Uber

[crownie]

Was a lifesaver when on holiday in America.

One driver in LA moved from Boston and said he drives about 60 hours a week, its perfect for place like LA.

 

[MarcusP2]

Uber's business model is like Amazon's. Use their oceans of cash from investors/Google to subsidise costs, drive out competitors, dominate the market, then eventually get to profitability by increasing prices. They have never made money, but can continue to lose so long as their cash reserves and investments hold out - much longer than taxis etc can.

 

[The Lemon]

Got a nice surprise last week when a Merc C-Class rocked up to take the UberX fare.

Not bad

 

[Cruyff14]

Got a nice surprise last week when a Merc C-Class rocked up to take the UberX fare.

Not bad

Yeah best one I have been in also while riding in an Uber.

 

[The Lemon]

Yeah best one I have been in also while riding in an Uber.

Was only a 5 min trip, but the girls loved it

 

[Admiral Byng]

Forgive the stupid newbie question - but how do you pay for the ride?

Thinking about signing up.

 

[PP34]

Forgive the stupid newbie question - but how do you pay for the ride?

Thinking about signing up.

Via your credit/debit card which you link inside the app.

Automatically docks it from there on completion of the trip .

 

[Whispering_Jack]

Or paypal

 

[Admiral Byng]

Via your credit/debit card which you link inside the app.

Automatically docks it from there on completion of the trip .

Ok thanks. Found the set-up payment options on the App.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

The ubiquity is better than ever but the service has definitely dropped now every man and his dog and person who would have been a taxi driver 5 years ago is doing it. Half the time when I step in the driver will have Fox FM or some shit playing instead of silence. The fake new car smells and offers of water and mints have dropped right off too. Probably coincided with the app no longer forcing passengers to rate the driver.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

I probably won't as much as he has!

Talcum Powder
-Born
-Vaucluse Public
-Sydney Grammar
-University of Sydney
-University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship
-Partner at Goldman Sachs (now you're just showing off)
-Trolling the Liberal Party by siding with Rudd on ETS
-Trolling Tony Abbott
-Prime Minister of Australia

Me
-Born
-Shat my pants
-Puked on my mum
-Finger painting
-Pulteney Grammar
-Scotch College
-Shat in the back yard whilst drunk
-University of Adelaide
-Entry-level Law job
-On BigFooty at 1:46pm on a Friday

Do you dishwashers look down on Uber drivers?

 

[kickazz]

The only thing good about it really is that they are competition for the corrupt taxi industry.

But otherwise there's nothing clever about what they do: avoid maintaining assets, avoid proper employment agreements, avoid regulation, make billion dollar losses.

 

[ioppolo]

Uber is way more convenient than a taxi.

And I hardly get surcharges. Must be lucky. Plus the cheaper rates.

Stil good in my books.

 

[kickazz]

Uber's business model is like Amazon's. Use their oceans of cash from investors/Google to subsidise costs, drive out competitors, dominate the market, then eventually get to profitability by increasing prices. They have never made money, but can continue to lose so long as their cash reserves and investments hold out - much longer than taxis etc can.

Yes, and in Australia this contravenes the Trade Practices Act

 

[Power Raid]

Yes, and in Australia this contravenes the Trade Practices Act

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/caca2010265/s46.html

COMPETITION AND CONSUMER ACT 2010 - SECT 46
Misuse of market power
(1) A corporation that has a substantial degree of power in a market shall not take advantage of that power in that or any other market for the purpose of:

(a) eliminating or substantially damaging a competitor of the corporation or of a body corporate that is related to the corporation in that or any other market;

(b) preventing the entry of a person into that or any other market; or

(c) deterring or preventing a person from engaging in competitive conduct in that or any other market.

(1AAA) If a corporation supplies goods or services for a sustained period at a price that is less than the relevant cost to the corporation of supplying the goods or services, the corporation may contravene subsection (1) even if the corporation cannot, and might not ever be able to, recoup losses incurred by supplying the goods or services.

(1AA) A corporation that has a substantial share of a market must not supply, or offer to supply, goods or services for a sustained period at a price that is less than the relevant cost to the corporation of supplying such goods or services, for the purpose of:

(a) eliminating or substantially damaging a competitor of the corporation or of a body corporate that is related to the corporation in that or any other market; or

(b) preventing the entry of a person into that or any other market; or

(c) deterring or preventing a person from engaging in competitive conduct in that or any other market.

(1AB) For the purposes of subsection (1AA), without limiting the matters to which the Court may have regard for the purpose of determining whether a corporation has a substantial share of a market, the Court may have regard to the number and size of the competitors of the corporation in the market.

(1A) For the purposes of subsections (1) and (1AA):

(a) the reference in paragraphs (1)(a) and (1AA)(a) to a competitor includes a reference to competitors generally, or to a particular class or classes of competitors; and

(b) the reference in paragraphs (1)(b) and (c) and (1AA)(b) and (c) to a person includes a reference to persons generally, or to a particular class or classes of persons.

(2) If:

(a) a body corporate that is related to a corporation has, or 2 or more bodies corporate each of which is related to the one corporation together have, a substantial degree of power in a market; or

(b) a corporation and a body corporate that is, or a corporation and 2 or more bodies corporate each of which is, related to that corporation, together have a substantial degree of power in a market;

the corporation shall be taken for the purposes of this section to have a substantial degree of power in that market.

(3) In determining for the purposes of this section the degree of power that a body corporate or bodies corporate has or have in a market, the court shall have regard to the extent to which the conduct of the body corporate or of any of those bodies corporate in that market is constrained by the conduct of:

(a) competitors, or potential competitors, of the body corporate or of any of those bodies corporate in that market; or

(b) persons to whom or from whom the body corporate or any of those bodies corporate supplies or acquires goods or services in that market.

(3A) In determining for the purposes of this section the degree of power that a body corporate or bodies corporate has or have in a market, the court may have regard to the power the body corporate or bodies corporate has or have in that market that results from:

(a) any contracts, arrangements or understandings, or proposed contracts, arrangements or understandings, that the body corporate or bodies corporate has or have, or may have, with another party or other parties; and

(b) any covenants, or proposed covenants, that the body corporate or bodies corporate is or are, or would be, bound by or entitled to the benefit of.

(3B) Subsections (3) and (3A) do not, by implication, limit the matters to which regard may be had in determining, for the purposes of this section, the degree of power that a body corporate or bodies corporate has or have in a market.

(3C) For the purposes of this section, without limiting the matters to which the court may have regard for the purpose of determining whether a body corporate has a substantial degree of power in a market, a body corporate may have a substantial degree of power in a market even though:

(a) the body corporate does not substantially control the market; or

(b) the body corporate does not have absolute freedom from constraint by the conduct of:

(i) competitors, or potential competitors, of the body corporate in that market; or

(ii) persons to whom or from whom the body corporate supplies or acquires goods or services in that market.

(3D) To avoid doubt, for the purposes of this section, more than 1 corporation may have a substantial degree of power in a market.

(4) In this section:

(a) a reference to power is a reference to market power;

(b) a reference to a market is a reference to a market for goods or services; and

(c) a reference to power in relation to, or to conduct in, a market is a reference to power, or to conduct, in that market either as a supplier or as an acquirer of goods or services in that market.

(4A) Without limiting the matters to which the court may have regard for the purpose of determining whether a corporation has contravened subsection (1), the court may have regard to:

(a) any conduct of the corporation that consisted of supplying goods or services for a sustained period at a price that was less than the relevant cost to the corporation of supplying such goods or services; and

(b) the reasons for that conduct.

(5) Without extending by implication the meaning of subsection (1), a corporation shall not be taken to contravene that subsection by reason only that it acquires plant or equipment.

(6) This section does not prevent a corporation from engaging in conduct that does not constitute a contravention of any of the following sections, namely, sections 45, 45B, 47, 49 and 50, by reason that an authorization or clearance is in force or by reason of the operation of subsection 45(8A) or section 93.

(6A) In determining for the purposes of this section whether, by engaging in conduct, a corporation has taken advantage of its substantial degree of power in a market, the court may have regard to any or all of the following:

(a) whether the conduct was materially facilitated by the corporation's substantial degree of power in the market;

(b) whether the corporation engaged in the conduct in reliance on its substantial degree of power in the market;

(c) whether it is likely that the corporation would have engaged in the conduct if it did not have a substantial degree of power in the market;

(d) whether the conduct is otherwise related to the corporation's substantial degree of power in the market.

subsection does not limit the matters to which the court may have regard.

(7) Without in any way limiting the manner in which the purpose of a person may be established for the purposes of any other provision of this Act, a corporation may be taken to have taken advantage of its power for a purpose referred to in subsection (1) notwithstanding that, after all the evidence has been considered, the existence of that purpose is ascertainable only by inference from the conduct of the corporation or of any other person or from other relevant circumstances.

 

[Mr_Bojangles]

Took an uber to the airport a couple of weeks ago and got this white South African guy who the whole journey talked about how the country went to hell when apartheid ended and the blacks can keep their soccer. Seems South Africa wasn't racist enough any more so he moved to Australia. He LOVES our indigenous people too. LOVES THEM.

 

[phantom13]

The ubiquity is better than ever but the service has definitely dropped now every man and his dog and person who would have been a taxi driver 5 years ago is doing it. Half the time when I step in the driver will have Fox FM or some shit playing instead of silence. The fake new car smells and offers of water and mints have dropped right off too. Probably coincided with the app no longer forcing passengers to rate the driver.

Yeh the mints and water are gone. Had one the other day for an airport trip and his boot was full, me and my colleague had to carry our bags with us, not a big deal but poor service. Taxis usually have the same issue with the giant gas tank in the boot.

 

[JG22]

Taxi tried to rip us off last week by taking the long/wrong way to the city which everyone has done a billion times.

**** they're bad, but essential.

 

[Shell]

Took an Uber for the first time the other week.

The guy was lovely- I was coughing and spluttering as I was sick- got a bottle of water.

Probably never go back to taxis- like the person above ****er ripped me off taking me home from the airport, missed my exit off the fwy (i wasnt paying attention) they are ****ing pricks. I should have refused to pay him the full fare.

 

[King Elvis]

I got suspended from Uber we a few weekends ago.

Oops

 

[Shell]

I got suspended from Uber we a few weekends ago.

Oops

Spill- what did you do

 

[Gralin]

Yes I'm curious also

 

[King Elvis]

Just being a legend.

I never get Uber home - common sense for anybody who likes to have a big night out; cab it, and get them to drop you off a few doors down.

Well, I was blind, the GF was pretty hammered, and she decided it'd be a great idea to order an Uber from my phone. I messed with his radio and maybe asked if the main downside of Uber over cabs was that people couldn't pay with blowjobs anymore... he didn't think it was funny, which is fair enough... but drunken me figured it would be funnier if I kept going with the joke... it wasn't - just quite dickish. Still, I don't reckon it was that bad, and I was clearly joking - but he was from a part of the world that doesn't really appreciate comedy.

Then I was ****ing with his radio again, and he spat the dummy.

Next day I got an email from Uber stating I'd been suspended due to inappropriate behavior.

Not something to be proud of... but it's pretty funny.

 

[Shell]

He probably thought you were offering him a bj. Can understand why he was less than impressed

 

[King Elvis]

He probably thought you were offering him a bj. Can understand why he was less than impressed

That was the punchline

Either way, it's my girlfriends fault for ordering an Uber.