Current cost of a Cocktail at the new Q Lounge in the Empress Hotel $16 - $29. Cost of a cab ride in a liscenced, insured, legal and supervised inspected human dispatched taxi within environs of City of Victoria, Esqimalt, Oak Bay and Saanich $5 - 10 - $15. Lost and Found, Local Office & Dispatch Help included. Seems fair. There's even apps at the app store.
See this is the kind of attitude that is old and tiring. "Look, we even have apps!".
That's the wrong way to go about it. Apps are great, but where are all the other things that are making Uber stand out?
Standard live tracking for every call. No shows are a problem with taxis sometimes.
Electronic destination entering - how often have you had to repeat and describe where you are going to a cabbie? Ride hailing apps deal with that - cab apps could deal with that, but hailing off the street needs a solution for that.
Driver information shown in app.
Cost competition.
Driver ratings - incentive for drivers to be pleasant and actually focus on customer service. Driver's don't see their rating from clients until they put a client rating in.
Client ratings - incentive for clients to behave as well. Client's don't see their rating for drivers until they put a driver rating in.
Clean cars - inspected once a year isn't good enough - that's just for mechanical issues. Cars should be cleaned inside and out - probably spot clean and dustbuster every day quickly, and a full vacuum, wipe and car wash once a week at minimum.
Tipping - Uber specifically tells clients there is no need to tip; cabbies get prickly if they are not tipped. Lyft allows tipping, but not mandatory.
Speed - many studies have been done on this. Ride-sharing companies are faster - primarily because pickup is considerably faster. The exception is likely going from the airport to someone, just because there is a line of cabs waiting.
Premium option - UberBlack is simple to get instead of a standard Uber; much more competitive than other 'limo' or 'towncar' type services.
There are other issues with cabs here such as the old 'credit card machine isn't working' crap; which isn't an issue with Uber, as your CC is in the app already.
Uber/Lyft have their own issues, which can be addressed by proper provincial regulation (which should have been done years ago!)
Safety - eg. Uber is known for doing their best to shift responsibility off them and onto the passengers and drivers.
Accessibility - little/no access to wheelchair accessibility, for example.