It shows its a disruptive platform. Stuff like this will only make it grow faster.
Anti-Uber Taxi Protest Blocks Access to Paris’s Roissy Airport
41–50 of 62 posts
Re: Anti-Uber Taxi Protest Blocks Access to Paris’s Roissy Airport
#42Uber being available in Paris was one of the greatest thing to happen for tourists and residents alike. I agree with the general sentiment, Taxis in France are some of the worst taxis I've used. I've had a lot of bad experiences. And lest you think it's due to racism or because they thought I was a tourist (not that this would excuse their behaviour one iota), I'm French and I was born in Paris. I can understand the…
It is worth knowing that even though the licenses are limited, the gouvernement gave them all for free, it is the taxis themselves that created some kind of mafia bullshit selling it back 200k euros. Also not very a response but Uber is kinda of fucking every laws aswell so even though the service is better and cheaper, so is my Nike made by children, it does not mean we need to make children work again for peanuts.
Yeah, I'm basically on the same page as you. I can't say I really enjoy using taxis in Paris (although I don't have any nightmare stories like other people in this thread, mostly minor annoyances like refusing to take credit cards and some general rudeness).
On the other hand having services like uber breaking regulations might end up making taxis less safe and with a worse quality of service down the line as prices keep plunging due to the heavy unregulated competition.
I think the right move would be to open the market while still heavily regulating them but I don't know how the government can convince the taxi drivers to accept that since it would mean losing their super expensive license. I suppose the government could buy the licenses itself but that would be heinously expensive (and as a tax payer I can't say I would really like that).
I really wish the government wouldn't have allowed for this license market to exist in the first place, it was obviously going to create a cartel.
Re: Anti-Uber Taxi Protest Blocks Access to Paris’s Roissy Airport
#43When a taxi driver feels justified in beating up a customer rather than servicing them, you know you're dealing with just another Mafia. Being exposed to market forces is certainly not comfortable but the sorry state of taxi services shows how economic sectors degrade when you shield them from market forces. They even forget how to act in the interest of self-preservation.
Re: Anti-Uber Taxi Protest Blocks Access to Paris’s Roissy Airport
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Greece we have a solution for this, as old as Uber but that works with the taxi drivers instead against them. Taxibeat is an app you can use to call taxis from your smartphone. You may choose which taxi you want from the list of nearby drivers. For every driver you see his/her name, plates number, car, reviews, whether he permits pets, speaks foreign languages, has wifi, permits smoking, can help people with disab…
I used the service a couple of times to give my girlfriend a ride. I wanted to know car + driver and monitor the ride in real time. Other than a driver hitting on her - not aggressively though - the experience was smooth.
I hope you gave him a bad rating. No matter the job, professionals should keep it professional.
In Greece it is very common for the driver to engage in small talk with his clients but there must be limits. Once I had an independent driver (not associated with any company) recounting —without me asking— his adventures as a client in the sex industry.
Re: Anti-Uber Taxi Protest Blocks Access to Paris’s Roissy Airport
#45It seems I was lucky in France, no majorly bad taxi drivers
Or, you know, just get the bus, it's cheaper (not always possible, I know)
But yeah, it seems they just began digging their own grave.
Meanwhile in "technology driven" Germany Uber has been banned
Re: Anti-Uber Taxi Protest Blocks Access to Paris’s Roissy Airport
#46What i don't get is that ultimately, forcing all taxi drivers to work through systems like uber, could prove better for everyone in the long run, including the state. No more fraud ( how many times did the drivers forced you to pay in cash), so more taxes collected and easier monitoring of the overall taxi profession.
Having centralized live tracking of every aspect of the taxi service actually make things easier to regulate, not harder.
Re: Anti-Uber Taxi Protest Blocks Access to Paris’s Roissy Airport
#47Uber seems the problem everywhere Taxi market is highly regulated. Uber operates also in Warsaw, this was a news for a day or two, but later nothing really happened.
In Poland Taxi market is almost non-regulated. Taxi driver must pass medical examination, both physical and mental health is checked, plus there are a few other reasonable requirements.
As a result of this, in Warsaw there are more then 20 Taxi corporations, plus Uber, plus independent taxi drivers.
The interesting thing is that prices vary quite a lot, since corporations are not competing over prices only. Some corporations have fancy cars, some corporations are more available during high traffic hours.
Taxis offer also side services - if you run out of alcohol during party, the taxi driver can get one for you in 10 min. You have a car, went to bar, drunk to much to drive - no problem, taxi will arrive with another driver, who will drive your car home.
I understand that governments are regulating explosives production, but why the hell they mess with something so simple as driving people from place A to B is beyond my imagination.
Re: Anti-Uber Taxi Protest Blocks Access to Paris’s Roissy Airport
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in Pittsburgh and the situation isn't much better. Taxi service effectively doesn't exist here. One newspaper wrote a "review" of sorts of Pittsburgh Yellow Cab and found that, for the most part, they wouldn't take you anywhere put the airport. The author would call them, ask for a ride to the airport, get a cab at his door immediately , then change his destination once he got in the car. They made him get out…
Sounds like cabs need "body" cameras (interior cams that can't be turned off?) as much as cops do. It's an unbelievable shame, and a really terrible indictment of cab drivers' ability to do their job professionally. I always thought the cabs in Philly were bad. Apparently they're decent, comparatively.
>Sounds like cabs need "body" cameras (interior cams that can't be turned off?) as much as cops do.
That's what Paris needs, from the sound of it. Pittsburgh just needs competition, which we now have. The cabs haven't gotten any better, though. They still effectively don't exist, I almost never see one, and as far as I know they continue to almost exclusively serve the airport...probably because, until recently, Uber and Lyft weren't allowed to pick up riders from the airport. Maybe Yellow Cab will start improving their service now? But I doubt it.
Re: Anti-Uber Taxi Protest Blocks Access to Paris’s Roissy Airport
#49I feel that every time this issue gets discussed, it needs to have some background information provided, because quite frankly, taxi drivers in France suck. From my own personal experience, I have had the following incidents: 1) a taxi driver that took me the long way round from a train station to my home. Thinking I was a tourist, because of my accent, he basically tried to take me for a ride thinking I wouldn't not…
I live in Pittsburgh and the situation isn't much better. Taxi service effectively doesn't exist here. One newspaper wrote a "review" of sorts of Pittsburgh Yellow Cab and found that, for the most part, they wouldn't take you anywhere put the airport. The author would call them, ask for a ride to the airport, get a cab at his door immediately , then change his destination once he got in the car. They made him get out…
> The #1 thing we've all learned from this debacle is that many, many cab companies are the scum of the earth.
Given the "god view" incident and the "let's follow journalists" incident, that's something that Uber didn't disrupt.
Re: Anti-Uber Taxi Protest Blocks Access to Paris’s Roissy Airport
#50I have been cheated by taxi drivers in every city where I lived for more than a few weeks. I am 100% in support of Uber.
Interesting note. To counter, I have lived longer times in just two cities, Helsinki and Beijing, and in neither one was I ever cheated by a taxi driver.
Stories about bad Beijing taxis were everywhere, but they do not reflect my experience. I used taxis on a daily basis for well over a year, and never had the driver try to cheat (the worst experience being that a Xiali with no air conditioning is not fun in the summer). This might have something to do with myself being about 30 cm taller and 40 kg heavier than the average Beijing taxi driver. The drivers might refuse to drive to the suburbs because they can't get a paying ride back, though. But that's upfront refusal, not cheating.
In Helsinki (or Finland in general), the taxis are not cheap but they are very reliable. You could give them your wallet and keys and pass out at the backseat, and find yourself in your bed in the morning, with your money left, minus ride price, and a receipt.
Stockholm, on the other hand, is Wild West, particularly regarding pricing. Check, really, before you take a ride.
Paris experiences: nobody suggests just flagging a random taxi, everyone recommends to call a known company. When I've flagged a random taxi, the service has been unenthusiastic but not disastrous.
Berlin/generally Germany experiences: very good and reliable.
U.S. experiences: how the F am I supposed to know what is the right amount to tip? That is infuriating. I just avoid anything where the tipping rules are not clear.