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

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."

Comments

Not pointless at all...

[tlambert]

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.

Re:Not pointless at all...

[tlambert]

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.

Re:Unacceptable

[saihung]

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