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Used Uber for the second time last night. Fantastic experience. The bloke driving was really easy to talk to, unlike 95% of late night cabbies who are ranting about something or speaking in their ear piece.

Offered us mentos and water bottles. Comfortable trip and despite it being paid for prior to the trip he was happy to take us whatever way we thought best.

The trip cost about 13 bucks compared to the 45 it cost the week before when I went another 5 minutes down the road.

Learn to keep up cabbies.
 
I've been using uber for the last couple of months and it's been fantastic. My question is can a passenger get a bad rating? On the weekend I booked an Uber but a minute after doing so our plans changed so I quickly called the guy to let him no that I wouldn't be there to be picked up. He took it pretty well, but I was disappointed as I'm keen to keep my own 5 star rating if that's how passengers are rated.
 
The government have released too many taxi licenses, as such each taxi is under financial pressure as theres only so many dollars to go round.

I'm not sure how we can eliminate the excess taxis, but obviously the gov can't add anymore whilst uber exist.

The taxi owners live in a fantasy world where they think prices can rise indefinitely.

On the proviso usage numbers increased proportionally, taxis could drop prices by 25-30% and maintain it for 5yrs+

I should add that being a part time uber driver allows for lower rates as repairs and depreciation aren't as significant.
 

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Rough_Edges said:
excess taxis LOL

tell me that at 3am on Saturday morning when i next leave a bar.
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I'm in Brisbane, and up here it's easy to get cabs as there's 50-60 cab line ups at multiple CBD and inner city taxi ranks.
From a statistics POV, there should be enough data to show reliable usage trends, but if you're in mega cities like Sydney or Melbourne, it's always possible that an extra 20000 people happen to go out on a particular night, making it difficult to meet demand.

When I say there's too many taxi's, it's certainly the case up here, especially Sun-thursday, where it's so slow that the cab numbers from 10-15yrs ago could've still handled demand, but obviously more are needed on busier friday/sat nights, however, when the gov releases a licence{Brisbane}, that taxi is only justified on busy friday and sat nights, as I said, the other nights are very slow in comparison, as such, each new taxi is always under financial pressure as it's not busy every day and night......this is where peak vehicles are needed, and I think they do this in melbourne, but not sure.

See what I'm saying, if there's 50% less taxi's on the road sun-thurs, the drivers income would skyrocket, as such the industry could lower fares by 25-30% and serve the public on friday and sat with peak usage vehicles, otherwise the model fails during the slow times for drivers and can struggle in peak times for the public.

I'm in the traditional taxi industry I'm not an uber driver and I don't think uber could pay my bills as they don't have access to hail ranks, they can only do phone jobs+ people underestimate what happens to vehicles when you do 120000 km's+ per year of stop start driving, stop start is a different animal to smooth long distance driving, plus, I'm of the view it's close to impossible to avoid accidents as a full time driver, so that makes uber nothing but a part time earner.

Uber exist because the government have mishandled the taxi industry, are part time and don't pay taxes.

Oh btw, up here, many drivers are on what's called set pay, so if they take $2000 on the meter a week, $1100 is owed to the depot, and the rest is for the driver, however, when demand for taxi's drops, the $1100 figure is still owed, and it's the driver who loses money, as such, the owners have no incentive to lower prices just as long as they get their cut.

When the taxi fares go up, so does the $1100 figure, but there's no guarantee total takings will rise, so it's the driver who suffers the loss, not the owner.
 
The point above about excess taxi's is actually pretty true... The only time there isn't excess taxi's (in Sydney and Melbourne) is Friday and Saturday nights. Any other time of the week you ask your taxi driver how is business and they say it's very slow and they're only doing a few rides a day.

Perhaps maybe the problem is that there are about 80% of the taxi licences required to handle Friday and Saturday nights, but during the rest of the week there is typically about 1/5th - 1/6th of taxi requirements as there would be during those times. With maybe another mini peak on Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons. So normally you've got all these taxi's out on the road but not enough passengers. So you've got annoyed drivers who aren't picking up rides and aren't getting paid properly. They've also got to inflate fares because they need to make up for how much time is spent driving around looking for rides.

So maybe the solution is to progressively cut the taxi licence numbers and retrain guys into other industries. There are plenty of other industries to work in that pay better, more consistently and don't require you to deal with pissed ****ers. There really should only be the amount of taxi's on the road that are required during off-peak times, meaning those drivers are getting constant rides and (in theory) should be getting a more solid wage which will hopefully increase the standard of taxi's. Also having less taxi licences should mean the drivers realise there is scope for them to lose their job if they don't perform.

The shortfall of taxi's we would now see during "medium-peak" and "high-peak" times would need to be made up in a combination of factors such as Uber (which many former taxi drivers could become drivers) and private and part-time taxi licences - This could be a lower licence fee but can only operate Friday and Saturday nights.

This is just something right off the top of my head so feel free to pick apart. The big thing is the powerful taxi lobby would never allow it. They want more taxi's on the road.

Regardless, there is got to be a better way then how it's being done cause it's not working for the end user and drivers seem generally unhappy across the board. So it must be working for someone and it's pretty obvious who.

A city's tourism is very dependant on it's public transport and one of the biggest complaints tourists have about Melbourne and Sydney is the taxi service.
 
so saturday night came around and i had to make the decision to go back to the dark side and get a cab. this was only because uber was charging 2.1-2.7 surge fees which made it more expensive than a taxi. i never had this issue until now but according to a few mates its pretty regular on a friday-sat night that surge pricing is in operation and most of the time its no longer cheaper than a cab
 
hamohawk1 said:
so saturday night came around and i had to make the decision to go back to the dark side and get a cab. this was only because uber was charging 2.1-2.7 surge fees which made it more expensive than a taxi. i never had this issue until now but according to a few mates its pretty regular on a friday-sat night that surge pricing is in operation and most of the time its no longer cheaper than a cab
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Maybe not cheaper but the experience is still better than a cab IMO.
 
hamohawk1 said:
so saturday night came around and i had to make the decision to go back to the dark side and get a cab. this was only because uber was charging 2.1-2.7 surge fees which made it more expensive than a taxi. i never had this issue until now but according to a few mates its pretty regular on a friday-sat night that surge pricing is in operation and most of the time its no longer cheaper than a cab
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Theres a little bit of writing that says when it'll be off the surcharge and you can click for them to notify you when it's back to normal rates. It usually isn't to long of a wait, happened to me a few weeks ago and just had to wait 5min and then it dropped down.
 

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Cabbies are ****ing arseholes.

I usually walk home from a night out, but when I'm lazy or lucky I'll pay $15 and get a taxi. Anyway, the other night I get one and he's asking for $33! The gall! Called him up on it and he weirdly gave me $15 back in fivers? Is he just doing this to every pissed bloke and hoping he gets away with it?
 
2.7 surge on Saturday so got a cab. I live around 40 minutes out of the city so it hurts me in the pocket a lot if it's surging.

Talking on his phone the whole time and refused to plug my address into his GPS.

Was filthy when he discovered he needed to do 2 drop offs (2 minutes away).

Terrible service.
 
nbaman1 said:
Used Uber for the second time last night. Fantastic experience. The bloke driving was really easy to talk to, unlike 95% of late night cabbies who are ranting about something or speaking in their ear piece.

Offered us mentos and water bottles. Comfortable trip and despite it being paid for prior to the trip he was happy to take us whatever way we thought best.

The trip cost about 13 bucks compared to the 45 it cost the week before when I went another 5 minutes down the road.

Learn to keep up cabbies.
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I dont think this is correct? Uber tracks you and charges you using GPS information
 
Rough_Edges said:
2.7 surge on Saturday so got a cab. I live around 40 minutes out of the city so it hurts me in the pocket a lot if it's surging.

Talking on his phone the whole time and refused to plug my address into his GPS.

Was filthy when he discovered he needed to do 2 drop offs (2 minutes away).

Terrible service.
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Yep... was going to use it to get home late on Saturday Night.... surge got past 2 and it turned me off.... took a cab and reckon it would have been the same if not cheaper... plus was surrounded by punters everywhere so wasn't gonna fart around trying to get the right Uber car when everyone else around me was doing it too.
 
Gough said:
My cabbie on Friday night was an Indian dude from Haryana, birthplace of Kapil Dev, we talked cricket, and weed. I'm surprised how many Indian stoners I'm meeting, maybe that's why so many are settling here.
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I've been to India and a lot of people smoke weed in the north of the country.
The best kush i've heard is on the foot of the Himalayas
 
Finally got around to using it last night. I was impressed. Was cheaper and the service is a lot better. Even if it was a bit more expensive then a regular cab I will still book one from now on if last night is the normal. I thought it would be a nightmare trying to find it but no problems as you can see on the map where it is. The big plus for mine is knowing roughly how far away it is. So many times I have booked a cab and have been waiting for ages for it to arrive. Then after a while you have no idea if it has already come and couldn't find you or if it simply a busy time and it is still on the way. Real pain in the ass if you need to get somewhere by a designated time.

The taxi industry may or may not have some valid complaints (although the billboard they have up at Sydney Airport is an absolute joke designed to wrongly scare people) but uber has shown how poor the service is from existing taxi providers.
 
Beavis07 said:
Finally got around to using it last night. I was impressed. Was cheaper and the service is a lot better. Even if it was a bit more expensive then a regular cab I will still book one from now on if last night is the normal. I thought it would be a nightmare trying to find it but no problems as you can see on the map where it is. The big plus for mine is knowing roughly how far away it is. So many times I have booked a cab and have been waiting for ages for it to arrive. Then after a while you have no idea if it has already come and couldn't find you or if it simply a busy time and it is still on the way. Real pain in the ass if you need to get somewhere by a designated time.

The taxi industry may or may not have some valid complaints (although the billboard they have up at Sydney Airport is an absolute joke designed to wrongly scare people) but uber has shown how poor the service is from existing taxi providers.
Click to expand...
What does the billboard say?
 
nbaman1 said:
Used Uber for the second time last night. Fantastic experience. The bloke driving was really easy to talk to, unlike 95% of late night cabbies who are ranting about something or speaking in their ear piece.
Click to expand...

Do people really have a great desire to talk to cabbies? I understand being friendly and sociable, but most of the time (usually because it's like 5am and I just want to get home) I CBF saying anything, and couldn't care less if they do either, as long as they get me to where I want to go without any fuss.

POGMA said:
I'm in the traditional taxi industry I'm not an uber driver and I don't think uber could pay my bills as they don't have access to hail ranks, they can only do phone jobs+ people underestimate what happens to vehicles when you do 120000 km's+ per year of stop start driving, stop start is a different animal to smooth long distance driving, plus, I'm of the view it's close to impossible to avoid accidents as a full time driver, so that makes uber nothing but a part time earner.

Uber exist because the government have mishandled the taxi industry, are part time and don't pay taxes.

Oh btw, up here, many drivers are on what's called set pay, so if they take $2000 on the meter a week, $1100 is owed to the depot, and the rest is for the driver, however, when demand for taxi's drops, the $1100 figure is still owed, and it's the driver who loses money, as such, the owners have no incentive to lower prices just as long as they get their cut.

When the taxi fares go up, so does the $1100 figure, but there's no guarantee total takings will rise, so it's the driver who suffers the loss, not the owner.
Click to expand...

I think once Uber drivers get more experience and a truer picture of their ongoing costs and/or want to make it a full-time earner for themselves, prices for the service will go up accordingly, and it really won't be seen as much different to a regular cab service.
 
Damon_3388 said:
Do people really have a great desire to talk to cabbies? I understand being friendly and sociable, but most of the time (usually because it's like 5am and I just want to get home) I CBF saying anything, and couldn't care less if they do either, as long as they get me to where I want to go without any fuss.



I think once Uber drivers get more experience and a truer picture of their ongoing costs and/or want to make it a full-time earner for themselves, prices for the service will go up accordingly, and it really won't be seen as much different to a regular cab service.
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You don't find things incredibly awkward when there's just silence? A chat to a outgoing driver is always good fun. Every time I've been in a cab lately I've had to deal with tools who are only interesting in ranting about things and making outrageous statements.

Uber will continue to shit on taxis until they clean up the industry.
 
nbaman1 said:
You don't find things incredibly awkward when there's just silence? A chat to a outgoing driver is always good fun. Every time I've been in a cab lately I've had to deal with tools who are only interesting in ranting about things and making outrageous statements.
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To be honest, with people I don't know and probably will never see again, I generally feel pretty indifferent toward them, and am happy to just sit in silence and not have to make any effort. Probably sounds arrogant and aloof, but too many people just rabbit on about meaningless bullshit in life, for fear of it "being awkward" or like there's some real need to fill every silence. I don't really feel any great want or need to get to know some other random bloke at 5am. I'd rather just tune out and sit quietly for a few minutes on the way home. I'd probably appreciate that if I were a driver, too.
 
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