SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy • Hacker News Board

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#71

Post by fweespeech » Wed, Jan 06, 2016, 10:51 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #68

fweespeech wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lack of driver health insurance, lack of benefits, lack of liability from crashes, reduced compliance costs via skirting local regulations [e.g. Background checks for Uber/Lyft are cheaper than the more thorough checks in some municipalities] http://www.texastribune.org/2015/10/07/background-checks-cen... http://www.cnet.com/news/ubers-background-checks-dont-catch-...

The traditional taxi business in the US hasn't exactly been the model of regulatory compliance. Regulatory capture on the other hand...

I never said they were perfect but pretty much every single person who defends Uber falsely claims that Uber is complying and/or not engaging in activity that is shady.

And when it comes to things like insurance and background checks, Uber is worse than the Taxi companies in many areas. [e.g. Houston ]

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#72

Post by vermontdevil » Wed, Jan 06, 2016, 10:51 PM UTC

kw71 wrote: post #5

What's it like to ride in a SF taxi? I'm not a frequent taxi user, but last time I rode in an NYC cab, the partition made me feel like I was going to jail and the advertising screen made me feel like I was riding public transportation. No doubt the normal private cars are more comfortable.

Here's my problem with cabs - the drivers. Many of the are downright nasty.

I'm deaf and I always dread taking the cab. I write down the location prior to getting in but I am not sure if the driver can read English. If not, then I try my best to explain where I want to go. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I've been kicked out of cabs right after being picked up and the driver learned who I am. They just didn't want to deal with me. It's embarrassing and tough to swallow at times.

A few drivers are very nice and personable and gave me no problems and took me where I needed to go as well as not doing the 'long tour'.

When Uber came out - it was a godsend! Everything is so easy and transparent. I do not have to sit in the cab and watch continuously and make sure I am going the right direction and get off at the right place. I can finally relax while riding.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#73

Post by amorphid » Wed, Jan 06, 2016, 10:51 PM UTC

Speaking only for myself...

The process of calling a toll free number for a SF cab sucks. Often get a busy signal. Most of the time they are slow to respond. Some times they never show up at all. Basically, I can't count on them to be timely.

Uber (and formerly Sidecar) just shows up in a few minutes and takes me where I wanna go.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#74

Post by acdha » Wed, Jan 06, 2016, 10:53 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #49

RickS wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can appreciate both sides of this. There are lots of times that uber's maps will ignore an alley that would prevent having to circle the block, or will try to send a driver on the highway for one exit when going between 4th and 9th, which is a horrible idea. There's a particular brand of driving that feels like "Only barely keeping it together because of the GPS" that's a little uncomfortable. A confident driver wi…

You can probably buy GPS data for travel between any two given locations that will indicate the most popular routes and how long they took - from cellphone companies, Google and the like? Do driver routing companies (deliveries, taxis and such) do this to discover implied optimal routes?

In theory this is possible. In practice, it's clearly not commonly done as Apple, Google, etc. will merrily send you into notorious traffic jams, unprotected turns against heavy traffic, etc. even in major cities will millions of users.

It seems like Google might be getting slightly better now that they're pulling in Waze but I have seen little reason to believe that this is at all widespread.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#75

Post by theworstshill » Wed, Jan 06, 2016, 10:54 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #10

mahouse wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think that's not much, think of the difference in taxes between the US and northern Europe.

So your business is workable because it evades taxes? What is this, Russia?

Jokes on you, taxes in Russia are a flat 10% last I heard.

Edit: why do you think its that small? Yes, because noone paid it when it was larger.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#76

Post by LeoPanthera » Wed, Jan 06, 2016, 10:56 PM UTC

muaddirac wrote: post #46

kw71 wrote: post #5

What's it like to ride in a SF taxi? I'm not a frequent taxi user, but last time I rode in an NYC cab, the partition made me feel like I was going to jail and the advertising screen made me feel like I was riding public transportation. No doubt the normal private cars are more comfortable.

Where I live there is a minimum fare of $75 imposed on Uber cars leaving from the airport. I took an Uber there and had a great, simple experience ($34 fare) but had to take a taxi back when returning from my trip. The cab was falling apart. One of the doors didn't open from the inside. The axles made horrible, periodic thunking sounds (I'd guess the CV joints but am no car expert). The engine light, the wheel stabil…

Travel to the car rental center and have Uber pick you up there to avoid the fee. This also works at airports that outright ban Uber.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#77

Post by kbatten » Wed, Jan 06, 2016, 10:58 PM UTC

rhino369 wrote: post #60

mayank wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who cares about knowledge of city streets? Funny story: for a while in SF, the taxi union (?) was running ads that were thinly veiled attacks on Uber/Lyft. One of them showed a smiling taxi driver with the caption "would you rather have a driver who knows the city by heart or by GPS?" I found it particularly hilarious because the answer, for me at least, is GPS with live traffic information. Just another example of…

GPS still doesn't beat a good driver 9 out of 10 times for city driving. Uber drives consistently miss exits, head down clearly mistaken paths created by GPS errors, sit there staring at the GPS rather than the road I uber to work everyday and 90% of the time the uber driver blindly follows GPS through an alley that isn't really meant for traffic, ignoring the much simpler and faster route that whatever GPS uber uses…

I'm not going to contest your experience because my experience with uber in the city was for tourism/getting home after a night of partying, not work. In my experience uber drivers took my word over the GPS every single time when I gave directions. I know that the driver can affect my rating like I can theirs so its in all our best interest to have a good ride.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#78

Post by bobby_9x » Wed, Jan 06, 2016, 10:58 PM UTC

function_seven wrote: post #55

bobby_9x wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"but because it's a cartel, and it's given that power by the government because of the issuance of licenses (called "medallions") which ensure a limited supply of cabs, artificially restricting competition." Right, the unions. It's not a corporation that is artificially restriction competition, it's the unions. These unions have deals with the government. The same thing happens in the auto industry.

Your use of "unions" causes the reader to assume you mean "labor unions", which is why your original comment is gray.

My original comment is gray because most people don't want to admit that unions cause inefficiency and bloat.

I think people on HN are smarter than that.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#79

Post by newman314 » Wed, Jan 06, 2016, 11:00 PM UTC

cryptoz wrote: post #35

santaclaus wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Ars Technica readership seem to loathe Uber.

To be fair, there are plenty of legitimate reasons to hate Uber: they are cheaters with no ethics [1], the executives are blatantly misogynistic [2], they consider rape a cost of doing business, as they consider that rapid expansion to India was more important than doing background checks on drivers [3], and of course I could go on, but I'll leave it there. [1] http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/11/technology/uber-fake-rid…

Also, they keep your trip data forever with no way to opt out of data collection.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#80

Post by Grishnakh » Wed, Jan 06, 2016, 11:00 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #70

Grishnakh wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you think we should shut down the oil companies and agriculture companies and all the large banks?

> oil companies Yes. They've known about their products causing climate change for decades. They should be liquidated. > agriculture companies Some, not all. > and all the large banks Only the ones that are "too big to fail" or those engaged in illegal activities.

Sounds all good to me, but good luck getting Congress to go along with that.