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Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe

online.wsj.com

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Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe

#31

Post by chc »

vixin wrote: post #25
mantrax5 wrote: post #2

Taxi drivers in Europe are paid a fraction of the profits they get from clients, most of it goes to taxes and the operators running the cab networks. Uber's drivers are in a similar position. So what do we have here? Another example of pitting poor against poor, for the interests of one group of rich against another, emerging, group of rich. I almost admire the skillful orchestration at play here, although probably I…

http://www1.salary.com/CT/New-London/Taxi-Driver-salary.html Not exactly poor but paid like many other jobs in London which probably don't come with tips. Trouble is that the internet has just about surplanted 'The knowledge' and made it available to all.

That appears to be a place in Connecticut, not the London under discussion here.

Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe

#32

Post by basicallydan »

outrightfree wrote: post #24
basicallydan wrote: post #4

I'd like to highlight this part of the article: > In several of the protests, drivers aren't specifically targeting Uber and other service providers, but what they say is outmoded regulation that makes it hard for them to compete. Part of Uber's challenge in Europe is the variety of regulations governing the continent, even among the 28-member European Union, each of which has different unions and different rules. It…

@basicallydan - related to your point about The Knowledge. Doesn't satnav make that test somewhat anachronistic now?

It depends largely on the satnav. London is such a complex city with a lot of nooks and crannies that people don't really understand and that satnav may or may not know about. Black cab drivers are also privy to the experience of knowing what places are busy when, and why, which satnav tools often can do too but not necessarily to the same degree of accuracy as a black cab driver whose job is to think on their feet and react to changes in the environment based on what they know and what they observe.

With a minicab driver simply following instructions from a satnav, you might as well just have a self-driving car, which is no bad thing.

With a black cab driver using their knowledge and experience and eschewing the instructions from a system which wasn't designed specifically for London, you may have a more reliably fast journey.

Plus, they could even give tourists some interesting facts about the places they're driving through!

Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe

#33

Post by jsudhams »

Not sure about the UK cabs way of work. But what stops them being a UBER cab driver as well? Isn't it a additional channel? Like in radio taxi can't they simple make themselves busy when they get UBER call so that the cab company does not assign them any additional pickup/drop?

Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe

#34

Post by antr »

rwmj wrote: post #21
basicallydan wrote: post #4

I'd like to highlight this part of the article: > In several of the protests, drivers aren't specifically targeting Uber and other service providers, but what they say is outmoded regulation that makes it hard for them to compete. Part of Uber's challenge in Europe is the variety of regulations governing the continent, even among the 28-member European Union, each of which has different unions and different rules. It…

Try taking a black cab from Heathrow airport to anywhere just a few miles away (basically anywhere which isn't a full fare to the centre of London). You will literally be screamed and sworn at.

I've used a black cab from Heathrow to central London a few times, but I still find using the Heathrow express more convenient and cheaper. Later getting a cab in Paddington to anywhere in central London is a breeze... compared to the M4/A4 constant traffic jams.

Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe

#35

Post by archagon »

atmosx wrote: post #13

Sad to see the taxi drivers. What they don’t understand is that soon they will be obsolete. As many other groups. IT startups are extremely disruptive and changes like these are hard to stop. With Google driverless cars around, it’s safe to say that in 30 years no one will need a driver. Uber and competitors could just buy driverless, extra-comfortable cars and get over with. The problem is, what do you do with thous…

30 years?! Good luck with that. Manual cars will be around for a long, long time.

Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe

#36

Post by basicallydan »

rwmj wrote: post #29
basicallydan wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EDIT: I misread, this is my response when thinking they wanted to go TO Heathrow Well then, that's a perfect example of a situation where Uber would be more appropriate. Black Cab drivers are meant for quick journeys through London. Why should they go well out of their way? It's their business. (although, there's no need for people to scream and swear at you)

FROM heathrow.

Oops, my bad - I misread. Sorry :)

Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe

#37

Post by vishnugupta »

mantrax5 wrote: post #2

Taxi drivers in Europe are paid a fraction of the profits they get from clients, most of it goes to taxes and the operators running the cab networks. Uber's drivers are in a similar position. So what do we have here? Another example of pitting poor against poor, for the interests of one group of rich against another, emerging, group of rich. I almost admire the skillful orchestration at play here, although probably I…

> Uber's drivers are in a similar position. Except that now they have to pay Uber as well.

Here's from their FAQ

"No - there is no cost to sign up with Uber, only a small commission taken on each completed trip."

I couldn't find the commission rates though; is it publicly available?

Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe

#38

Post by ZoFreX »

rikf wrote: post #16
basicallydan wrote: post #4

I'd like to highlight this part of the article: > In several of the protests, drivers aren't specifically targeting Uber and other service providers, but what they say is outmoded regulation that makes it hard for them to compete. Part of Uber's challenge in Europe is the variety of regulations governing the continent, even among the 28-member European Union, each of which has different unions and different rules. It…

As a London native for almost 10 years I cant tell you how many times I have been ripped off by black cab drivers taking longer routes then they could have. I also cant tell you how difficult it can be at certain times to find a taxi to take you home so people inevitably end up using unlicensed "mini cabs" to get home. This all because the licensing regulations are stuck in the stone age. Hopefully Uber will drag Lon…

> As a side note I also dont think there is anything stopping a London black cab driver from signing up for Uber.

Uber just today announced black cabs as an option in London. I'm not really sure what I feel about this, there is very little differentiation between Hailo and Uber now.

Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe

#40

Post by bowlofpetunias »

It's interesting how the tech start-up community suffers from the same inability to shift perspective that Microsoft had when it became a powerful megacorp but still saw itself as the underdog.

Uber is not the plucky little start-up going up against big, slow incumbent corporations, like many tech start-ups did in the past.

Uber is the heavily funded 800-pound gorilla going after the livelihoods of the little guy.

So yes, some taxi-markets could do with changes, but the heavy handed and callous approach of greed-driven "disruption" is totally out of place here. We're talking ordinary hard working cab drivers, not fat cats in the boardroom of MegaCorp.

If anybody wonders where the growing hate against the tech community comes from, they may want to start looking in the mirror.

There's a difference between arguing that innovative disruption may temporarily cause some pain and openly pissing on those who find themselves on the wrong side of that change. There is way too much of the latter going on here.

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