Wait, people think uber is evil? What did I miss????
Uber is possibly pretty evil! While I don’t feel particularly broken-hearted about them forcing the hand of change in the whole taxi industry, on an individual level what this means for taxi drivers and uber drivers is pretty shitty
Their whole business model is about offering what is a pretty lux private car service at a super super low price. They have been lowering their rates since their initial startup, while raising the commission they take from fares. Their tendency to overhire and have just, swarms of drivers working an area also means that the work is very competitive, and drivers are making less and less money.
That, combined with the fact that they refuse to implement a cashless tipping option in their app like competitor Lyft, despite the demands of both drivers and customers, and even seem to actively discourage tipping their drivers (part of the #pizzaparty promo was their insistence that no tip was necessary, though i intended to tip the driver $10 because you will not fucking stop me from tipping a service industry employee), means that the whole system is a pretty bum deal for drivers.
Personally I just think Uber blew up too fast and still has a lot of kinks to iron out. As a customer, it’s a nice, affordable transportation option that has definitely saved my life on multiple occasions. Taking a taxi sucks, it’s a long-ass wait for a driver who might show up to give you a ride you definitely can’t afford. My car has been broken down so I’ve had to use Uber to get home from work several times over the past week or so, and let me just say I would not have been able to do that if a taxi was my only option. I would have had to cut my hours to Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays (when I could get rides home with other coworkers) and lost like, half my paycheck. For reference, a ride home from work in a taxi would probably cost $20-$30. A ride home in an uber costs me $10-$12.
Buuut the reason taxis cost so much is because they are like, properly licensed, insured, inspected, maintained, i think the drivers have to get a special license, all that shit. Uber keeps its prices low by cutting corners, and it hasn’t been around long enough for us to really see where that will end up, but a lot of people are kind of nervous about it i think. And they are def happy to screw their drivers.
