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UberCab to disrupt the Taxi/Limo business

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Re: UberCab to disrupt the Taxi/Limo business

#41

Post by yummyfajitas »

tptacek wrote: post #37
cabalamat wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn't surprise you that cab drivers in Chicago basically never drive you to random destinations, or change fares midway through the ride? The goodness of cab driver hearts isn't what's preventing it. A voluntary medallion scheme would prevent that; the city government could issue medallions to those who fitted whatever standards it chose to lay down. And customers would be free to choose to use a medallioned o…

Don't get me wrong; the city medallion systems are evil. I'm just saying they're a necessary evil. If we could replace them with something sane, I'm onboard!

A very simple replacement system: unlimited medallions will be issued. The cost of a medallion is the cost of policing 1 driver (e.g., 1 random inspection per month, background check, car safety, etc) + 15% profit for the city. Prices will be set at market rates, but must be fully disclosed to passengers before the ride.

Re: UberCab to disrupt the Taxi/Limo business

#42

Post by yummyfajitas »

jfager wrote: post #23
patio11 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medallions are a conspiracy against the public, especially the poor and minorities, who both are disproportionately refused cab service and prevented from lawfully pursuing a value-creating occupation in their communities which requires only modest capital and no special training. See also hairdressing regulations and a host of others. I could be persuaded there exists an optimum amount of regulation for compensated…

I don't know about other places, but here in NYC, in the poorer neighborhoods in Brooklyn at least, there's a thriving system of taxi alternatives. You'll frequently see cars or vans packed full of people getting rides for a buck or two, and the cops don't seem to pay much attention to it. In Manhattan or other parts of the city, I don't see how this kind of thing could compete with the yellow cabs or the car service…

Jersey City has jitney buses which are an excellent means of public transit. They compete with public buses, providing more frequent (but less predictable) service at lower prices.

Re: UberCab to disrupt the Taxi/Limo business

#43

Post by patio11 »

tptacek wrote: post #38
patio11 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do more of my traveling from airport to suburbs than inside the city, so I get to use a car service. It is pretty simple: I call American Taxi (by way of Bangalore), they send me an Eastern European immigrant with a car, and he whisks me home for the published flat fee. Their incentive to not screw me is that they value my continued custom (and chargebacks are a beast). His incentive to not screw me is that he valu…

Putting it on the iPhone scales the process up. Some things work fine at Patrick McKenzie scales, but not so fine at 40 fares per day per cab. There is immense competition for airport fares (it's one of the big problems with cab service in SF) and more incentive not to play games. The same can't be said of random fares on city streets. The only time I've ever been screwed with by a cab driver was with an unlicensed c…

American Taxi dispatches forty thousand fares a week. They're a wee bit bigger than me.

Re: UberCab to disrupt the Taxi/Limo business

#44

Post by tptacek »

patio11 wrote: post #43
tptacek wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putting it on the iPhone scales the process up. Some things work fine at Patrick McKenzie scales, but not so fine at 40 fares per day per cab. There is immense competition for airport fares (it's one of the big problems with cab service in SF) and more incentive not to play games. The same can't be said of random fares on city streets. The only time I've ever been screwed with by a cab driver was with an unlicensed c…

American Taxi dispatches forty thousand fares a week. They're a wee bit bigger than me.

Come on, Patrick. American Taxi is pretty much the cab company for all of the Chicago suburbs. You think they do 40k fares to/from ORD? That's 500 fares an hour.

There's a difference between airport taxi service by chauffeur-licensed drivers dispatched by a branded cab company (with something to lose if drivers misbehave) and "I signed up with 1 of 5 different companies that dispatch cabs with iPhones".

I don't have prove that the Chicago medallion system is sensible; I'm only objecting to the notion that there is no valid concern behind them other than for-profit restraint of trade. There are absolutely valid concerns behind medallions. Go to an NYC airport or outside Penn Station and find an unlicensed cab; take 10 drives, and tell me how many of them try to screw you over. Do the same thing with medallion drivers; none of them will.

Re: UberCab to disrupt the Taxi/Limo business

#45

Post by Eliezer »

tptacek wrote: post #19
patio11 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medallions are a conspiracy against the public, especially the poor and minorities, who both are disproportionately refused cab service and prevented from lawfully pursuing a value-creating occupation in their communities which requires only modest capital and no special training. See also hairdressing regulations and a host of others. I could be persuaded there exists an optimum amount of regulation for compensated…

Disagree. The policies behind medallions may be stupid and unfair, but their existence provides a mechanism of accountability (you can lose them, and they're hellaciously expensive) that doesn't exist with iPhone dispatch. It doesn't surprise you that cab drivers in Chicago basically never drive you to random destinations, or change fares midway through the ride? The goodness of cab driver hearts isn't what's prevent…

You missed the part where the taxi gets rated. Problem solved.

Re: UberCab to disrupt the Taxi/Limo business

#47

Post by Estragon »

ced wrote: post #25
tptacek wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. The policies behind medallions may be stupid and unfair, but their existence provides a mechanism of accountability (you can lose them, and they're hellaciously expensive) that doesn't exist with iPhone dispatch. It doesn't surprise you that cab drivers in Chicago basically never drive you to random destinations, or change fares midway through the ride? The goodness of cab driver hearts isn't what's prevent…

What prevents you from walking away without paying? (that's a genuine question, not a flippant remark)

Nothing. I did it once, in a particularly abusive situation in Boston.

Re: UberCab to disrupt the Taxi/Limo business

#48

Post by Estragon »

ced wrote: post #25
tptacek wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. The policies behind medallions may be stupid and unfair, but their existence provides a mechanism of accountability (you can lose them, and they're hellaciously expensive) that doesn't exist with iPhone dispatch. It doesn't surprise you that cab drivers in Chicago basically never drive you to random destinations, or change fares midway through the ride? The goodness of cab driver hearts isn't what's prevent…

What prevents you from walking away without paying? (that's a genuine question, not a flippant remark)

Nothing. I did it once, in a particularly abusive situation in Boston.

Re: UberCab to disrupt the Taxi/Limo business

#49

Post by tptacek »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #41
tptacek wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't get me wrong; the city medallion systems are evil. I'm just saying they're a necessary evil. If we could replace them with something sane, I'm onboard!

A very simple replacement system: unlimited medallions will be issued. The cost of a medallion is the cost of policing 1 driver (e.g., 1 random inspection per month, background check, car safety, etc) + 15% profit for the city. Prices will be set at market rates, but must be fully disclosed to passengers before the ride.

How is it a win for consumers to let taxi fare rates float? Taxis are very cheap (many reasonable drives inside the Chicago Loop are within 100% of what it would cost to take the CTA). Floating rates would almost certainly rise.

If a regulatory change harms consumers, what's the point of deregulating?

San Francisco might benefit from deregulation, because there are political problems and structural breakages in their system. But the Chicago and NYC cab systems work pretty well right now as far as I can tell.

Incidentally, while I agree that medallion caps are anticompetitive and an artifact of old price-fixing schemes, they have a beneficial effect of making it expensive to operate a licensed cab, which creates incentives for cab operators to avoid some negative externalities of their business (like running people down, or operating blatantly unsafe vehicles, etc).

Re: UberCab to disrupt the Taxi/Limo business

#50

Post by tptacek »

Estragon wrote: post #47
ced wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What prevents you from walking away without paying? (that's a genuine question, not a flippant remark)

Nothing. I did it once, in a particularly abusive situation in Boston.

I'm guessing you're male, young, a US resident, and not physically disabled. Tweak any of those variables, conduct 10 trials with an otherwise randomized population, and see how the results compare to your experience.
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