Consumers Redefine Taxi Ride

The war between cabbies and Uber continues to boil over with new footage emerging of an apparent and deliberate attack on an UberX driver in Melbourne. While consumers get affordable fares, for drivers, incentives, both financial – in the range of 10-20 per cent more on their earning – and non-financial like insurance cover, financing schemes for buying/leasing cabs, make driving attractive.

Shocking footage has surfaced of a taxi driver posing as an Uber passenger during an alleged assault on a driver.

Everybody, that is, except for the Uber drivers who see a great idea slowly eroding into a profit grab enriching only Uber’s corporate parent.

Aviva Canada lapsed another Ottawa driver’s insurance policy at renewal after they were outed as an Uber driver, while a fourth Ottawa customer was allowed to keep their insurance because of extenuating circumstances.

Industry observers said that, as more commuters turn to the likes of GrabTaxi and Uber, taxi operators are likely seeing their own share of bookings fall.

The clip’s authenticity is now being scrutinised.

The companies disagree with much of what the council has in mind.

Mayor Jim Watson had said he hoped to have a solution that is a “fair compromise” by the end of 2015, although the taxi by-law review is expected to be tabled in early 2016.

“Uber is really a complimentary service that will be competitive with the taxi industry”, he says.

In the past year, Uber and its lesser-known competitor, Lyft, have cruised into the Toledo personal transportation market, quickly creating a niche for themselves, especially on weekend bar nights.

“That means that they allow taxis that are permitted to operate in the city of San Jose to come to the airport to transport our passengers off-airport”, she said.

The industry’s attempt to ban a company-indeed a whole new economic practice-and one that has proven wildly popular is a measure of how arrogant and out of touch monopoly control has made Big (Yellow) Taxi. Two years ago, I needed a short ride of 6 miles from the Amtrak station in Rensselaer.

The work stoppage is happening in advance of Tuesday’s City Council meeting, where city leaders will consider eliminating mandatory fingerprints for all drivers for ride-sharing companies Lyft and Uber, replacing it with random monthly audits of 1 percent of the drivers.

Others, however, have tried to give taxi drivers a break. While local taxi drivers are must to undergo fingerprinting along with a background check to comply with Carrollton regulations, Uber does not require its drivers to be fingerprinted.

‘No problem, there’s an alley right here you can turn down to avoid all this traffic, ‘ I said.

At one point, he said, Uber offered incentives such as an additional $32 an hour for drivers who made at least one trip that hour. Indeed, in October, a former Uber driver in India was convicted of raping one of his female passengers, leading to the app being banned in the country. “There is a rating system in place where passengers can rate drivers from one to five stars, and drivers can also rate passengers”.

Another driver said she was from the Cleveland area and was a senior at Bowling Green State University. We are focused on building a consistent revenue opportunity for drivers.

A trip of about 7 miles between Nick and Jimmy’s on Monroe Street and The Blade cost $14.62 by Lyft and $23.75 by Black & White Cab.