Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

India considers commissions cap for Uber, Ola, unsettling industry

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 89 posts

Re: India considers commissions cap for Uber, Ola, unsettling industry

#61

Post by thrwe4234safd »

pritambaral wrote: post #58
thrwe4234safd wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Natives would never pay more than a dollar or two for a short ride, and never more than 10-20% more than the “fair” value. It’s even better in places like Mumbai, where everyone uses a standard meter. Please. Autowallahs have their own versions of "surge pricing", which is even more frustrating and non-transparent. Night time ? Triple rate. Going to a residential area ? Double rate, because the vehicle need to retu…

Not in Mumbai. Source: I'm a resident.

Ah Mumbai, the place where taxis wait under the noses of policemen at the domestic arrival gate, only so that they can pick up unsuspecting idiots and then fleece them of 5-10000 Rs for the privilege of taking them to the International departure gate (or for a lower fee after just 100 m).

Little wonder everyone is advised to use prepaid taxis in India. I've been told by various sources that this the development of the petty "anti-capitalist" politics that dominated India since its supposed independence.

Re: India considers commissions cap for Uber, Ola, unsettling industry

#62

Post by TheCoelacanth »

sumgame wrote: post #11

If you do the math in India, the drivers were basically not earning any money last year. They spend about 30% of their income of debt. Another 30-40% on fuel and maintenance cost. Then 20% charged by Ola and Uber. There’s other miscellaneous fees that creep up plus insurance every year which atleast takes another 10%. So they take home around 10%. That 10% has to pay for food, rent, children’s education, etc. The arg…

Uber is the world's largest perpetrator of predatory pricing. They are practically begging for government regulation.

Re: India considers commissions cap for Uber, Ola, unsettling industry

#63

Post by TheCoelacanth »

foogazi wrote: post #5

Just experienced what the lack of app based surge pricing does. After exiting a major sporting event I expected the streets to be swarmed by taxis - easy money for them But there was no incentive, nothing to tell the city’s drivers to show up en-masse. They would just earn the same city base fare Thousands of people either had to walk or wait in line at the crowded metro station

What does that have to do with this? Capping Uber's commission to 10% wouldn't prevent surge pricing, it would just mean that at least 90% of the extra fare during surge pricing would have to go to the driver.

That would increase the incentive for drivers because Uber wouldn't be able to take a larger cut during surge pricing.

Re: India considers commissions cap for Uber, Ola, unsettling industry

#64

Post by looping__lui »

naruvimama wrote: post #59
looping__lui wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a pretty arrogant and very Indian thing to say. 1) It’s not tourists or foreigners taking advantage of other Indians - it is Indians. Indian people disrespect and mistreat each other to an extend I have never seen anywhere else in the world. 2) It is not tourists who set the prices for taxi meters - it’s the Indian cities or governments; yet it is Indian cab drivers who often believe they stand above the Law…

I am an Indian living in Europe. The supermarkets here charge you the maximum you would be willing to pay, even if it meant half the products will be thrown out in the dumpster, which has itself started "dumpster diving" as a culture. The prices in India is generally insanely low, because the tax payers subsidise it for the poor or the poor themselves take a hit at the margin because the consumers are simply too poor…

Europe has among the lowest food prices in the developed world. If you spend 3-5 EUR on ingredients you get a really healthy meal... Agricultural products are usually taxed below 10% and the agricultural sector is heavily subsidized; I would suspect that farmers in India live closer to the poverty line than in Europe - maybe that explains part of the differences for prices of raw materials; supply chain certainly is another: it’s true if everything is bought as locally produced the costs might be lower because no transportation, cooling etc. is needed... But kindly also do not forget food safety: I never had food poisoning in Europe - India is a whole different story... In Europe, drinking water comes out of the tap for free, electricity is super reliable and veeery cheap... Farmers in Europe do not have a history of committing suicide at scale...

Dumpster diving is not a big thing and it is simply incorrect that half the products are thrown away... People in Europe are generally very sensitive to food waste and the infrastructure we put in place to keep it fresh is pretty decent.

Democracy in Europe (and other places) decided that it is justified to “take money disproportionally from society” because “majority vote justifies that 20% of population need to pay for 80% of costs”. I may not like this aspect of democracy (e.g., majority gives always a justification over whatever you want to do) but well...

Indians might want to understand that Europe see taxes as a way to create a liveable and fair society. That the need and desire of the individual sometimes is not as important as “the greater good”.

In India, the rich are certainly not subsidizing the poor. If I am not mistaken, your “elite” keeps 2x India’s GDP hidden away in Switzerland still? The Swiss offered help - but your government refused and felt the money better stays where it is.

The society you see in India is the society Indians created. I would not trade it for Europe ever.

Re: India considers commissions cap for Uber, Ola, unsettling industry

#65

Post by [deleted] »

thrwe4234safd wrote: post #46
grwthckrmstr wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunate truth. For those who say drivers can just quit, try quitting your job when you are an unskilled labourer from a low income background without any significant savings, burdened with loans, you are the only income earner in your family of 4-5 and you have to cover food, rent, kid's education etc. Please, have some empathy.

Plus, these people have likely had to sell off inherited agricultural land in pursuit of the glamourous life promised by the taxi aggregators. I imagine once all this money-printing madness (VC money is often from places with lots of "funny money") gets over a lot of people will move back to their rural lives - which I've to say has a lot more quality compared to the city (modulo the power cuts/sanitation/ general la…

[deleted]

Re: India considers commissions cap for Uber, Ola, unsettling industry

#67

Post by badestrand »

say_it_as_it_is wrote: post #28

This is how regulators wind up securing established companies. Capping commission rates favors Uber because Uber already has the infrastructure and resources at its disposal so that it may afford earning less, cutting head count as necessary, where as entrepreneurs who want to compete with Uber don't. They have many more mountains to climb and less opportunity once they've reached the market. India is essentially pla…

It's a business with a very low barrier of entry. Same like food order platforms, both will have new players enter the market. If anything, the cap is dangerous for Uber as they have very high fixed operating costs, compared to a startup.

Re: India considers commissions cap for Uber, Ola, unsettling industry

#68

Post by dpiers »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #7
foogazi wrote: post #5

Just experienced what the lack of app based surge pricing does. After exiting a major sporting event I expected the streets to be swarmed by taxis - easy money for them But there was no incentive, nothing to tell the city’s drivers to show up en-masse. They would just earn the same city base fare Thousands of people either had to walk or wait in line at the crowded metro station

I'm guessing the regular people in the city were very happy that they didn't experience sudden shortage of taxis, coupled with an extreme surge in price. Meanwhile, the spectators from the sport event were incentivized to choose the more efficient means of transport. Looking at it from the systems level, I'm not at all convinced that when a mass event spikes the demand for taxis, having drivers go to that event chasi…

That’s not exactly how it works. The primary function of surge isn’t to redistribute a fixed pool of drivers - it’s to incentivize additional drivers to go online in an area with excess demand. For example, it used to be that surge would spike insanely high on big days like Halloween and New Years Eve because demand was drastically higher than supply. Once drivers saw other people making 8-10x surge, more people started signing on at these peak times and average surge went down.

Re: India considers commissions cap for Uber, Ola, unsettling industry

#69

Post by hgoel »

yipbub wrote: post #29
looping__lui wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a pretty arrogant and very Indian thing to say. 1) It’s not tourists or foreigners taking advantage of other Indians - it is Indians. Indian people disrespect and mistreat each other to an extend I have never seen anywhere else in the world. 2) It is not tourists who set the prices for taxi meters - it’s the Indian cities or governments; yet it is Indian cab drivers who often believe they stand above the Law…

It's called the "I never bothered to learn the actual fare from a local friend" tax. I don't agree with it, but it's pretty trivial to get around. It's definitely not exclusive to Indians. “taking advantage of foreigners is ok because they have the money” is not something most people believe. There is a large population that lives below the poverty line and will overcharge anyone who can and will take it. Yes, we hav…

You don't speak for me or most Indians when you claim that fleecing is okay because we were a colony 70+ years ago. Have some self-respect.

Most of the people who participated in that AND most of those who were affected by it are old and/or dead. Where we are right now is entirely on us, and even if it weren't, the people in the UK owe us nothing.

Post reply on HN