The uber taxi app

patman99

Uber will soon have another competitor.
I remember one of the dragons on Dragons Den investing in a UK-created app for booking taxis. From what I remember, they were only going to charge a 10% fee to the operator for the service to boot.

BillJones

mro wrote: »

In the long term it doesn't bode well for standard Taxis and will hit them hard.

Could create inevitable race to bottom, as Uber model is easy to replicate and there will always be lots of people wanting to do bit of extra work.

I used it twice yesterday, and got a nice E-class, and a newish Prius. You can choose the standard of car if you want, and I'll likely drop it if they start providing the sort of cars or drivers that I'm not happy using.

mro

BillJones wrote: »

I used it twice yesterday, and got a nice E-class, and a newish Prius. You can choose the standard of car if you want, and I'll likely drop it if they start providing the sort of cars or drivers that I'm not happy using.

What sort of prices do they charge ?

w211

patman99 wrote: »

Uber will soon have another competitor.

mro wrote: »

Could create inevitable race to bottom, as Uber model is easy to replicate and there will always be lots of people wanting to do bit of extra work.

Other Uber competitors in London are: Drivr, Wheely and Bounce.

None of them are as big as Uber, who have an international presence (in 100+ cities, in 38 countries).

mro wrote: »

What sort of prices do they charge ?

In London, for UberX (Ford Mondeo, Toyota Prius or similar), it's £3.00 base fare + £1.75 per mile (over 11mph) or £0.32 per minute (below 11 mph). Minimum fare is £6.00.

UberExec is approx 50% higher than UberX, UberLux is also approx 50% higher than UberExec.

BillJones

mro wrote: »

What sort of prices do they charge ?

It was two unusually short journeys based on me being late to watch the football in the first case, and then just wanting to get home to bed after it. I'd normally walk, so I've no idea how much a black cab would be.

[simon]

Very interesting points here.

I have come to the conclusion, that, i think uber will only operate in city centers. thus it will not effect or have huge effect on other smaller or medium sized private hire businesses further away from the city centers. I think the most businesse's hit will be the actual back cabs in city centers and other private hire businesses close to the city center. I carnt see uber taking all of the trade inside and out the city centers.

It is more likely that the businesses out side the city center will bring out there own app's (some have already) to accommodate the savvy customers along side the usual calling up the operator. As a lot of people out side the city center are older and don't understand how to use apps or even may prefer to jump in to a cab close by the rail way station ect.

No body likes dirty cabs. There are plenty of private hire cabs out side city centers with nice cars and provide a good cheaper service.

w211

[simon] wrote: »

No body likes dirty cabs. There are plenty of private hire cabs out side city centers with nice cars and provide a good cheaper service.

I think that's the problem with London's black taxis. 25,000 self-employed individuals, all with their own standards.

You may get into a brand new immaculate cab, with a suited driver. On the other hand, you could also get into a 15-year old rattly rust bucket, whose driver is wearing a string vest with the remains of last night dinner on it, and still pay the same price.

At least when you book a private hire car from a company, they can maintain some sort of standards the drivers need to adhere to.

With Uber, after each ride, you give the driver a star rating out of 5 (similar to eBay), and you can leave comments if you wish. If the driver's rating falls below a certain level, then they'll be kicked off the system.

mose_2

In numerous tests of londons taxi drivers vrs minicab drivers with a tomtom the taxi driver always wins without fail. No satnav will ever be as good as someone that has studied thousands of hours and 3-5 years of londons street and buildings. There's a saying in London if you are in trouble and can't find a policeman find a cabbie!

BillJones

mose wrote: »

In numerous tests of londons taxi drivers vrs minicab drivers with a tomtom the taxi driver always wins without fail. No satnav will ever be as good as someone that has studied thousands of hours and 3-5 years of londons street and buildings. There's a saying in London if you are in trouble and can't find a policeman find a cabbie!

I live in London, and have never heard that saying.

I have, though, suffered from black cab drivers taking me deliberately onto the most congested road possible, to make me pay more than. I should for the journey.

It's naive in the extreme to jump from them knowing the best route, to assuming that they'll take it.

dacouch

BillJones wrote: »

I live in London, and have never heard that saying.

I have, though, suffered from black cab drivers taking me deliberately onto the most congested road possible, to make me pay more than. I should for the journey.

It's naive in the extreme to jump from them knowing the best route, to assuming that they'll take it.

I agree, I've never heard that saying and if you asked many cabbies for help they would not help.

I suspect the taxi cab against mini cab is carried out by a taxi trade association and the test weighted in favour of the taxi driver rather than being a truely independent test. Having said that London cab drivers do know the roads much better than mini cab drivers although their standard of driving is equally poor.

Phone apps are the future for taxi rides, I don't see their being much of a market for taxi cabs driving around London plying for trade when they can simply park up and be called to a customer by a phone app. I for one can't wait for this so I don't have to put up with them suddenly braking to do a u turn without any warning or deciding to pick up a customer in the middle of traffic lights without any thought for the rest of the road users