a owner of a taxi firm i hate uber, but i would, its competition, bit like a large supermarket moving in on a small village and putting the local shops out of business, there like the plague, people will use them, novelty idea i think, government dont give a toss, black cabs London, total class, know the job, years of training, now some foreigner that knows bugger all,takes over, enough said, another British institution down the swanny,

So in a nutshell, Uber are doing to Mini Cabs what Mini Cabs did to black Cabs and now the shoe is on the other foot it's not such a nice feeling?

Or am I missing something fundamental here? I don't claim to fully understand the Uber business model.
 
Wasn't there a recent legal ruling that Uber drivers should actually be classed as employees as opposed to self employed?

Question, How are they undermining Black Cabs any more than the mini cab industry?

Daughter uses Uber a lot, I tend to use Black Cabs in London the 6 or so times a year I go in and don't drive.

Going to appeal.

As a owner of a taxi firm i hate uber, but i would, its competition, bit like a large supermarket moving in on a small village and putting the local shops out of business, there like the plague, people will use them, novelty idea i think, government dont give a toss, black cabs London, total class, know the job, years of training, now some foreigner that knows bugger all,takes over, enough said, another British institution down the swanny,

We have a taxi company who have had a good grip on our local market for many years. They are slightly arrogant, with some of their practises being old fashioned. They don't take cars, internet booking.

They have all the time in the world now, to get this stuff sorted and get their market position protected. But nope.

They are in for a shock.
 
This is now a regular debate. I use both services.

My personal experiences are that Uber are usually terrible at finding where they are going in London as they don't know the roads but they are cheap. Taxi drivers do know their routes but are expensive at times.

What I have noticed is that you do get a lot of taxi drivers who do swear and arm wave out of the windows at other drivers and don't often give way to other cars that have PCO badges. I use chauffeur cars for work and encounter this all the time.

Rather than taxi drivers improving their service they seem happier to complain and berate others for using Uber.

Its supply and demand and the market seems to want cheaper alternative when it comes to taxi services. It's not going away so black cabs need to find a way to market their USP in such a way that it makes it worth paying for a premium service.

...or if they all matched Uber prices (even for weekends) then that might disrupt Ubers operation.
 
I will probably get flamed but...

Similar story when a wave of Eastern European (mainly Polish) came in and took a lot of the building trade as they were cheaper.

Supermarkets have come in and undercut and destroyed the local supermarket/corner shop.

Uber have provided a cheaper alternative and cabbies don't like it. Our local cabbies went on strike not so long ago due to the number of licenses being given out because they would have to work harder. Times change with every job and you have to work smarter. Around here many sit around for hours, parking where they please, blocking driver's view at junctions due to their 'waiting', not paying full tax on their earnings and generally not giving a toss about other drivers well live with it. We don't have Uber in our area yet but if/when we do I hope it kicks them up the ****.
 
The upside of living in a democratic capitalist society is we have the ability to create our own businesses or be our own bosses.

The downside is someone doing the same as you better or cheaper.

Adapt and embrace or die.
 
No one like competition.

Black cabs need to realise that it's supply and demand. If there's a market for more expensive, less comfortable ways of getting from a to b, then they'll do ok, but most people want a cheaper easier fix. Black cabs have had it too good for too long. Competition is good for the consumer.

I have never used either btw.
 
The upside of living in a democratic capitalist society is we have the ability to create our own businesses or be our own bosses.

The downside is someone doing the same as you better or cheaper.

Adapt and embrace or die.

Not necessarily better, or cheaper
 
I disagree, from what I know of black cabs, they're uncomfortable and very expensive.

Like I said, I've never used one though
 
Some interesting answers.

A couple of points I didn't make we're that we waited outside the station for 20 minutes and the only black cab that went past didn't stop!!!

I was going to reply to my mate via Facebook but I had a little think instead and came up with the following. Black cab drivers in London make a very good living, my two buddies are probably the best off out of my group of mates. In order to make good dough they need to do the knowledge and buy an expensive vehicle. Uber drivers probably don't earn that much because they don't charge a high fare.

My mates moan about the high cost of buying their cabs, the insurance etc etc but they still earn very good dough. I personally think Uber might screw their earning potential but it won't harm them that much.
 
Bob6600

Being a city & guilds plumber I know where you are coming from in the first paragraph. I used this as an argument to my buddy.
 
People need not to be bitter about losing trade to a better service provider, they just need to suck it up and compete. end of.. :thumb:
 
The reason they're so cheap is because they're paying drivers peanuts and while ever there are people stupid enough to drive cars for minimum wage (or less in some cases), Uber will always be in with a chance.

Once they have to play by the same rules as the other private hire firms, their costs will soon spiral and their fees will go up.
 
I was watching a TV programme about what people earned.

They featured amongst other professions - a guy who was a driver under Uber.

He basically stated that the working hours could be set by him which was the main reason for doing it - flexibility to work around his children.

However, he had to run at least a 5 year or younger car, earned the square-root of FA in reality and if it wasn't for his wife working - he wouldn't be able to live.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom