When Uber first started out the value prop wasn’t just the app scheduling or the network effect, but also that it was cheap (VC subsidized) with clean, nice cars and drivers. Plus there was a trendiness and cachet to ride share. I don’t think it would have been enough if municipal taxis had an app in 2014.
Regarding medallions in NYC: In 2021 there was a 15-day hunger strike by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) that resulted in the Medallion Relief Program (MRP). I read a bit about it and it seems like a pretty good program; especially considering the city benefited from selling inflated medallions as well as charging transfer tax.
In my state (Missouri) they most assuredly ARE classed as employees per both the state Supreme Court and the state Labor and Industrial Relations Commission.
The bigger issue is that Uber and Lyft run away whenever their drivers are accused of anything, behind the claim that “Oh, they’re independent contractors, not employees.”
Of course, it’s more likely that a passenger will assault a driver than the other way around, regardless of who they work for.
The last time I was in a cab was in 1986. The driver was ginormous and the bench seat was leaning 45 degrees into the back seat. While going around a corner he pulled in behind a parked car and waited for an imaginary light to turn green.
The first time I needed an Uber it was because my car water pump went out at 3am. I went into an all night gas station and signed up for Uber. 15 mins from the start of the process an Uber driver pulled up.
The 2nd time I needed an Uber my motorcycle died at 3am. Yes, there’s a pattern. I asked if the driver had jumper cables and did. He had to jump me 3 times to get me home.
They changed the law here in Japan starting in April this year.
Before the change, ride sharing was not allowed. Taxi drivers had to have a professional drivers license and people could not use private cars.
Uber was simply a taxi dispatching app, and would send a regular taxi that had signed up. A Japanese app GO, is similar but has a much larger market share.
After the change, people with ordinary drivers licenses can take passengers, and can use their personal vehicles. However, they must have a contract with a taxi company and that company must “supervise” them. There apparently are restrictions on operations but I don’t know the details.
Hence my qualification “around here”. They are not employees in lots of places including places where I have seen people insist uber is worse than taxis because uber drivers are not employees.
Israel has Gett, an Uber-like app that works solely with licensed cabs. It basically works the same way, and they charge regular meter rates (with surcharges for reserving in advance, cancelling reservations and a few other things). It seems to be popular among cabbies, even though they’re the ones paying for it. Actual ride-sharing isn’t legal here yet, though.
The standard taxi business has been profoundly damaged by the advent of Uber & Lyft services. In Chicago, as in most cities, you have to have a license, known as a Medallion, in order to drive a cab. Because the number of medallions are limited legally, their value used to be sky high. In New York City, medallion values famously plummeted from an all-time high of over $1 million to under $160,000. In Philadelphia, they collapsed from $545,000 to just $10,000.
I saw an interview with one cab driver. His retirement was going to be funded by selling his medallion. Now, because its worth has crashed, he may have to drive until he is incapacitated or dead.
A large swath of SE Asia uses Grab(Taxi), which combines both private cars and taxis into a single search to match you with the nearest available ride. In all other respects it works just like Uber, including food delivery. We used it quite often when we visited Thailand.
This will surely vary by location, but AIUI the prices quoted by book-a-taxi apps are only indicative estimates, as the taxis are obliged to charge the price shown on the meter at the end of the ride. I guess a well-written app that has up-to-date congestion data can get reasonably close to the meter, though.
That uncertainty as to what a taxi ride would cost is one of the reasons I really prefer that services like Uber tell me upfront what the cost will be. (It might be a high cost, like for a ride from JFK Airport out to my parents’ house in Connecticut but at least I know upfront.)
Also a bit like Netflix, where using the postal system to deliver movies to viewers was a temporary expedient while the company developed its brand and mindshare.
Broadband for everyone arrived sooner than self-driving cars.