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Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

bbc.com

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Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#301

Post by aguyfromnb »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #282
gorgoiler wrote: post #240

After living for years in London, it’s hard to compare Ubers with black cabs. In the centre of town during the day black cabs are often ubiquitous, immediately available, and skilled at getting you the hell out of dodge. Something for which I’m happy to pay a premium. Anywhere else they can be capricious and scarce. After 11pm this is the case with in fact almost all black cabs anywhere in the city, when a very diffe…

Sounds like Uber provides valuable service to the poor who are more likely to work night shift and also less likely to be able to afford the premium for the nicer black cab service during the day.

>Sounds like Uber provides valuable service to the poor who are more likely to work night shift

On what planet are "the poor" commuting back and forth to work via Uber?

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#302

Post by V-2 »

gorgoiler wrote: post #240

After living for years in London, it’s hard to compare Ubers with black cabs. In the centre of town during the day black cabs are often ubiquitous, immediately available, and skilled at getting you the hell out of dodge. Something for which I’m happy to pay a premium. Anywhere else they can be capricious and scarce. After 11pm this is the case with in fact almost all black cabs anywhere in the city, when a very diffe…

If it's indeed so hard to find a good Uber driver, you'd expect them to be driven out of the market by customers themselves.

And if they compensate for that by eg. lower price, then how is it different from any other market. You want premium quality, you pay extra - you're fine with compromising on it, you go for the cheaper option.

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#303

Post by 72deluxe »

maxehmookau wrote: post #226

I'm always amazed at how fatalist about this sort of thing Londoners are. Like losing Uber will be a massive problem for a huge portion of the population. London has, by FAR, the best, cheapest and most efficient public transport in the entire UK. Uber is, yeah, cheaper than a black cab but also why is it cheaper? Worse working conditions, VC-subsidised, lower standards for vetting (as we've seen here!) It's not sust…

My friend who is from Woking said that southerners typically viewed everything as an eternal crisis and were always in a rush. He said it was far different moving to the Midlands, and I think it gets less panicky the further north you go.

Perhaps it's a regional condition?

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#304

Post by ma2rten »

criddell wrote: post #254
ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> underpaid drivers This is and always will be a matter of opinion. Uber is not putting a gun to anyone's head. If it's not profitable for you to drive, you don't have to.

Since drivers can't set their own rates, I've always felt the government should regulate the split. Uber's portion should be capped at something like 5%. The marginal cost for them to connect a driver to a rider is close to 0 so even 5% feels very generous.

I doubt that their margin is much higher than that after factoring in discounts.

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#305

Post by buckminster »

tomatocracy wrote: post #276
jacobush wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Sweden, and I think in most of EU, once a month is the standard. I know of no-one with in Sweden with a full time job which is once a month.

Same in the UK. Traditionally here the lowest skilled jobs were paid weekly and higher skilled monthly but I think that's rapidly disappearing, if not completely gone, now.

Many jobs in construction pay weekly, regardless of skill level. Nobody wants to lose a month's money when the subcontractor goes bust.

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#306

Post by pergadad »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #237
thinkindie wrote: post #217

have you ever wondered what makes services like Uber affordable? 1) underpaid drivers 2) VC money dropped into an otherwise unsustainable business I'm pretty sure Uber will raise prices the moment it kills the competition

> underpaid drivers This is and always will be a matter of opinion. Uber is not putting a gun to anyone's head. If it's not profitable for you to drive, you don't have to.

It's baiting people who don't understand the costs associated, eg change in insurance premium if they were to correctly register & insure themselves.

Uber outsources all the risk and fees that taxi companies would have to cover.

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#307

Post by buboard »

ekianjo wrote: post #271
criddell wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since drivers can't set their own rates, I've always felt the government should regulate the split. Uber's portion should be capped at something like 5%. The marginal cost for them to connect a driver to a rider is close to 0 so even 5% feels very generous.

That's not the job of the government to regulate margins of businesses. If you go by that way, then you might as well regulate every margin of every app store?

Thats what taxation does anyway

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#308

Post by dls2016 »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #237
thinkindie wrote: post #217

have you ever wondered what makes services like Uber affordable? 1) underpaid drivers 2) VC money dropped into an otherwise unsustainable business I'm pretty sure Uber will raise prices the moment it kills the competition

> underpaid drivers This is and always will be a matter of opinion. Uber is not putting a gun to anyone's head. If it's not profitable for you to drive, you don't have to.

> Uber is not putting a gun to anyone's head.

But their platform has a near-monopoly in many markets, which they use to set prices while simultaneously classifying drivers as independent contractors.

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#309

Post by ghaff »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #285
thathndude wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I'm always amazed at how quickly people crap on Uber. In hindsight it's not a particularly revolutionary service. But does everyone remember how much the Taxi system sucked?

I still take yellow cabs home from JFK & LGA airports. The process of getting a Lyft or Uber is miserable, while I can virtually get straight into a yellow cab, even when there’s a line at the taxi stand. Just recently I took a bus at LGA that takes you from the tetminal to the taxi stand due to construction. Even this was easier than getting a Lyft or Uber. I was in the cab way faster (including bus ride) much faste…

The usual Uber/Lyft booking/pickup system doesn't scale well at airports where personal car pickup/dropoff is already a real mess in many cases. Some airports are trying to deal with this by moving ride-share to a different area (e.g. Central Parking in Boston) which is less convenient for passengers, especially those that don't know the airport well.

Usually I just take a taxi from the airport if there isn't a good transit option available. (Or book a car service in advance at my home airport.)

Re: Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

#310

Post by aguyfromnb »

harel wrote: post #290
bart_spoon wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber is cheap because they are subsidizing your fare with investment dollars at an unsustainable level. They are selling $2 for the price of $1. The ride sharing economy is convenient, but I can't see it lasting for much longer. At least not without losing some of what makes it so convenient, like low prices.

What makes them convenient is availability and driver mass. Prices are an added bonus but not the main USP. Not to me anyway.

>Prices are an added bonus but not the main USP. Not to me anyway.

But it's all related. There is more availability because both drivers and customers are being subsidized.

At the end of the day, a car costs so much to operate and maintain, and a person requires so much economic profit to make driving around worth their while. No "hacks" around that fact.

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