The Five NYC Taxi Drivers who Refused My Fare • Hacker News Board

Re: The Five NYC Taxi Drivers who Refused My Fare

#51

Post by glenra » Mon, Dec 10, 2012, 1:00 AM UTC

viscanti wrote: post #4

msrpotus wrote: post #2

Because, of course, taxi drivers exist solely to serve you and might not have been going in the opposite direction of the airport.

I guess the issue here is that it's illegal for the taxis to pass up fares based on where the passenger is going. The fact that it happened 5 times in a row is telling. The taxi industry is the exact group fighting for more regulations in order to keep companies like Uber from competing, but they don't want to follow the regulations currently in place. Experiencing things like this really helps show that the transpor…

The taxi industry is not the same thing as taxi drivers. The taxi industry is dominated by the people who own taxi medallions, not the people who drive taxis. The people who actually drive taxis are oppressed by the idiotic inefficiencies of the current regulatory system, much like Uber is. For instance, cabbies. can't charge more when it's raining. Or snowing. Or if you've asked for an especially undesirable location.

Re: The Five NYC Taxi Drivers who Refused My Fare

#52

Post by tghw » Mon, Dec 10, 2012, 1:30 AM UTC

jcampbell1 wrote: post #13

This is a common tourist mistake. Flag the taxi, and then get in the car, say hello, then tell the driver where you are going. Only tourists think they need permission to get in the car, and so the drivers will refuse them. Tourists also tend to request unprofitable routes, like going 15 blocks in Times Square. They are allowed to turn the off-duty light on, and to get one final fare going their return direction at t…

This depends greatly on where you are. In a well regulated place like NYC, you are absolutely correct. But in any place where you must negotiate a rate, which is common outside of the G8, you do so before getting in the vehicle.

Re: The Five NYC Taxi Drivers who Refused My Fare

#53

Post by maxharris » Mon, Dec 10, 2012, 1:30 AM UTC

raganwald wrote: post #17

Hacker News: Criticizes cab companies for using laws to keep Uber out, then criticizes cabbies for not following the letter of the law with respect to unprofitable fares. Which is it: Do we celebrate breaking laws? Complying with them? Or do we pick and choose the laws we respect?

Outright, total slavery used to be the law in most countries. If and when one hastens the removal of an immoral law by celebrating its breach, and this is accomplished without trading something even more dear to you in the process, do it!

How does one decide which laws are moral and which aren't? The fundamental purpose of any proper law is to protect every individual's right to use his mind to sustain his own life. Any law or regulation that interferes with that right, no matter how desirable the intended outcome may appear to some, is morally and practically wrong.

Re: The Five NYC Taxi Drivers who Refused My Fare

#54

Post by dev_jim » Mon, Dec 10, 2012, 2:58 AM UTC

In general, you should take the time to learn the rules and regulations before writing things like these up:

- If the off duty light is not on and your trip is in the five boroughs then the cabbie cannot refuse to take you. In my couple years in New York taking hundreds of cabs I have never had a cabbie in this situation lock his doors or ask me where I was going before I got in the car.

- if the off duty light is on then the cabbie has the option because he is going in for a shift change. This happens around 4PM. They are not allowed to put off duty light on otherwise. They often can't go to JFK because there is another driver waiting for the car in the next hour.

You can (and often should) use a black car service when traveling during rush hour to the airports. Uber is 2-3x the rate of a cab. A service like Dial-7 is about 25% more and cheaper if going out of Newark.

Re: The Five NYC Taxi Drivers who Refused My Fare

#55

Post by bluekite2000 » Mon, Dec 10, 2012, 4:26 PM UTC

For some reason I have a feeling if this guy pays the cab driver the same amount he pays the uber driver, the cab driver would be more than happy to take him

Re: The Five NYC Taxi Drivers who Refused My Fare

#56

Post by curlypaul924 » Mon, Dec 10, 2012, 5:59 PM UTC

Wow that's crappy grammar.

Re: The Five NYC Taxi Drivers who Refused My Fare

#57

Post by FelixP » Mon, Dec 10, 2012, 8:52 PM UTC

kapnobatairza wrote: post #26

jeremymims wrote: post #20

New York has a solution for this. It's called a livery car (they're usually Lincoln Town Cars). This is especially prudent when you have a flight to catch. You call and they send someone at the appointed time. It's cheaper than Uber and the drivers are the same. Some have phone numbers you'll never forget: (212) 777-7777 and 866-666-6666.

Agreed 100%. Uber isn't adding anything disruptive to NYC, they are just adding another channel for booking town cars. In my personal experience, the town car services I've been using for over a decade that I call to book with have been faster and more reliable than my experiments with Uber. As I mentioned in my own comment, however, this makes me wonder if there is a space for a PAAS for Town Car services to easily…

But at that point, why not just aggregate the services, in which case you've effectively become Uber?

Re: The Five NYC Taxi Drivers who Refused My Fare

#58

Post by kapnobatairza » Tue, Dec 11, 2012, 2:41 AM UTC

FelixP wrote: post #57

kapnobatairza wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed 100%. Uber isn't adding anything disruptive to NYC, they are just adding another channel for booking town cars. In my personal experience, the town car services I've been using for over a decade that I call to book with have been faster and more reliable than my experiments with Uber. As I mentioned in my own comment, however, this makes me wonder if there is a space for a PAAS for Town Car services to easily…

But at that point, why not just aggregate the services, in which case you've effectively become Uber?

Because if you operate your own booking app you can set your own prices and you don't have to pay Uber a cut.

You'd also be able to use it to operate a private network of drivers. For example, large corporations can roll out a private web/mobile booking app for the private network of drivers they have for their employees. Not many companies still have drivers on payroll in the US, but in other countries like the UAE or South Korea this is still more common.

Why do some businesses use Google Apps in the cloud and others maintain their own CMS systems on their own equipment? Some businesses prefer in-house solutions.