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Uber to pay $272M to Australian taxi operators

smh.com.au

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Re: Uber to pay $272M to Australian taxi operators

#121

Post by DeusExMachina »

tianqi wrote: post #71

This is like compensating purse snatchers because the promotion of mobile payments reduces their income. Sydney's taxi is a shame to this wonderful city. I still remember when I first just arrived in Sydney, I took a taxi from the airport to Waterloo and was charged $95, which made me fearful of Sydney prices. It took me time to realise that I had just run into a scam and that the ride should have cost just $20+. Now…

Isn't a scam not an official taxi, though?

I don't know the situation in Sydney, but where I usually travel, it's the unlicensed taxis that overcharge and scam people, i.e., not the real taxis.

Licensed taxi companies charge standard fares.

Re: Uber to pay $272M to Australian taxi operators

#122

Post by em-bee »

mihaic wrote: post #45
bouncycastle wrote: post #32

they didn't break the law. Otherwise, if your boss asked you to drive their friend to the airport, then that would be illegal.

In many places it is illegal to ask someone to drive if that's not their explicit job. Either way, not sure how you can equate asking something of an employee and asking the same from a gig worker. Uber has broken the law in plenty of places, and have always tried to wing it.

i doubt it's illegal to ask, but more like it is legal to refuse.

the main problem is that it's unclear who pays when there is an accident.

Re: Uber to pay $272M to Australian taxi operators

#123

Post by someuser2345 »

askl wrote: post #114
tianqi wrote: post #71

This is like compensating purse snatchers because the promotion of mobile payments reduces their income. Sydney's taxi is a shame to this wonderful city. I still remember when I first just arrived in Sydney, I took a taxi from the airport to Waterloo and was charged $95, which made me fearful of Sydney prices. It took me time to realise that I had just run into a scam and that the ride should have cost just $20+. Now…

Why would you even use a taxi for that? There seems to be a decent public transit connection. It costs $2.90 for that trip.

If it's your first time in a new city, you probably just want to get to your hotel as fast as possible instead of learning the transit system.

Re: Uber to pay $272M to Australian taxi operators

#124

Post by jncfhnb »

alistairSH wrote: post #105
jncfhnb wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they’re threatening

I guess it depends on the location. I had a car service pull this on my at Denver International a few years ago. He wasn't asking for more than the flat-fee from downtown to the airport, so I hit the ATM and gave him the cash. But if I had been in a hurry, he would have been SOL, I would have gone straight to security and not given it a second thought.

Damn, I guess you’re hypothetically really resilient to that sort of thing

Re: Uber to pay $272M to Australian taxi operators

#125

Post by dorkwood »

tianqi wrote: post #71

This is like compensating purse snatchers because the promotion of mobile payments reduces their income. Sydney's taxi is a shame to this wonderful city. I still remember when I first just arrived in Sydney, I took a taxi from the airport to Waterloo and was charged $95, which made me fearful of Sydney prices. It took me time to realise that I had just run into a scam and that the ride should have cost just $20+. Now…

The last taxi I ever took in Sydney drove twice the distance he needed to so he could charge me a higher fee. And that wasn't the first time something like that had happened. I've now been using Uber for years and I'm yet to be so blatantly scammed.

Re: Uber to pay $272M to Australian taxi operators

#126

Post by askl »

someuser2345 wrote: post #123
askl wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you even use a taxi for that? There seems to be a decent public transit connection. It costs $2.90 for that trip.

If it's your first time in a new city, you probably just want to get to your hotel as fast as possible instead of learning the transit system.

I've only traveled in Europe and Asia so far but this never looked like an issue to me.

Also I'd also use the transit system for the following days in the city, so have to learn about it anyways. (Not that there's really anything to learn)

Re: Uber to pay $272M to Australian taxi operators

#127

Post by Scoundreller »

rchaud wrote: post #107
tensor wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Toronto is notorious for this too. Either the credit card machine is broken and you must pay too much cash, or the credit card machine steals your card number, or you are refused a ride because it’s not far enough. Even travelling through Europe I’ve been refused a ride because it was too short, and got overcharged by 2-3x once. I’d use Uber at this point even if it’s more expensive than a taxi.

I'm in Toronto and never experienced any of this. Even before Uber, if a drivers' credit card machine wasn't working, they'd tell me before I got in. 95% of the time there was no issue with their machine. I used legitimate taxicab companies - if one wasn't available on the street corner, you could call their dispatch and they'd send one over.

> I used legitimate taxicab companies

There really are no “legitimate taxicab companies” in Toronto.

You have dispatching companies and companies that rent out cars with branding to drivers, but they’re all independent contractors.

In theory a dispatching/car providing company could boot a contractor off of its system, but it’s a fine line for them where they’ve taken fewer risks on this than Uber, because they absolutely do not want to be considered employers.

Even if you haven’t encountered the “card not working, cash only”, I’m surprised you never encountered the “right too short”/“don’t want to go there” refusal.

Re: Uber to pay $272M to Australian taxi operators

#128

Post by throwawaymaths »

Ekaros wrote: post #120
aeyes wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cap prices > Also you do not want to give out so many medallions that owners cannot possibly make a living Do you really think that some government agency can come up with the correct price and license cap using Excel magic? Of course not, most likely this will just lead to corruption and an inferior service. Let the free market find the price. If it's not possible to make a living people won't drive. Where I live…

If you want free market to find the price. Why not force Uber and Lyft to accept pricing from their drivers. Absolutely any pricing and any rules. I think that would be reasonable.

Thats what sidecar did, and the driver market rejected it because it was an awful and unsafe experience. Imagine trying to set rates while you're driving around!

Re: Uber to pay $272M to Australian taxi operators

#129

Post by throwawaymaths »

Retric wrote: post #51
nonethewiser wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are they a taxi company? Certainly not thought of that way by your average person. Its taxis vs ride sharing.

“a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice.” So yea that sounds like Uber/Lyft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxi I regularly see people say they’ll call a cab and then use Uber/Lyft. Ride sharing generally means carpooling/picking up hitchhikers etc. Where the driver i…

> Uber’s initial intention was carpooling where someone would put in their intended destination and could pick people up for money.

Historically incorrect. Uber started out as a black car service (with California tpc licenses). Lyft started as a pivot of the carpooling app zimride named after the founder.

> Their initial subsidized prices convinced many people to advocate for an exception which was often granted

That's not really what moved the needle. What moved the needle on exceptions was the sharp drop in drunk driving incidents and fatality.

Re: Uber to pay $272M to Australian taxi operators

#130

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

maccard wrote: post #90
tianqi wrote: post #71

This is like compensating purse snatchers because the promotion of mobile payments reduces their income. Sydney's taxi is a shame to this wonderful city. I still remember when I first just arrived in Sydney, I took a taxi from the airport to Waterloo and was charged $95, which made me fearful of Sydney prices. It took me time to realise that I had just run into a scam and that the ride should have cost just $20+. Now…

The single best thing that Uber did to taxi companies was it eliminated this bullshit in so many places. I live in Edinburgh, and prior to Uber this sort of stuff was rampant. Now, all the private hire and black companies have apps, accept card payments, are clean. I'm Irish, and on my last trip to Dublin, I ended up with a €70 taxi. The driver wouldn't take card, so he drove around until we found an ATM, by which ti…

> The driver wouldn't take card,

For future visitors to Ireland, note that this has been illegal since last year. The taxis are required to accept card. If this does happen to you, ask what their number is and say you'll call ComReg and this problem will almost certainly disappear.

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