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SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

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Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#81

Post by dabeeeenster »

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…

As a Londoner I and most of my friends hate black cabs. The drivers hate going more than 2 miles out of the centre of town, the cabs spew out diesel and the fares at night are 4x uber.

The drivers have the knowledge admittedly but it is not enough. I give them 5 years. Max.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#82

Post by k-mcgrady »

kbatten wrote: post #77
rhino369 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>> "drivers took my word over the GPS every single time when I gave directions"

So wouldn't a driver knowledgable of the city streets that you don't ever have to give directions to be better?

I use Uber all the time but I find that regular taxi drivers are better in traffic as they tend to know ways around it the GPS doesn't provide. I also regularly get GPS focussed drivers taking 1 turn too early and driving in a circle to get back to where they started to make the correct turn (twice this week already). I still prefer Uber overall but dismissal of street knowledge because GPS is 'better/more accurate' doesn't gel with my experience at all.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#83

Post by mempko »

Grishnakh wrote: post #4

Too bad, so sad... If they hadn't allowed their service to get so horrible, with nasty old cars, drivers that don't speak English and drive around in circles to increase fares, drivers claiming their card readers are "broken" so you have to pay cash, taking an hour to show up when called, passing by black people, etc., then this wouldn't be happening. From the article: "Cab drivers, on the other hand, maintain that t…

I used to fly to SF from Chicago often. I was surprised by how poor the quality of the taxi's were in SF vs Chicago. I understood then why Uber started there. My taxi experiences in Chicago were far better than SF and I suspect a company like Uber would not have started in Chicago precisely because the cabs are better here. Also of course public transportation.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#84

Post by k-mcgrady »

Larrikin wrote: post #50
daeatenone wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one thing that cabs do have going for them is no surge pricing. During peak weekend hours where surge pricing is 2x+ on both Uber and Lyft, cab fares stay the same. That's the only time I find myself taking a cab.

In Tokyo, taxis all suddenly become way more expensive after last train.

Same anywhere I've lived in the UK. After a certain time and on special occasions fares are 1.5x.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#85

Post by grobbles »

Grishnakh wrote: post #29
daeatenone wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one thing that cabs do have going for them is no surge pricing. During peak weekend hours where surge pricing is 2x+ on both Uber and Lyft, cab fares stay the same. That's the only time I find myself taking a cab.

The downside to that, which I've read many people complain about, is that during those peak times, you simply can't get a cab . With a constrained supply and fixed pricing, demand outstrips supply and then you may or may not be lucky enough to get a ride. That's the whole reason they have surge pricing: to get more drivers out during those times to handle the load. Cab drivers have little incentive to bother driving…

That's the whole reason they have surge pricing: to get more drivers out during those times to handle the load.

As with all such systems, it is eminently gamed by the participants. Uber drivers intentionally stay offline in the driver app, wait until surge areas appear on the rider app, race to the surge area and the logs into the driver app. While it is responding to a "shortage", it's an entirely artificial shortage not unlike the Enron debacle in California.

Consider the recent case of the guy in Edmonton with the one hour, $1100 ride. Would anyone seriously argue that only one driver was willing to provide such a ride for $1100? How about for $500? $250? (Add that Alberta current has a serious employment issue as well) Any arguments about supply/demand are rendering absurd by that simple example.

(by default my posts are dead so this is for the edification of the showdead few)

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#86

Post by gotchange »

bobby_9x wrote: post #56
Grishnakh wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's not a union, that's a cartel. A union is an organization of labor , not company owners. And it's the cab owners who have the deal with the government.

You are just mincing words to make it seem like unions aren't the bad guy here. The auto unions, for instance, are larger than most big corporations and many of the leaders get paid out millions of dollars in bonuses every year. Read the first line of this article: https://news.vice.com/article/taxi-drivers-are-trying-to-tak... "Taxi unions in cities such as Boston, Denver, New York, and San Francisco are not pleased…

I think those unions resemble more trade associations and not labor unions as they lobby and fight for the owners of cab companies and not the drivers as your comment suggested.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#87

Post by gotrecruit »

Larrikin wrote: post #50
daeatenone wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one thing that cabs do have going for them is no surge pricing. During peak weekend hours where surge pricing is 2x+ on both Uber and Lyft, cab fares stay the same. That's the only time I find myself taking a cab.

In Tokyo, taxis all suddenly become way more expensive after last train.

for better or for worse, that's pure capitalism right there. as demand goes up, either supply will go up or price will.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#88

Post by seanp2k2 »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #82
kbatten wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>> "drivers took my word over the GPS every single time when I gave directions" So wouldn't a driver knowledgable of the city streets that you don't ever have to give directions to be better? I use Uber all the time but I find that regular taxi drivers are better in traffic as they tend to know ways around it the GPS doesn't provide. I also regularly get GPS focussed drivers taking 1 turn too early and driving in a c…

It'll be super funny when self-driving cars are seen following the at-times-ridiculous GPS directions. For the foreseeable future, I wouldn't want to be in a car without a steering wheel.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#89

Post by bobby_9x »

bobby_9x wrote: post #17

Uber/Lyft are very interesting. The main reason cabs are so terrible is because the unions have a complete stranglehold on the industry, which means pretty much no advancement in technology and monopolistic pricing. They both are basically going against everything the unions stand for by not having regular wages or benefits. Edit: Admitting you're wrong is not something most people here on HN can do. Instead, they do…

Edit: I think I'm done commenting about this. I thought HN was supposed to be about expressing new ideas, but I was wrong. It's an echo chamber and not even close to being open or free.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#90

Post by dannyr »

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.

SF taxi? I barely remember since it's hard to find one.

I tried riding a taxi once and the driver was rude and didn't want to do multiple dropoffs so we got out right away.

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