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An Uber Impact

blog.uber.com

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Re: An Uber Impact

#41

Post by hoprocker »

philwelch wrote: post #32
fishtoaster wrote: post #17

20k jobs created? Is hired car use really going up that much? If I had to guess, I'd say a handful of new jobs are created while the rest are just taken from existing taxi companies. Not that I think there's anything wrong with that. I just think the stat is pretty misleading.

I personally use Uber at least 20-50x as often as I would use taxis. That is, for each Uber trip I take, I would take only 1/20 to 1/50 of the same trips via taxi given the choice.

Funny way to arrange this comparison. To me it reads: for every Uber trip I take from my apartment in the Mission to my office in Soma, I would ride a taxi from 24th to 23rd street.

Re: An Uber Impact

#42

Post by Swizec »

philwelch wrote: post #32
fishtoaster wrote: post #17

20k jobs created? Is hired car use really going up that much? If I had to guess, I'd say a handful of new jobs are created while the rest are just taken from existing taxi companies. Not that I think there's anything wrong with that. I just think the stat is pretty misleading.

I personally use Uber at least 20-50x as often as I would use taxis. That is, for each Uber trip I take, I would take only 1/20 to 1/50 of the same trips via taxi given the choice.

Same here. While I still consider a Taxi as something you only take when you're drunk and have to get home from a party, I've gotten used to taking an Uber or Sidecar for pretty much any trip that would require a muni or bart here in SF. It's gotten to the point that I am downright spoiled.

Re: An Uber Impact

#43

Post by exit »

HistoryInAction wrote: post #27

Politically speaking, it is very, very smart that Uber is doing these sorts of studies. As a policy wonk, I wish they were a bit more open about their datasets, analyses, and methodology, but I can see how that would just hand their opponents chances to twist it. Re: jobs created, note that Uber (very specifically, is my guess) allows us to assume FTE when they say "jobs," but is probably more likely referring to the…

> but I can see how that would just hand their opponents chances to twist it.

if opponents can twist it why shouldn't i believe uber is twisting it to begin with?

Re: An Uber Impact

#44

Post by neltnerb »

frenchman_in_ny wrote: post #12

$90K in (gross) revenue (in NYC), before taking into account operating costs (fuel, lease expenses), depreciation, healthcare, self-employment taxes, etc. It's off the cuff and I'm sure I'm missing a number of categories, while realizing that you can deduct a certain number as business expenses, but I'm fairly certain you're really (edit) not (/edit) seeing anything close to $90K in the end.

I have no horse in this particular race, but taxi drivers also pay for fuel, their own health care, and I think generally self-employment taxes as well. So the actual difference is just the cost of operating the vehicle in wear and tear and depreciation. The latter of which is mostly relevant only if they purchase the car exclusively for this purpose.

So the $90k might be deceptive because it's not net, but it's a sensible way to compare to what traditional taxi drivers make given uncontrollable variability in car ownership expense.

Re: An Uber Impact

#45

Post by shakethemonkey »

rusbus wrote: post #28

Uber is pretty great, and I enjoy using it, but many of these statistics are pretty weak and out of context. As others have mentioned, using "income" to describe "revenue" is inaccurate. You can't compare making $90k driving an Uber to $90k at a desk job with a completely different set of expenses. While the statistics used to determine the DUI rate in SF and Taxi crime in Chicago are beyond the levels of my knowledg…

For taxis, medallions are usually leased to drivers (few could afford one). This takes much of their revenue -- perhaps half or more surrendered to a medallion holding company just for the privilege of driving a taxi.

New York City presentation suggests a driver with $90k revenue has $41k expenses. [1]

[1] http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/presentation.pdf

Re: An Uber Impact

#46

Post by neurobro »

CmonDev wrote: post #34
pkaye wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm living in one of the top cities in the Bay Area and they don't yet cover there.

Bay Area is not a country, not even a state, so saying "one of the top cities" doesn't make any sense.

It's a state-sized region with close to 100 cities, so it kind of does make sense (to the extent that "one of the top cities" is meaningful anywhere).

Re: An Uber Impact

#47

Post by capkutay »

What's really significant is that the tech industry is slowly creating new job markets via 'app-driven services'. Doordash, grubhub, amazon, and google's instant delivery services are other examples that can contribute to this new trend.

The technology infrastructure for instant/convenient buying, selling, and delivery of goods and services has been built out. Now it can truly scale by staffing massive amounts of people to actually carry out the tasks surrounding it.

Re: An Uber Impact

#48

Post by tomp »

capkutay wrote: post #47

What's really significant is that the tech industry is slowly creating new job markets via 'app-driven services'. Doordash, grubhub, amazon, and google's instant delivery services are other examples that can contribute to this new trend. The technology infrastructure for instant/convenient buying, selling, and delivery of goods and services has been built out. Now it can truly scale by staffing massive amounts of peo…

What's also really significant is that the majority of these jobs are minimum-wage, minimum-training, completely-replaceable jobs. What these people are doing is essentially an interface between software and reality - they are human robots.

Re: An Uber Impact

#49

Post by phil21 »

User9812 wrote: post #36
cwilson wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is yes. Uber makes it so easy to quickly and painlessly get a ride that I find myself using the service much more often than I would a normal Taxi in the past. From casual observation I find this to be true for the majority of my friends and even family members as well. Normal Taxi services are a pain in the ass to book, not connected to my credit card (so you have to go through the whole guilt trip for not…

I'm surprised taxi services are so far behind here. Why can't I request a taxi in a single click, select the vehicle, charge it to my account, see the location of the taxi on a map and the ETA until it arrives? Why can't I see the route it'll take, or modify the route myself and set a waypoint? I'm sure some taxi services offer a couple of these features, but none of the ones that I've used. I think one had online bo…

> I'm surprised taxi services are so far behind here. Why can't I request a taxi in a single click, select the vehicle, charge it to my account, see the location of the taxi on a map and the ETA until it arrives

You can, it's called Uber. It's why it exists :)

And in Chicago at least, you can summon a cab with Uber just like you can a black car or SUV.

Re: An Uber Impact

#50

Post by stef25 »

cwilson wrote: post #18
doxcf434 wrote: post #2

Does this mean more people are taking Taxis?

My guess is yes. Uber makes it so easy to quickly and painlessly get a ride that I find myself using the service much more often than I would a normal Taxi in the past. From casual observation I find this to be true for the majority of my friends and even family members as well. Normal Taxi services are a pain in the ass to book, not connected to my credit card (so you have to go through the whole guilt trip for not…

In most cities can't you just walk out on the street, stick out your arm and have a taxi at least as quickly as it takes to book and wait for one through the Uber app? I guess it's much more useful when the streets aren't filled with cabs like in the suburbs or at night.
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