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Sex, Drugs, and Transportation: How Politicians Tried To Keep Uber Out of Vegas
HughPickens.com writes: Johana Bhuiyan has written an interesting article about how the Las Vegas taxi industry used every political maneuver in its arsenal to keep Uber and Lyft off the strip. Vegas is one of the most lucrative transportation markets in the country, with some 41.1 million visitors passing through it annually. The city's taxi industry has raked in a whopping $290 million this year to date (PDF). What made Vegas unique — what made it Uber's biggest challenge yet — was the extent to which local governments were willing to protect the incumbents. According to Bhuiyan, in Las Vegas, Uber and its pugnacious CEO Travis Kalanick really did run into the corrupt taxi cartel bogeymen they'd long claimed to be saving us from, and this cartel would prove to be their most formidable opponent. But when push came to shove and the fight turned ugly, the world's fastest-growing company ran right over its entrenched opposition.
What I don't get is why taxi services don't just provide good service. If they really want to crush Uber, that's all they need to do. It shouldn't be hard or costly to do, either.
They could start with these changes, which would make a world of difference:
1. Ditch the third-world drivers. It's frustrating dealing with taxi drivers who don't know where they're going or what they're doing, since they only arrived in the country a month before. It's also frustrating when they can't speak or understand English, which is the international language of the travel industry worldwide, especially in countries that are natively English-speaking. And it's utterly disrespectful when they spend the whole trip chattering loudly on their phones or headsets in Arabic or some other obscure language the entire trip. Instead, they should hire locals who know the area, who know the local language (plus English, if they differ), and who won't treat the customers like utter shit.
2. Charge reasonable fares. A $6 starting fare, plus $8/mile after that, plus $1 for every 5 seconds idling at a light makes short taxi trips unbearably expensive, and it makes medium and long voyages pretty much impossible. The rates are excessive even if they were providing excellent service. But as we saw in the first point, the taxi customers are paying top dollar for third-world service. Short trips should be competitive with public transit fares. Longer trips should still be within reason. If an airline charges $800 to fly thousands of miles, it should not cost $100 to take a taxi just a few miles to get to the airport to catch that flight!
3. Never refuse rides. Despite even short rides costing the customer a lot of money, it's still not uncommon for taxi drivers to outright refuse to drive customers because their trip is too short, or may take the driver to say a residential area where there won't likely be other fares to pick up afterward. Pick up the customer promptly, drive the customer to where the customer wants to go, and don't bitch about it.
4. Stop resorting to third-world harassment tactics. This is also tied in with the first point, but we've seen many taxi drivers in Western cities around the world continually resort to really pathetic third-world harassment tactics in their fight against Uber. That's not how business should work in Western nations! If you can't keep up with your competitors, then you go out of business. You don't resort to criminal or quasi-criminal behavior. It just makes you look sleazier and shittier than you already look when you do stuff like that! So don't go blocking major roads. Don't go attacking Uber vehicles with passengers in them. Don't go attacking normal, non-Uber vehicles where the one passenger just happens to be sitting in the back instead of the front.
They should start with those four basic things. Even then, they all boil down to: don't treat your customers like shit, and don't subject them to a shitty experience.
Uber is only a threat to taxi services that provide shitty service. Uber really offers no advantages beyond taxi services that provide good service. It's not like the customers really give a fuck how they get from here to there. They just don't want to be subjected to the shitshow that taxi drivers have typically subjected them to. If taxi drivers just did a good fucking job for once, then Uber couldn't do a thing to them.
Fuck, these taxi services might even see an increase in business, and profit, if taxi rides started to become known as something convenient and enjoyable, rather than the third-world screw job they tend to be these days.
...other than the fact that it's one-sided bullshit.
One of the reasons Uber, Lyft and all the other "ride sharing" app companies get so much flack because they are breaking the law. The taxi industry is regulated for very good reasons (one being safety) and all the "ride sharing" app companies blatantly ignore them. This, in turn, infuriates the traditional taxi industry that follows regulations and sees them as unfair competition.
The other reasons for the controversy revolves around some pretty awful labor exploitation but that's a whole nother story.
While I agree with your thesis that cab companies often provide shitty service for an outrageous price, I think you are wrong a few points.
It's frustrating dealing with taxi drivers who don't know where they're going or what they're doing, since they only arrived in the country a month before.
In the age of GPS this should be a non-problem. And frankly while I don't take cabs often I've NEVER run into a cab where the guy got off the figurative boat a month before. Maybe it does actually happen but I think that is more of an urban legend than anything else. More likely it is just the arrogant and often racist assumption that anyone who doesn't have English as their first language must have just gotten to the country 5 days prior.
It's also frustrating when they can't speak or understand English, which is the international language of the travel industry worldwide, especially in countries that are natively English-speaking.
English is NOT a universal language or anything close to it and certainly isn't the "international language of the travel industry worldwide". While it is among the more commonly spoken languages more of the world doesn't speak English than does. I've traveled quite a lot in places where not a word of English is spoken. The assumption that everyone should speak English is ignorant and arrogant and if you honestly believe that then you are a jerk. This is the sort of ugly-american stuff that gets us such a bad reputation. In the US, yes you should be able to speak English and in some areas Spanish is helpful too. Elsewhere different rules apply. If you cannot communicate with your driver then GET OUT and get a new cab. If you are offended at an accent then you are just being a douche.
And it's utterly disrespectful when they spend the whole trip chattering loudly on their phones or headsets in Arabic or some other obscure language the entire trip.
What do you care what language they are "chattering" in? Disrespect is a matter of opinion and perspective and local custom. I don't see that as disrespectful at all. Unprofessional in some cases but not disrespectful. Personally I don't care at all if the cabbie wants to entertain himself as long as he gets me where I want to go quickly and efficiently. I don't really want to talk with them anyway so what do I care? The only time I care is if I interrupt the driver I expect him to drop whatever he's doing and pay attention.
Well the great part is now we have choice! Customers concerned with driver screening and safety can take taxis. Customers who are not can throw caution to the wind. What I don't get is people who *want* a monopoly either way. Of rather have competition and choice, so even if I never use Uber or Lyft, I'm glad they exist.
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