Originally Posted by
PWMTrav
I've never had a bad taxi driver in Italy. I also don't think the rates are bad. I prefer Uber, though, because I can hail and track through the app, I don't start paying until they show up, and I never need to worry about cash.
In some US cities, regular cabs are integrated into Uber, probably a licensing requirement from the city or something. I'd happily take that in Italy. I'm sure there will be a compromise somewhere.
Exactly. This is not the end of the story, but Uber like AirBnb and similar companies, are too disruptive because they don't take into account the country they are actually trying to work in, as in Italy.
Just look at the video of the CEO of Uber who actually had to take a Uber, and how he treated his own employee.
I'm not going to sit in judgement of that. There are new technologies. But a company like Uber in Holland can't just sweep 700,000 taxi drivers out of a job. It costs tens of thousands to get a taxi cab medallion/license in Rome. A Uber driver goes to the nearest small town and pays three dollars for a drivers license, and then goes and picks up fares wherever they want, including in Rome.
In Rome, where a taxi driver can go, is very restricted. They cannot roam around the city, waiting for someone to wave them down for a fare, they must find the nearest taxi stand, and get in the back of the line.
Uber drivers were able to go wherever their app told them to go, while the taxi cab driver who paid $300,000 for their license, was prohibited from going to a hotel one block away. I wouldn't be sorry if he started the meter at take off and you had to pay an extra dollar, because he'd probably been waiting there for 3 hours, and that's just their system. It's not the USA.
I just landed back in San Francisco and I had a voice mail from the head of Blacklane auto, because I had posted something negative here. His area code listed him as not being in Bakersfield, but being in Atlanta, Georgia, which was a sham number because it directed me to Berlin. This was two days after I called, saying I had a concern.
When you are in Italy and you have a problem with a taxi, you can just take the next taxi, and you don't have to call Atlanta, Georgia, to get redirected to someone in Berlin, Germany.
When people ask, "what is the best Roman car service," I'll say it once again - there aren't any. You are hiring someone from Berlin, Atlantic City New Jersey, or somewhere in the Philippines. There are probably a few, but who knows? Not someone who has been to Italy once or twice.
You should either take a taxi, or let your hotel arrange your car. If the car isn't there, as has happened to me twice before I understood the situation, you can call the hotel, and they will make it right. Or you can try calling Blacklane in Berlin - I left them an urgent message to be able to respond to this query, and it took them 3 days to respond, and the Atlanta, Georgia area code just forwarded me to Berlin.
When in Italy, you are not going to do well with Uber, which is based in Holland, or any of that. To me, it is ridiculous to hire a car service based in Berlin or Holland, when taxi cabs from Rome airport to the city are very simple: 48 euros, no tip. If you have a problem, you don't have to call Germany, New Jersey, or South Carolina.