this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2023
9 points (100.0% liked)
Asklemmy
44864 readers
2168 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- [email protected]: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Lyft/Uber. They had a strategy of eliminating their taxi company competition by flooding the market with such low fares that the taxis couldn't compete. That said, the taxi companies had a miserable reputation in many cities. They often came late or not at all, they usually required a phone call to dispatch, and they were quite expensive. But still, the tactics Lyft and Uber used to gain market dominance was dirty and monopolistic.
The flip side of this is that I can avoid the trap of car ownership, with all of its problems and expenses.
@pingveno Here, car sharing companies became the new taxi in some ways. Drivers are just taking rides then canceling them, some say they've arrived then just leave, so that you get charged, others just stop and wait for you to cancel (or run around the city pointlessly, just so you can get bored and cancel the ride). You can contact the support team, they just give your money back and that's it. Not all drivers do that, so your experience might be a hit-or-miss, but enough people complain about this.
Many drivers are just former taxi drivers, so they bring along some of these bad habits, like starting to talk with you about the most insane conspiracy theories (i.e. anti-vax stuff etc.).
Not to mention, the prices are also ridiculously higher when and where there's an increased demand (i.e. when there's a big concert).
At least their cars are mostly in good shape.
Interesting, I've nothing bad to say about the typical ride experience. I usually get a car quickly and can get to where I need to go. That said, there was one person who was not a great driver. They managed to miss an exit, putting us a few miles our way while I was sitting in the back seat with a broken arm. That was... interesting. That's where taxi companies are general better, since there is a higher barrier to entry.
I've never experienced surge pricing, but from what I understand it is successful at its aim: getting cars to where they are needed fast. That said, I can understand feeling fleeced.
But yeah, my main complaint is really that big businesses were able to essentially subsidize rides initially, then take advantage of their position once they cornered the market.
@pingveno Glad the experience is better across the ocean. ๐
On the flip side, if this competition makes a service better overall, it is welcome from my side, imo (especially when it comes to transport). Before that, taxi companies used to offer very poor service (to say the least) - and even now you have to pay attention to various shenanigans of them:
Yet they still complain how Uber is taking their passengers and what they can do to stop this.
(and yea, taxi companies don't do shit about this behavior)
Why not use public transportation ?
I personally think that public transportation is peak efficiency.
I do 99% of the time, but public transportation is often either very slow or not present at all. Take going out to see my aunt. Luckily I can take a light rail train most of the way. However, I then have to get on an infrequent bus. It can mean a trip taking an hour and a half, both ways. And that's in a relatively good transit city for its size and being in North America. Late night also tends to not be great for transit, though I can bike just fine then.
Basically, I rely on bike and bus for most of my transportation, but use Uber/Lyft to fill in for the times when those preferred options won't cut it.
That's true.
Lyft and Uber are taking advantage of both:
Even worse - those companies SEEK to replace drivers with self-driving vehicles. They will terminate their entire sub-contracted workforce (the drivers... the people who do the actual work), without obligation.
This has been their goal from the start.
I guess I'm more concerned about the short term well being of the drivers than anything else. Surge pricing at least has a purpose, to attract drivers to an area. And with self-driving cars, I like the idea of using them as a solution to the last mile problem in transit.