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We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

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Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#81

Post by whitepaint »

hughrr wrote: post #61
whitepaint wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a button, you click on it, a few minutes later someone comes to pick you up. Like seriously, what the hell are you talking about?

Mostly the demand pricing model which is up to 5x the cost of other local services, the absolutely abhorrent non-existent customer service, the 25% of the time when you order an Uber and it gets cancelled, the transaction processing problems which seem to go in waves of plague and the buggy as hell app. And don't even get me started on Uber Eats which universally delivers cold, damaged food which is twice the price o…

I live in Europe and I didn't have such experiences at all (when in very few cases a car didn't arrive, I got refund very swiftly without any problems). Try other applications (Lyft, Bolt or whatever).

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#82

Post by simonbarker87 »

whitepaint wrote: post #69
simonbarker87 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I already had access to this exact experience with a taxi firm in Newcastle where I used to live pre Uber - so yeh, I don’t see what benefit Uber brought. Also, the firm that had that app had clean cars, with driver in clean clothes and they knew the roads well.

Oh, you had exact experience with one taxi firm in Newcastle. Superb. I had this exact same experience with Uber in different countries and different cities. "I’ve never seen the need for Uber.". Well, you are one of very few, pal. I can tell you that for sure.

Alright chill your beans “pal”. It wasn’t just one company in Newcastle, growing up I never had an issues with taxis

And as far as I know you still can’t book an Uber for the next day or whatever.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#83

Post by Ekaros »

pjmlp wrote: post #51
Gareth321 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Having taken a $30 Uber to drive 15 minutes lately, when a taxi would’ve cost $10 or so, I don’t think they’ve ultimately created much value with their rideshare service. They’ve basically just moved the entities around, and now it takes a lot longer to get a taxi. You forget just how terrible the taxi industry was prior to Uber. I would walk for miles rather than take a taxi. I would gladly pay 2-3x more for an Ube…

I never had an issue with taxis in most European countries I have lived on, so reaching 50 it is quite a number of taxis, and still manage to this day without ever having taken an uber, which I refuse by principle due to the way their treat employees.

In Finland Uber lead to deregulating taxi market, which to no ones surprise lead to worse service, less skilled drivers, less availability on average and more expensive service... Then again I suppose the Uber lovers want exactly those things and an exploiting entity to leech money in between.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#84

Post by simonbarker87 »

pokepim wrote: post #72
simonbarker87 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you were unlucky but I never had an issue at all in Essex growing up or Newcastle where I spent 15 years. Also Blueline taxis had an app before Uber gained market relevance in the UK and it was great.

If 87 in your nickname suggest your age then I guess you are not the target for Uber. I’m 10 years younger and almost all of my peers never used Taxi and take Uber/Lyft quite often.

Yeah maybe, I’m getting old now I guess :-)

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#85

Post by Ekaros »

morpheos137 wrote: post #16

Taxi service is not exactly an innovative idea. Neither is mail order catalogue (Amazon).

I think innovative idea is to get people think they make money when you rake rake of 20-25% and they provide the service for peanuts. And then they kicked out if they don't do it well enough.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#86

Post by codegeek »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #15

Fully agree with this. It seems like so many of the apps that come to dominate just make up for shortcomings unique to the US that then, with money, take over the rest of the west for no good reason other than scale to get 25 people at the top of those companies rich. I’ve never seen the need for Uber. Taxis have never been an issue in the UK and the most successful firms in the city I lived when Uber was starting ou…

"I’ve never seen the need for Uber."

A very bold claim. I am not sure about the finances of Uber and how it impacts shareholders vs employees and how many people are getting rich off it, but let me tell you that services like Uber have been a God send as a consumer. The haggling with old school taxi drivers is one of the worst experiences one can have, not to mention that you have no idea what the prices should be if you are not local.

Uber and similar apps remove all that nonsense. You can disagree with their business practices or even how much they charge, but I hope apps and services like Uber do not die, EVER. I don't want to go back to being harassed by taxi drivers.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#88

Post by unmole »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #35
mftb wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're sample is simply not representative. If we could go back in time to 5 years before Uber's founding, I could show you the taxi system on the entire west coast of the US was non-functional, from San Diego to Seattle, service, pricing, availability were all abysmal. FWIW, I actually agree that the "Gig Economy" is riddled with problems, but at least in the case of Taxi's where Uber started, the existing system wa…

Sure, but like I said - solving a problem in the US and then rolling it out across the globe just “because” doesn’t mean the rest of the world needed it, just mean you had enough money to outcompete even if your service is worse.

Why did people take to Uber outside the US if there wasn't a need?

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#89

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #15

Fully agree with this. It seems like so many of the apps that come to dominate just make up for shortcomings unique to the US that then, with money, take over the rest of the west for no good reason other than scale to get 25 people at the top of those companies rich. I’ve never seen the need for Uber. Taxis have never been an issue in the UK and the most successful firms in the city I lived when Uber was starting ou…

You are completely correct.

Take, for example, Hailo: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hailo.

They were available in London before Uber, and they had an entirely different model where they just franchised the technology for people in each city to use.

They were profitable, and were driven out of existence by Ubers blitz scaling, which still hasn't produced a profit :(

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#90

Post by bartread »

simonbarker87 wrote: post #33
Jabbles wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely disagree - taxis in the UK used to be awful, none of them had apps before Uber. Black cabs in London were generally good due to the high entry requirements but you could only get them by flagging them down somewhere fairly central. Uber introduced competition which has massively improved all other taxi services. These days there's nothing special about Uber except its ubiquity so I don't care if it fails n…

Maybe you were unlucky but I never had an issue at all in Essex growing up or Newcastle where I spent 15 years. Also Blueline taxis had an app before Uber gained market relevance in the UK and it was great.

Ditto: Panther in Cambridge have always been reliable for the 20 years I've lived in the area. Same with the Ely firms.

Last time I tried to get an Uber in central London in the early hours of the morning two or three drivers cancelled before one eventually showed up after I'd phoned Uber support to complain. I'm not sure the phone call is what did the trick - in fact I'm pretty sure it wasn't - but what triggered that call is I'd been trying to get a ride for 20 - 30 minutes by that point. It sounds like this kind of poor QoS might be a new problem though: I certainly wasn't aware of it before the pandemic.

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