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Uber Reveals One of Its Big Vulnerabilities (slate.com)
One-quarter of its business happens in just five cities; 15 percent of bookings happen on airport trips. From a report: About 24 percent of Uber's bookings -- all the money that customers pay through the app and in cash, including driver earnings -- occur in just five cities: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, and Sao Paulo. For a company that operates in more than 700 cities, including quite a few giants -- Mexico City, Tokyo, Paris, Lagos, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Mumbai, to name a few -- that concentration gives Uber a surprising vulnerability at the local level. And they know it.
This vulnerability casts a new light on, for example, Uber's 2015 humiliation of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, when the company fought off the City Council's proposed vehicle cap. That was a warning to other politicians, and a show of power, but it was also a vital business move. The company's filing also mentions, as a cautionary tale, what happened afterward: Just three years later, the City Council approved minimum rates for drivers and a cap on the number of new ride-hail vehicles. The company also mentions its regulatory challenges in London and San Francisco.
This vulnerability casts a new light on, for example, Uber's 2015 humiliation of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, when the company fought off the City Council's proposed vehicle cap. That was a warning to other politicians, and a show of power, but it was also a vital business move. The company's filing also mentions, as a cautionary tale, what happened afterward: Just three years later, the City Council approved minimum rates for drivers and a cap on the number of new ride-hail vehicles. The company also mentions its regulatory challenges in London and San Francisco.
perhaps not the worst of its problems.
I really expected Washington DC to be on that list of top cities too. The District is such a pain to drive around, most people seem to just navigate it the way I do when I'm out there; take the Metro to the nearest station and walk the rest of the way. If you need to carry around any large items/boxes though? Uber is your friend.
I see a whole lot of Uber hailing going on in DC though, thanks to all the bars and nightclubs, with people who had too much to drink, plus all the "important people" who need to get around from point A to B while not breaking a sweat or getting their nice suit dirty.
Personally, I do everything I can to avoid taking Uber and to date, I've never used Lyft (though their app is still on my phone, just in case). I think the service itself is a great idea, and I love how it disrupted the old-school and stale cab business. I just don't like paying that much to be taken relatively short distances. I spend all the money involved in owning my own vehicle and I'd prefer to use it in most situations.
I wouldn't invest in them. After being the first company to successfully kill someone with their self-driving car and for all the other crazy stuff the company's done, it's not a company I would trust.
You've basically got five cities that can now make whatever demands they want. Losing any one of those top five would be a huge problem, and now they all know it.
Uber is gonna wish they hadn't been so pugnacious, I suspect.
IMHO, Uber & Lyft are nothing but illegal taxi services & Airbnb is illegal hotel!!!
IMHO, these companies are employing/enabling a huge amount of criminals & criminal activities (since their beginnings)!!!
Like Uber drivers kidnapping/raping/killing women & Airbnb "hosts" secretly video recording people!!!
& not to mention, lots of shady business methods/activities used by the companies themselves!!!
IMHO, if allowed to continue, these businesses would destroy all legal taxi & hotel businesses, sooner or later, & create a world where most taxi & hotel "businesses" run by criminals or criminally inclined people!!!
So, IMHO, it would be best for common good of general public to shutdown these companies for good!!!
"15 percent of bookings happen on airport trips"
Airport parking seems to cost an arm and a leg worldwide then.
NYC isn't the same as any of those other cities because NYC has that bizarre "medallion" scam.
There's nothing illegal about compensating someone else for sharing a ride
What sharing? The people driving aren't going to the same place the people contacting them. The driver is going out of their way to explicitly pick up someone. Further, that driver wasn't going anywhere in the first place. They were waiting somewhere for someone to contact them. You know what that's called? A taxi.
or renting out a spare room in your house
Yes, there is. It is guaranteed the homeowner's insurance does not cover running a business out of their home, especially one involving the housing of other people. Also, people doing the "renting" aren't following the same rules that real landlords have to do when renting.
Don't tell anyone about garage sales those might be illegal to.
Selling your odds and ends one day a year is in no way comparable to running a business out of your car or home.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Isn't there anybody fighting this? I mean, people have to speak up when things go wrong. It's time to treat them as any other livery service, but it won't happen unless the voters say something on election day.
Uber's big vulnerability is being called out in how much money it collects illegal interest against while holding refunds in users accounts rather than returning it to the credit cards they charged.
Credit card get billed for a trip you didn't take?
Sure we'll just refund to your Uber account. Fraud.
You just wanted the free publicity from the inevitable Alex Jones and Drudge Report freak-outs.
I would guess that Lyft is probably even worse in coverage and neither company is worthy of their status or value. A paper tiger both are for investors.
Note, many municipalities limit the frequency of garage sales so you do not become a retailer. As you point out, it is usually once or twice a year.
Burning thru investor cash as they try to figure out how to sustain. Increases in fuel will push society to economize transport. Load sharing can Shift costs to inconvenience, since time also a factor. The ride hailing apps are learning where and how to make money so they will evolve. Apps that become a platform just connecting buyer and seller seems to be a simpler model. Make money from subscription and advertising . Charge the transporters for listing and any collection services.
> You know what that's called? A taxi.
Uber is actually running a "black car" service. Basically, a limousine service. Taxis/limos are considered separate businesses functions. Limos are called/scheduled ahead of time. Taxis drive around looking for random fares or waiting at designated spots. They handle cash and use meters to charge by the mile whereas limos are usually paid by hourly blocks ahead of time. (It may be illegal to install a meter in non-taxis.)
Uber and other ride hailing services/apps are riding the line. Fares are scheduled instantaneously using an app. A lot of their drivers either patrol around or park in locations. They charge by the mile like taxis, but the meter is essentially a server and GPS tracker. The transaction is handled through the app, so no cash changes hands.
Local regulators must be having trouble figuring out how to bring them under their thumbs without killing the limo industry. Although it would seem simple enough just to require a special license and vehicle registration/markings.
A garage sale without a business license and sales tax charged on every transaction is completely illegal. People need to go to jail.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
A Knock-Down is where the driver takes a passenger for cash without logging it into their metering device (their phone, for Uber/Lyft) thus cutting out their employer completely.
This happens very often with repeat customers, as drivers will give out cards with their personal cell number on it to call when they need service so they can just go "off duty" and take the whole fare.
It's little wonder they're struggling in the measured profit department, and drivers' recorded earnings are so low, statistically.
Any driver with a decent stable of regulars can make a killing without sharing the wealth with Uber/Lyft. There's also very little that they can do about it, either. Even if they let those drivers go, they turn into Gypsy Cabs that simply run the signs, and work for cash only. Lots of them out there.
You are the TimeCuber guy, aren't you?
Actually it's totally legal as long as your revenue is under a certain amount. I believe in canada the threshold is about $30,000 a year.