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#421 spanky123

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Posted 08 March 2017 - 02:59 PM

Have taxis disappeared from the streets of New York? LA? Chicago? Toronto? Montreal? Seattle?

 

Why are you assuming taxis will disappear?

 

Assuming that the market for taxis didn't get bigger simply because Uber and others appeared, it stands to reason then that existing taxis are seeing fewer fares and/or have scaled back their fleets. I guess that fewer people could now be biking or taking public transit because fares are cheaper with Uber, but I don't think that our local greenies would pursue that argument!

 

I say takes the gloves off of everyone and let this settle out. Heck you may be able to get a ride from the airport to downtown for $10 if some retiree is just happy to be out of his house driving around and meeting people and doesn't care about making money!


Edited by spanky123, 08 March 2017 - 02:59 PM.

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#422 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 08 March 2017 - 03:02 PM

I say takes the gloves off of everyone and let this settle out. Heck you may be able to get a ride from the airport to downtown for $10 if some retiree is just happy to be out of his house driving around and meeting people and doesn't care about making money!

 

Absolutely!  A few months back a group of drivers were giving random free rides from the Tsawwassen terminal, just for fun and a surprise factor.


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#423 Mike K.

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Posted 10 March 2017 - 06:38 AM

Last year in SFO my taxi driver taking me to downtown from the airport was falling asleep at the wheel, no jokes, and once we got into downtown I eventually told him to stop in his tracks as he was trying to run up the price.

Brutal.

Here's the thing about Uber. I might not be a fan of the company, but I will use their service well ahead of wanting to call up a cab. So they're creating a market as much as they are impacting an existing market.
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#424 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 15 March 2017 - 02:13 PM

In Houston, meanwhile, there are drivers commuting several few hours to Austin so they can avoid working with Uber. Instead, they are opting to drive for smaller, ride-hailing companies that leave them with $100 or even $200 more at the end of each day than they would get with Uber, according to CNNMoney last week.

 

Uber and Lyft, another large ride-hailing company, decided to leave the Austin market last May because city officials there wanted their drivers to be fingerprinted. Their departure led to the flourishing of new and local apps such as Ride Austin and Fasten.

 

In Houston, Uber drivers get 87 cents a mile, a figure that has dropped in recent years, said CNNMoney, which profiled one woman who got into financial trouble when Uber lowered its prices and changed its commission split.

 

She eventually discovered that making the three hour trek from Houston to Austin was worth the trouble of sleeping in her car, which she would park “in an Austin Wal-Mart or apartment complex” every night from Thursday to Sunday. She now splits an apartment in Houston with three other drivers who also travel to Austin because they can earn more there than driving for Uber in Houston.

 

It’s typical for a company like Uber to court drivers with generous rates until it is the dominant player, said Sumeet Gulati, a UBC professor of environmental and resource economics, who has researched these ride-hailing companies.

 

- See more at: http://www.timescolo...T.UHYsFuMa.dpuf


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#425 spanky123

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Posted 15 March 2017 - 02:22 PM

^ And as I have said before, what Uber and the other sharing economy players are doing is creating a market for on-demand labour to match the need for on-demand services. This labour is exempt from any labour protection laws, benefits or minimum wage and will have the effect of driving to zero the wage costs in the sectors that they service. If getting a ride from downtown to the airport costs $10 because that is the cheapest someone is willing to drive for then I guess that works. What gets me is that the left are the biggest supporters on these services. 


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#426 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 15 March 2017 - 02:25 PM

Hey, how many good workers can you hire for $15/hr.?  Almost none.  The minimum wage is not the bar these companies go for.


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#427 Mike K.

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Posted 15 March 2017 - 02:47 PM

"...there are drivers commuting several few hours to Austin..."

Several few? Sounds like a long time.

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#428 jonny

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Posted 15 March 2017 - 03:53 PM

Commuting from Houston to Austin? I don't buy it. That's like a 3 hour drive.

#429 Jason-L

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Posted 16 March 2017 - 06:55 AM

Commuting from Houston to Austin? I don't buy it. That's like a 3 hour drive.

Not that unreasonable, once you're not on the island.  Here, we consider a drive to Duncan to be a daytrip, but over the Rockies, where the roads are flat and straight, 3 hours is acceptable.



#430 spanky123

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Posted 16 March 2017 - 07:02 AM

Commuting from Houston to Austin? I don't buy it. That's like a 3 hour drive.

 

I read that she drove from Houston to Austin and then slept in her vehicle for at least a few days.



#431 jonny

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Posted 16 March 2017 - 08:25 AM

Not that unreasonable, once you're not on the island.  Here, we consider a drive to Duncan to be a daytrip, but over the Rockies, where the roads are flat and straight, 3 hours is acceptable.

 

It's unreasonable from an economic standpoint if you value your time at all!

 

I read that she drove from Houston to Austin and then slept in her vehicle for at least a few days.

 

She really should find a better job then!

 

Actually, she should just move to Austin, which is about 1,000 times nicer than Houston.


Edited by jonny, 16 March 2017 - 08:26 AM.


#432 LeoVictoria

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Posted 16 March 2017 - 11:13 AM

I read that she drove from Houston to Austin and then slept in her vehicle for at least a few days.

 

What was that point about Uber cars being nicer and smelling better than taxis?  Yeah I'm not so sure about that.   



#433 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 19 March 2017 - 07:12 PM

Jeff Jones, president of the embattled ride-hailing company Uber, has resigned just six months after taking the job, the company confirmed Sunday.

In a brief statement, Uber didn't say why Jones left. "We want to thank Jeff for his six months at the company and wish him all the best," it said.

 

https://townhall.com...on-job-n2301301


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#434 Jason-L

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Posted 19 March 2017 - 08:25 PM

Wonder if this had anything to do with it?

 

"A judge in Washington State has rejected Uber’s attempt to overturn a Seattle ordinance that gives its drivers the right to unionize, potentially opening the door for higher rates and labor costs. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Teamsters labor union intends to begin working to organize drivers soon."

 

http://fortune.com/2...n-rule-seattle/

 

(WARNING: ANNOYING VIDEO PLAYS ON ARTICLE)

 

I mean, given their model relies on exploiting the drivers, and even then they can't turn a profit, it can't be good for their model if drivers band together and try to get paid a living wage.

And the whole "stealing self-driving tech" from Google thing can't be good, since that might stall their efforts to eliminate the driver entirely.


Edited by Jason-L, 19 March 2017 - 08:27 PM.


#435 Mike K.

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Posted 20 March 2017 - 06:44 AM

All things being equal, Uber may have the notoriety, but Lyft is the company that drivers choose over the former for various reasons.

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#436 spanky123

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Posted 20 March 2017 - 09:33 AM

All things being equal, Uber may have the notoriety, but Lyft is the company that drivers choose over the former for various reasons.

 

Drivers prefer Lyft because Lyft pays them a greater percentage of the pie. The use Uber however because Uber has 90% of the market share.



#437 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 12:47 PM

5: Tax ride-sharing services the same as cabbies

Ottawa is pledging to level the playing field of tax treatment of ride-sharing services and the traditional taxi industry, ensuring Uber drivers and the like are subject to the same GST & HST rates as cab drivers.

 

 

http://www.bnn.ca/8-...budget-1.703465


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<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#438 lanforod

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Posted 26 March 2017 - 09:51 PM

Other than GST, isn't it up to the provinces, not Ottawa?



#439 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 27 March 2017 - 06:07 AM

Other than GST, isn't it up to the provinces, not Ottawa?

 

Probably.  But this was just a thing to stick in the budget that will catch the eye of hispters.


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#440 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 09 April 2017 - 08:41 AM

B.C.'s Passenger Transportation Board has approved 175 additional taxi licences for Vancouver, which the province says will help meet demand for hired rides in the city. 

 

However, the municipal government would need to lift its moratorium on new licenses, which extends to this fall as the city waits on a provincial review to see how B.C.'s taxi industry can coexist with ride-sharing applications like Uber.

 

The new licenses announced Friday include 26 wheelchair accessible taxis.

 

 

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...4062731?cmp=rss


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

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