Originally Posted by
CurtainRingSalesman
I share your suspicion, but there is nothing to stop other regional taxi apps from forming what are effectively alliances allowing each others' customers access to locate networks. I think Yandex Taxi has already done this.
Several places have done this, as far as I can see.
Running at a loss to gain market share is certainly a lot more transparent than pressuring regulators to block your competition.
Like others have posted, as an international business traveler (this is Flyer Talk, right?) I use Uber because:
- One app works for almost everywhere I go. Can easily check beforehand whether or not. Goodbye to the "First Visit airport ripoff" that used to be a rite of travel.
- You can see where the car is and when it will arrive.
- No hanging on the phone , x10 for every taxi company, waiting for a taxi controller to tell you no cars are available.
- You have contact with the driver before and after the lift.
- You have some comeback if you lose or leave something
- Better cars and better drivers.
- (And as one driver said to me, "you get better drivers - and I get better passengers")
- Complete digital record of and receipts for all journeys - a godsend for business travel. Goodbye to the scribbled receipt stuffed into your hand while you're collecting bags, finishing a phone call, stuffing change into your wallet and trying to get out of the cab.
- Cashless - another godsend. Get out, thank the driver, and go. Bliss.
- Often it's cheaper, but that is the least of my priorities. Sometimes it's dearer . Surge pricing cures the age-old problem of too many taxis on Monday night and not enough on Saturday night.
Of course Uber has many faults. The media are not slow to report them.
But as we say in technology development "The perfect is the enemy of the good"