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Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

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Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#111

Post by linkregister »

furioussloth wrote: post #102
linkregister wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure Lyft, which is just about as good as Uber for taking ordinary trips, will moderate that. Lyft isn't going anywhere; their cash reserves are large. Also public transit, car rentals, etc.

and who do you think is paying for your cheap Lyft trips? Does not matter which ride sharing company you use right now. It is all VC money. Stop the whole Lyft has higher ethical moral ground BS. It is all about capitalism and supply demand.

Supposedly Lyft is on its way to profitability [1]. Twitter is still not yet profitable, but it shouldn't stop me from using the service if I find it useful.

> and who do you think is paying for your cheap Lyft trips?

Mostly my own contribution, and partially VC money.

1. http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/12/pipsqueak-lyft-could-reach-pr...

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#113

Post by TheLongerCon »

incongruity wrote: post #49
brianwawok wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as Lyft is around, they can't.

You're right. There are no markets in which a few dominant players capture significant profits because there are only a few dominant players who exploit barriers to entry or network effects to stay on top... Except pharma, telecom, energy, airlines and one or two others...

The barriers to entry with ride sharing are absurdly lower than anything else on that list. The network effect is pretty weak, because it doesn't cost consumers/drive more time or energy to keep multiple apps on their phone.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#114

Post by imron »

ghaff wrote: post #106
imron wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Public transit and car rentals are a poor substitute for a taxi service.

I must be weird. I travel over 100 days a year. I do a lot of walking, sometimes rent cars, take public transportation, etc. I take taxis etc. relatively rarely.

Each of those options is perfectly fine for transportation if you planned and or intended to use them, what I mean is that whenever I've used a taxi or taxi-like service, car rental and/or public transportation would not have been a valid substitute or even possible.

Car rental because you have to pick up the car and later drop it off and the costs are significantly higher than a taxi, and public transportation because it's slower, more crowded (therefore more difficult with luggage) and doesn't always go directly where you want to go.

On a city-wide scale you can't expect car rentals and public transportation to be a valid replacement for a taxi/taxi-like service.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#115

Post by ClassyJacket »

bitJericho wrote: post #28
TY wrote: post #6

Anectodal evidence from my trip to Chicago last week. The same trip cost me twice as much when I took a taxi vs Lyft. So guess what I'm going to take the next time...

In a taxi your ride was insured if the driver got in an accident. Your cabbie is certified, and less likely to be crazy. Also half your lyft/uber ride is paid by a VC.

I feel much more secure in an Uber where I can rate and report the driver versus a taxi where they can basically do whatever they want.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#116

Post by monksy »

basseq wrote: post #4
basseq wrote: post #3

I'm left wondering... so what? The "personal transportation" market has massively changed. Whether it's for the better or worse simply doesn't matter . Veteran Chicago cabbie John Aikins,67, who is facing foreclosure on two medallions for which he owes more than $330,0000, said he has little hope that the industry can be saved. "It feels like the city is just watching us collapse," Aikins said. "Right now, there are…

Second thought: The medallions give "the exclusive right to pick up passengers who hail them on the street". But that's just happening as much. But even "the elderly" are likely not going outside (in Chicago) and sticking their hand out. They're being dispatched, where you wouldn't need a medallion in the first place (right?).

> "the elderly"

They are. There are many active elderly people in Chicago.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#117

Post by eldavido »

acchow wrote: post #108
tstactplsignore wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Whether it's for the better or worse simply doesn't matter Yikes- I have only a little sympathy for the taxi industry, but it is very scary that you do not believe we should be concerned with whether market forces improve society or not. I think it is extremely important to the vast majority of people that any enormous change in transportation occurs for the benefit of society - the ideology that capitalism is an en…

> I think it is extremely important to the vast majority of people that any enormous change in transportation occurs for the benefit of society There's a lot of people who would disagree with you. They are called libertarians. What matters first and foremost is freedom - individual freedoms should not be overridden for the sake of improving society.

Well not just that, but also, Uber and Lyft are moving a lot of people around, cheaply, all while providing income for drivers.

All that's going on here is that cabbies made a bad investment and are losing. Sorry, but if you're tying up 90% of your wealth in a single asset, the value of which is 100% dependent on fickle regulation, and you didn't see this coming a few years ago, I don't have much sympathy. No prudent financial adviser would recommend this, and further, if you were so exposed, you should've been paying attention to what's happened in the industry over the past, I don't know, 8 years?

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#118

Post by mhh__ »

jlebar wrote: post #99
thephyber wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> have some sympathy for the cab drivers who put their life savings in medallions Nope. Nope nope nope nope nope. They were speculators in a bubble market. It didn't matter what percentage of their life savings they used. If you feel sorry for someone who purchased a $300k taxi medallion which had an intrinsic value (the total value a medallion can be used for rental to taxi drivers over X years) which is far less, y…

> If you feel sorry for someone who purchased a $300k taxi medallion which had an intrinsic value [...] which is far less, you are enabling such behavior. Dude. Feeling sorry for someone else makes you a human, not an enabler.

This nearly makes me think of Al Franken's Supply Side Jesus.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#119

Post by monksy »

shostack wrote: post #56
jostmey wrote: post #10

I used to live in Chicago. The city taxi service was horrible--the drivers were grumpy and sketchy. They would always try to take the expensive way around. I hated the taxi service so much that to get around the airport restrictions I would ride the train out to the first stop so I could order an Uber ride.

I lived in Chicago for most of my life until somewhat recently. Things I observed during that time: - A driver stating, seemingly out of nowhere to my friend and I, "we should just take all of the gays out back and shoot them" - Multiple times scheduling a morning pickup for a flight, not having it arrive, and being told by the uncaring operator the alternative was to wait so long I'd miss my flight, or gamble with t…

> - A cab driver who picked me up at my home to go to the airport who then kicked me out part way there because I was on the phone with my mother and he refused to turn down his radio when I requested (which is in the friggin 'Passenger's Bill of Rights' posted in the back of the cab). He then loudly threatened me with physical violence once I exited the vehicle. I ended up asking the cab company to not fire him once I complained because I was so scared that he was unhinged, and the last thing I wanted was an unemployed, unhinged angry guy knowing where my wife and I lived

I wonder how that would go since CCW permits are legal now.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#120

Post by monksy »

brightball wrote: post #29
TY wrote: post #6

Anectodal evidence from my trip to Chicago last week. The same trip cost me twice as much when I took a taxi vs Lyft. So guess what I'm going to take the next time...

Last time I was in Chicago my hotel got me a taxi to the airport. I remember it being absurdly expensive...but on top of it that driver decided it was a good time to tell me about all of his sexual exploits and drug use in his down time. I don't often leave negative reviews...but that ride warranted a negative review.

At least it didn't stink of BO, the driver was aggressive in traffic, didn't stay on the phone the whole time, and/or blast the radio the whole time. It's literally he small things with cabs.
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