Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Cab Hailing Service Uber Collected Just $9M of Fares During 15 Months In Boston

Posted by Unknown on from the taxi-taxi-proven-more-effective dept.

curtwoodward writes "Uber, the well-funded startup that hails cabs and black cars with a smartphone app, is a pretty slick way to book a ride. But how competitive is Uber with the traditional, highly regulated cab market? According to results from the startup's move into Boston, not very. Figures released in a court case show that, over 15 months, Uber processed just $9 million in gross fares (the drivers get most of that). Meanwhile, Boston's overall cab industry is pegged at doing about $250 million a year in fares. Despite the publicity, Uber still has a long way to go."

21 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. It seems that by arcite · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Uber is rather pointless. Why would someone go through a 'middle-man' app, thus incurring a surcharge, when they can just reserve with the taxi company direct?

    1. Re:It seems that by malzfreund · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The cost of the "middle-man" app is tiny. In fact, it may be cheaper to use an app as opposed to having real people answering phone calls. I guess you're right in the sense that taxi companies wouldn't wanna share revenues with another party. But this doesn't make the app intrinsically useless. In fact, taxi companies may well respond with an app of their own (that's what happened in Germany).

    2. Re:It seems that by houghi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Visa/Mastercard is rather pointless. Why would someone go through a 'middle-man' method, thus incurring a surcharge, when they can just pay the company with cash?

      There are many good reasons for going through a middleman and add charges. And each case is different. Most of the time what you pay for is convenience.

      Whether this is something you would want depends on situation and person. Having the option is good. Many people buy a computer a a whole. I like to buy it in pieces.

      Others take up credit on their card, while it would be much cheaper to ask money directly from the bank. Why would they do that? because it is easy. People like to pay for easy. People pay a LOT for easy.

      Pressing a button to get a cab is easier then actually calling and there are apparently enough people willing to pay for that.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    3. Re:It seems that by platykurtic · · Score: 4, Informative

      Uber's app makes the taxi process at lot nicer than anything the taxi process has come up with. With a taxi you're still usually calling and talking to a real person. Then maybe they dispatch a cab, and if you're lucky they find you and not someone else. More likely you stand there unsure about whether to keep trying to hail cabs or keep waiting for the one you called. With Uber, you have a map of all the cards in your area and an estimated arrival time. When you reserve one, you have a car devoted to picking you up; they won't stop for anyone else. You can watch them via gps so you know what's going on. The payment goes through your credit cards so there's no fiddling with change. Uber also has nicer cars and UberX costs about the same as a cab, although how sustainable that is is up for debate, since they may be skimping on insurance. The laws here are still being worked out. Of course, this is the situation in SF, where taxis suck. As you'd think, Uber isn't catching on as well in places where the taxi service is better.

    4. Re:It seems that by Dambiel · · Score: 3, Informative

      1) Currently in San Francisco uberX (their lower-cost, non-town-car service) is cheaper than a yellow cab and, unless you live at a Caltrain or BART station, far easier to find.

      2) If you were to reserve a ride with a cab company directly there's very little accountability for how long it will take to get a pick-up. All of these apps let you to see where your driver is while en-route and allow you to give feedback regarding the level of service received.

      That adds a lot of value for me on top of the fact that I don't have to wait on hold.

    5. Re:It seems that by Joining+Yet+Again · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'd rather be able to speak to an experienced human on a 'phone when arranging a service than use another shitty automated middle man which can only deal with the simplest cases and which operates on volume rather than quality. There's always a significant cost to automation for the end user - it's just more profitable for the system's owner.

      Outsourcing is logically less efficient, because someone else is always taking a cut of pure profit which they wouldn't if you provided a service in-house or cooperatively. Giving a middleman control of the initial sale (cf. Amazon, eBay) is one of the worst ways of permanently guaranteeing that a leech will make sure that you have to do an ever-increasing amount of work while they do very little new on your behalf. It's just not business sense.

    6. Re:It seems that by poetmatt · · Score: 2

      because reserving with a taxi is often a pain in the ass, you have no idea where the cabs are and/or if you're going to be waiting if you're in a hurry, and you want to guarantee that you can pay by credit card without getting weird hassling from taxicab shenanigans. That's 3 things off the top of my head.

      there are plenty of valid reasons.

    7. Re:It seems that by Zebra_X · · Score: 2

      Uber is rather awesome, actually.

      #1 - No money exchanges hands.

      Boston cabbies are some of the rudest businessmen on the planet. Many times they pretend their card readers don't work or make their customers feel awkward for paying by credit. It is extremely frustrating and in today's world of connectedness there is no excuse for not being more "normal" in handling everyday business transactions. Outside of Boston many cabbies don't take cards at all (despite having a card reader in the cab). Personally, I don't carry cash and it is a bit of a hassle to "prepare" for a taxi ride.

      If you ask a cabbie about this they will tell you that the cab company (the middle man you don't see) takes some 5-10% of their fare if you use a card.

      #2 - Definite pickup time.

      Calling a cab in Boston is a bit of a crap shoot. You call a dispatcher and you are told a cab is on its way and usually given a time estimate. The estimate is likely provided by a magic 8 ball based on actual vs. estimated.

      #3 - Driver phone number.

      Not provided by a traditional cab service as far as I know - Uber connects you directly with the driver. This is very helpful when trying to coordinate a street side pickup.

      #4 - Professional

      Some will value this more than others but all of the drivers are very professional.

      I am in no way affiliated with Uber. I am just a pleased customer who is happy to finally have a reasonable alternative to the terrible Boston cab services.

    8. Re:It seems that by Joining+Yet+Again · · Score: 2

      "Outsourcing" - an annoying neologism, I admit - means rather more than "getting someone else to do something for you". Consumers, in particular, do not "outsource".

      Economy of scale/specialisation does not kick in by default, and even when it does, that usually justifies only a cooperative effort, not outsourcing to a third party. The third party option is only appropriate to consider when a complex business process needs to be implemented which is already delivered well by an established provider.

      Really, geeks didn't have a problem understanding the fallacy of outsourcing only a decade ago. Times have changed.

    9. Re:It seems that by Dishevel · · Score: 2
      Most people who do use my companies new app like the fact that they can quickly get a cab. They love the fact that they get location updates on their phone of where their cab is in near real time. (Delayed about 2 min.) They really like the fact that they can also call if they do not think the app request went through or if they feel that their cab order is something a bit more complicated than an app can handle. The future is both.

      I work in a company that has over 300 cabs leased out. Computer dispatched, GPS tracked, 20 people on the phones that can also take web or app based trips.

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
  2. Unacceptable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why aren't they making billions immediately? This is an outrage!

    1. Re:Unacceptable by saihung · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A company comes out of nowhere to take 3% of a major market and that's "not much." Gotta love it.

  3. Tried it here in Australia by crafty.munchkin · · Score: 2

    And it was $75 to go a distance I'd previously been in a taxi for $35... it was a nicer ride, but way too expensive to use regularly.

    --
    ... wait, what?
  4. Not pointless at all... by tlambert · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Uber is rather pointless. Why would someone go through a 'middle-man' app, thus incurring a surcharge, when they can just reserve with the taxi company direct?

    It's kind of pointless to hail a cab with it, if what you care about is cost; instead, you hail a rideshare. This is one part of what has the cab drivers panties in a bunch.

    The second part that has their panties in a bunch is that cab drivers are notorious for "closest fare first" behaviour; so if you are outside the downtown area, or off the line between the downtown and the airport, they will leave you hanging and pick up other call-ins before picking you up. Uber and similar apps commit them to picking up the fare as booked, and they find this annoying because they don't get optimum road miles.

    A couple of weeks ago, myself and two friends booked a cab to the Inner Sunset in San Francisco; this is a little way out of the way, wince it requires going about 10 blocks off of 19th Avenue, which is the normal cab travel corridor. We had a person standing outside the entire time, and the cab company tried to claim that the cabbie had attempted a pickup and "got tired of waiting". Twice. But in fact, there were no cabs through the pickup intersection, or either of the cross streets to that intersection for the entire time. We were over an hour past our scheduled arrival time to our destination, thanks to the lying cabbies.

    This sounds anecdotal, but it is in fact common practice in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, where there are well known "hop-on" and "hop-off" spots, and if you want a cab, you get your but to one of those locations for your best change of getting one; otherwise, you are considered "off route", and the only way you get a cab is if someone isn't busy. This is not cool

    Uber and similar services fix this problem by providing more vehicles for scheduling, through including rideshare and towncar services. This cones at the expense of the cabbies not being booked solid, but having had my butt left hanging in the wind by cabbies on multiple occasions, my heart is not bleeding for them in this case.

    1. Re:Not pointless at all... by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not the servitude, but the lying. "Yes, we'll send someone out."

      The reality is "Likely nobody will come, if you walk Z blocks to the corner of X and Y, you'll likely be able to hail a cab." But the dispatchers lie to the caller, causing a loss. That's fraud, and the caller should be able to sue for a harming falsehood being told to them.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    2. Re:Not pointless at all... by Dambiel · · Score: 3, Informative

      American here. Filing suit for a taxi that never showed is a bit much but having been in that position I can understand the anger. Sometimes it's necessary to read "sue" as an American idiom for "Grrrr, I'm really mad and they should have done better."

      That said, these crazy new-fangled smartphone app taxi services show me exactly who's coming to pick me up and how far away they are. That's a big step up from "we'll send someone as soon as they're available".

      Voting with your dollars (euros, whatever) and putting them towards a better service will ultimately make a big difference. But, wait! Are you going to find another company to provide a taxi or file a complaint with regulators (generally run by livery companies in the US) (it's a problem, we know) while you're waiting for that cab who's taken another fare and won't be coming to pick you up after all?

      It's probably best not to think of uber, sidecar, lyft, etcetera as taxi companies. They're providing a marketplace for that kind of service. Folks that don't play nice (cabbies who don't show and customers too drunk to sit without vomiting) get weeded out.

    3. Re:Not pointless at all... by tlambert · · Score: 5, Informative

      I've noticed weird trend among the middle classes to feel entitled when it comes to eliciting the services of those who they perceive as lower down in the pecking order.

      Being a cabby is obviously a stressful and fairly tedious job (and I speak only as an occasional rider). More importantly, it's a job, not servitude. Of course they're going to prefer to the more profitable routes, and there are going to be some providers more competent than others. And if you were sat for an hour waiting for a single cab company in one place in a city, you were doing it completely wrong.

      First of all, you're right: it's a job. They should do the job; particularly, they should do the job their dispatcher promised they would do on their behalf. If they have an argument with the dispatcher, that should be their problem, not mine. They're the ones who decided to be affiliated with Luxor instead of Yellow Cab, or Yellow Cab instead of Luxor, or who the heck ever. They have their hack license, and with it, they can pretty much pick what cab company they work for.

      Second, I have no problem tipping well when someone has to go out of their way to accommodate me. Sometimes I forget that there are non-Americans on this site, and that most of them don't believe in tipping because they figure the person providing the service is being paid anyway. A cabbie going out of their way like this in America is going to *expect* a tip, where a European cabbie would just say "to heck with it" and pick up the nearest fare, knowing that the extra effort isn't going to be rewarded.

      Third, I forgot one of the best things about Uber and similar companies: because they bill by GPS start and end point, you can't be "long hauled". The practice of "long hauling" is where the cabbie takes you on a longer route than necessary to run up the meter. When using GPS start/end points, "long hauling" will cost the cabbie, not you, so it stops the practice rather dead in the water. This is an incredible benefit, if you end up needing a cab at a trade show or conference in an unfamiliar place, since that's when you are most likely to be "long hauled".

      Fourth, as far as "doing it wrong", I suppose you are suggesting that I, and my one friend, and my other friend with the walker, go 10 blocks down to 19th street and just hail a passing cab. You have obviously never had a physical disability.

    4. Re:Not pointless at all... by Lakitu · · Score: 2

      you're insane. You think cabbies should be able to sue if you call and then try to cancel? Do you want to pay upfront for taxi service? if it's such a great loss, why don't you pay for livery service?

      Taxis have their drawbacks, but their unrealiability in this sense is actually one of their positives -- their desire to stick to the major routes and highly trafficked areas are what contribute to their flexibility, general availability, and cheap service. If car service were restricted to "verbal contracts" which, if broken, would send them to jail or the target of a civil lawsuit, the prices would go through the roof or they would not be in business.

      The dispatcher didn't lie to you, by the way. The dispatcher relayed information to you. If you think the taxi driver lied then lodge a complaint and it should be investigated or he should be reprimanded.

    5. Re:Not pointless at all... by TrekkieGod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I've noticed weird trend among the middle classes to feel entitled when it comes to eliciting the services of those who they perceive as lower down in the pecking order.

      Lower down in the pecking order? No, no. I absolutely do feel entitled when it comes to eliciting services which are offered for a price, and that I am willing to pay. Why the hell would I not be?

      Being a cabby is obviously a stressful and fairly tedious job (and I speak only as an occasional rider). More importantly, it's a job, not servitude.

      It's a job for which I am paying them, so they better do it well, with a smile on their face, leaving all their emotional baggage locked up for after they clock out and get to loosen up with their family and friends. It's not because I think they're "lower in the pecking order." It's because there is not a single person on this planet that doesn't have to do the same thing. When my boss tells me to do a tedious job I don't find particularly challenging or entertaining I don't get to say, "you know, I prefer to do something else." That's what I get paid to do, so I do it. When my boss has to deal with clients, he may have just gotten off a huge fight with his wife at home, but he will sure as hell put on a smile and treat them as if they're the most important thing in his life. When the fucking President of the United States meets with other world leaders, he is expected to follow protocol. Monarchs have a public figure they need to maintain...there is nobody, no matter how rich or powerful they are, who doesn't have to do shit they don't want to as part of their jobs.

      And if you were sat for an hour waiting for a single cab company in one place in a city, you were doing it completely wrong.

      He called a cab company up and asked them to pick him up at a particular time. I've done this and have never had a problem, but if things happened as he described, he most certainly was doing it right, and they disrespected him by wasting his time. It's a service they offer, so they need to do it. If they had told him over the phone, "we're sorry, we don't send cabs to pick people up in your area," that would have been fine. Like you said, it's not servitude and they have the right to decline jobs if they think the money isn't worth it. That said, the moment they agreed to the pickup, they're committed to be there, and to be there on time. He could have been going to an important job interview, and they didn't give him the chance to make alternate plans.

      --

      Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.

    6. Re:Not pointless at all... by Common+Joe · · Score: 2

      He called a cab company up and asked them to pick him up at a particular time. I've done this and have never had a problem, but if things happened as he described, he most certainly was doing it right, and they disrespected him by wasting his time.

      Had this happen to me. My wife doesn't drive and I had a doctor's appointment and, based on crappy / late / never showed up experiences with other cabs and cab companies in other cities, made an appointment that would allow me to be at the doctor's over an hour early. We called the cab place after the cab didn't show up 10 minutes after expected time. "They'll be there in 5 minutes!" Ok. No problem. Ten minutes, later no cab. We called again. "They'll be there in 5 minutes!" We were getting a little suspicious by then so we told them to ask the cabbie where he was. "Oh, don't worry, he'll be there in 5 minutes." Ten more minutes go by. I finally called up a guy we knew from work who left work, picked me up and got the two of us to the doctor's appointment on time, but barely. (My wife went with me and the out-patient procedure required that I didn't drive afterward. I really would have preferred that my colleague didn't know as much as he found out, but at least he was really nice about it.)

      When we got home, there was a message on our answer phone from the cabbie saying his previous client kept wanting him to drive him / her everywhere and he couldn't get to us. He was now free and could pick us up and wanted to know if we wanted to be picked up. It was almost an hour after our appointment when he called. WTF? That is shitty service at its finest.

      TL;DR: Yes, cab companies can waste your time / money and can really ruin your day.

  5. Re:Explain by AK+Marc · · Score: 3, Informative

    I either drive my car, take a bus, or schedule a pickup using the cab service website. About the only time when I do an impromptu taxi ride, it is fixed rate downtown and the taxis are everywhere.
    So what is the advantage of a hailing program for a phone? Is it like the food delivery service for outlets that don't have delivery? I suppose that might be useful in some areas, but I just walk down a few blocks and get the food.

    A number of places are hard to find cabs unless you are on the right street. It's even hard to get them to come by phone. If you call in a ride too short, but are too far off the beaten path, you'll not get a cab out, and any complaints will be met with complaints you weren't at the pickup site. But this service guarantees pickup. That's a greater value than calling in a pickup. I've personally been stranded more than once. I wasn't far off the beaten path for one, so I stopped calling in from that location, and instead walk to a nearby hotel, where there is always someone waiting. But with this, if it covered where I live now, I'd use it for all trips in that area.

    --
    Learn to love Alaska