Monday, July 14, 2014

Kinda Significant

When even the cab drivers in Orlando, FL are wishing that Uber would show up so that they can go drive for Uber and leave the cab companies, you know that traditional cab companies have some rather significant problems.

Several cabdrivers who lease their cars from Mears or other taxi companies told the Orlando Sentinel they want to switch to Uber because they think they can make more money. 
"If Uber opened up right now, then all the companies are going to be without drivers. If you talk to 1,000 drivers, 950 will tell you they are going to go to Uber," said a Quick Cab driver who has driven in Orlando for the past six years. He and other drivers spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing recriminations from taxi companies.

I think the best quote I've heard with regards to the whole Uber vs. Cabbies situation came from Uber's CEO, who said that the there has been so much corruption and crony capitalism with taxi companies that when you ask permission to do something that's legal you don't get it.

2 comments:

Drumwaster said...

One comment on the NYC cab companies that I read once was that when they restructured their pay system to reward more experienced drivers with a higher percentage of the fare, that merely gave the cash incentive to the owners of said companies to hire less experienced drivers, which explained the sudden surge of cab drivers who neither knew the city nor the language. This is not an isolated case.

Ragin' Dave said...

Whoa, you mean financial incentives work both ways?

No. Way.