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Uber Reaches Deal To List All New York City Taxis on Its App (wsj.com) 33

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Uber is becoming friends with a former foe. The company has reached an agreement to list all New York City taxis on its app, an alliance that could ease the ride-hailing giant's driver shortage and temper high fares while directing more business to cabdrivers, whose livelihoods were affected by the emergence of car-sharing apps and the pandemic. From a report: While Uber has formed partnerships with some taxi operators overseas, and riders in several U.S. cities can use its app to book taxis if cabdrivers choose to be listed there, the New York City alliance is its first citywide partnership in the U.S. New York, one of Uber's most lucrative markets, has been a battlefield for the company and the city's iconic yellow taxis for years. "It's bigger and bolder than anything we've done," said Andrew Macdonald, Uber's global mobility chief. The company expects to launch the offering to riders later this spring. As part of the deal, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission's licensed technology partners will integrate their taxi-hailing apps' software with Uber's. Those apps -- run by Creative Mobile Technologies and Curb Mobility -- are used by the city's roughly 14,000 taxis, according to Uber. The two companies enable credit-card payments in taxis and also run the screens that display the weather, news and ads to riders.
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Uber Reaches Deal To List All New York City Taxis on Its App More

Uber Reaches Deal To List All New York City Taxis on Its App

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  • The last time I was in NYC, the Taxi's at the stand across from the Intrepid Museum wouldn't tell me how much it would be for a ride to one world trade center. I talked with several of them and they were all rude and offended that I wanted a guaranteed price. So I pulled my phone out, booked an uber and knew it was going to be an exact price. Driving taxi's is a job that needs to be done away with in NYC.. and it's all because of how NYC managed the taxi business, only allowing a limited number of Taxi numb

    • Company comes out with superior business model than existing business model.

      Incumbent businesses:
      1. Try to sue the upstart out of existence
      2. Lobbies the government to regulate the upstart out of existence
      3. Failing that, try to compete with their own similar business model that is usually inferior
      4. Either:
        4a - Partner with the upstart and share in the benefits
        4b - Go out of business slowly

      • "superior business model"

        You mean operate below cost using investor money until competition has been eliminated, market capture achieved, then jack up rates.

        You mean that kind of business model. You can fuck off now.

        • You mean operate below cost using investor money until competition has been eliminated, market capture achieved, then jack up rates.

          No. Uber competes with Lyft, and other companies are preparing to enter the market, including Waymo.

          When Uber and Lyft pulled out of Austin in 2016, competitors were up and running in less than a week.

          Predatory pricing only works when there are significant barriers to entry. With ride-sharing, there isn't.

      • Labor law makes what Uber is doing illegal. And for damn good reason. Companies should not be allowed to skip out on their responsibilities by declaring everybody contractors. Uber is not a technology company there are taxi service. They know this which is why they built a complex system to detect enforcement measures early in their lives until they had enough money to buy off enough politicians so that somebody would tell the local police and attorney generals to stop enforcing labor law.

        Let's take a s

        • You compete with absolutely everybody in the job market.

          Correct.

          Rising housing costs mean that I may not be able to do that for much longer. I'm going to have to start looking for a better paying job.

          Are you entitled to the call center job?

        • Companies should not be allowed to skip out on their responsibilities by declaring everybody contractors. Uber is not a technology company there are taxi service.

          Most taxi drivers are also contractors.

      • Attributed to Mohandas the cab driver.

    • .. it's all because of how NYC managed the taxi business, only allowing a limited number of Taxi numbers in NYC.

      The problem with unlimited numbers is increased congestion [npr.org]. How can you address that without limiting them? (Genuinely asking.)

      • By the end of the 1930's the number of medallions allowed was just under 12k. By 2014, that number was about 14k. You're telling me those additional 2k cabs increased congestion?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by bws111 ( 1216812 )

      They were 'rude and offended' because you are asking for something that they, by law, can not provide. The cabs are, by law, metered as to time and distance and the fare charged is, by law, what the meter says.

      If you wanted a guaranteed rate, you should have used 'e-hail', they can offer that.

    • The last time I was in NYC, the Taxi's at the stand across from the Intrepid Museum wouldn't tell me how much it would be for a ride to one world trade center. I talked with several of them and they were all rude and offended that I wanted a guaranteed price. So I pulled my phone out, booked an uber and knew it was going to be an exact price. Driving taxi's is a job that needs to be done away with in NYC.. and it's all because of how NYC managed the taxi business, only allowing a limited number of Taxi numbers in NYC.

      NYC yellow cab driver rates are regulated by the TLC. The rates are time and distance based with some surcharges so there is no way they could have quoted you a guaranteed price. Given the rates are printed right on the door you were just being a pest.

  • One wonders how Uber ever made it past the Taxi Commission.
    Medallions were auctioned off often demanding six figures.
    The city vigorously defended its franchise scheme, you risked getting a summons trying to pick up a friend.
    Uber/Lyft come along and its like that never happened.
    They kickbacks flowing into politicians pockets so that they would look the other way and relax enforcement must have been impressive.

    • As opposed to Uber subsidies....

    • In NYC, Uber played by the rules. In the outer boroughs where taxis rarely roam there have always been livery car services, which are licensed by the TLC. Call the dispatcher (on the nearest payphone, of course), they give you a price and send a livery car to pick you up. You wave down the car and off you go, paying the driver in cash once you reach your destination. The drivers are (TLC licensed, registered to a particular base) independent contractors. Uber registered itself as a livery car base, claimed

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jbengt ( 874751 )
        Now, if they only played by the rules in other cities, where they seldom use licensed drivers, and actually charged what it cost them instead of using investor money to undercut competition.
    • It was the people in charge of enforcing labor law. Uber's application had some relatively sophisticated code that was used to detect the label law enforcers and refused to give them rides. Later Uber had enough investor capital from investors eyeing the possibility of transforming the relationship between employees and employers that they could go around buying off mayors to get them to tell the enforcement teams over at the police to cool it and leave Uber alone. They also bought off state attorney genera

  • Apps (Score:2)

    by nasch ( 598556 )

    I will be very impressed if that app integration is actually complete and working this spring.

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