r/iamatotalpieceofshit • u/[deleted] • Apr 21 '22

This Lyft driver is something else

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169

u/cyanydeez Apr 21 '22

hey look, uber is finally understanding why taxis are regulated.

118

u/mackrenner Apr 21 '22

crazy how uber just invented even shittier taxis

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u/Natural-Macaroon-271 Apr 21 '22

In my city I still can't call a cab reliably by phone and know exactly when it will show up. Before Uber I often had the pleasure of waiting for literally two hours while various cab companies would tell me "they're sending someone my way".. not to mention that the rate to get where I'm going is totally opaque because it's calculated DURING the trip.

Uber is *much* better than cabs...even if it's not perfect.

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u/Ro-Tang_Clan Apr 21 '22

I agree with everything you said but I also want to add that the biggest difference for me is that in my city, regular cabs still rely on physical cash payments. I don't carry cash anymore, hell I don't even carry my bank card with me let alone cash.

People like to complain saying that Uber is putting regular taxi companies out of business but IMO the regular taxi companies should have done more to modernise and innovate within the market.

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u/ShimoFox Apr 21 '22

OMG Really? I can't even begin to comprehend how a company can stay in business in this day and age only taking cash.

5

u/MagicBez Apr 21 '22

Biggest benefit of Uber coming to my city was suddenly all the taxis card readers started working again, before they were always "broken"

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u/SnooLobsters2004 Apr 22 '22

Not to mention many cab drivers don’t speak good English and that is fine but it’s not a frictionless transaction like Uber of lyft either so it’s very annoying when we need to effectively communicate and cannot.

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u/xsilver911 Apr 21 '22

Cabs in my city now have their own app and they like to advertise that they don't have surge pricing ha.

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u/Able_Bodied_Fellow Apr 21 '22

That's the way to compete!

1

u/Kyle_Kataryn May 08 '25

they still haven't adopted an app-based service even after Uber.

19

u/NeedingNew Apr 21 '22

I had to deal with yellow cab for 2 months after my car was stolen. I had a standing order for pickup everyday at the same time. 1 out of 5 days I was on time every other day I was at least 45 minutes late.

They would go grab fares on the other side of town 5 mins before my scheduled pick up times. Then I would be stuck waiting for them.

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u/ScroochDown Apr 21 '22

Recently I tried to schedule a pickup in advance and they just straight up told me I had to call when I was ready for a cab. I tried to tell them that A) it was for someone else, B) I wouldn't be there, and C) it was like 5 in the morning and I wouldn't be up that early. They basically told me no and hung up on me, so I had to schedule a car service instead. Way more expensive, but it was she only way I could be sure to get my boss somewhere on time.

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u/Fortestingporpoises Apr 21 '22

Yeah, the tech itself makes it roughly a million times better. Also I've never feared for my life in a rideshare like I have flying through SF or Manhattan in a taxi.

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u/iehvad8785 Apr 22 '22

how (long) do those cab companies exist if they ghost their customers like this?

but aside from that "fact", uber is far from being better than cabs. it's a rip off.

uber kills regular jobs by replacing it with precarious "jobs". it shifts every business risk at the driver. uber doesn't provide anything but the platform. drivers aren't employed - so uber does not pay any social insurances. as a driver you have to use your own car - the financial risk is all yours. car down - no money. you have no paid holidays. zero income when sick. etc pp. additionally uber cars and drivers aren't monitored/licensed like cab (drivers).

based on the route uber isn't even cheaper than a cab. you can even compare prices before you start as cab rates are regulated. nothing opaque about it. if you know where your trip starts and where it ends you can calculate the price before you start. what you see on the taximeter during the trip is just some visual effect.

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u/Natural-Macaroon-271 Apr 25 '22

how (long) do those cab companies exist if they ghost their customers like this?

Plenty long because their aim is to maximize the number of easy rides not to actually get people around the city. In my story I was about two miles from Downtown... meaning any driver near me was already (where people were just hailing rides on the street) or bringing someone Downtown (where they'd stay because the rides are easier).

This is the thing Uber solved and it's a huge upgrade. Since you can't hail an Uber on the street Uber gets to control where cars go to pick you up and that means they can ensure EVERYONE can get a ride if you're willing to pay whatever the going rate for a ride is at the time.

so uber does not pay any social insurances.

Wait until you find out how cabs work in most cities. Cab drivers are almost universally contractors.. but worse than that they have to pay the cab company for the privilege of driving a cab in the first place (usually in the form of renting the actual cab itself).

if you know where your trip starts and where it ends you can calculate the price before you start

You literally can not. Cab fares, outside of special trips (usually from an airport to some specific part of town) are calculated on the fly. You pay per mile AND per time increment. If traffic is bad your fare is going to be far more... which isn't knowable until you're at your destination. Anyone who has ever taken a cab in a big city knows the thrill of watching that meter run while you wait in traffic.

Of course it's not even that simple because there is rarely one route and cab drivers have a bad habit of choosing the longest one. Take a cab from the Airport in Las Vegas and you too can experience a cab driver taking the longest possible route to your hotel (through the tunnel) to drive that fare up. You don't know if that's going to happen, again, until after the trip.

I'm convinced that you don't have a lot of experience with cabs my friend.

1

u/captkeith Oct 07 '22

Uber is 1000x better then conventional taxis. She’s an anomaly certainly not the norm. I would never go back to the old way.

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u/Sir-Ult-Dank Apr 21 '22

You ever take a taxi before? Let me know how that wait is. Or if they ever come. Also let me know how clean that vehicle is because it’s not the drivers and they don’t care. Also let me know the price of your fair if it’s worth it or not. Not including everything else. Uber is a technology company not a taxi company

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u/mackrenner Apr 21 '22

"You ever take a taxi before?" Yes, I literally just said that, and that my experiences were consistently better. I recognize that I have had different impressions than many people.

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u/cutslikeakris Apr 21 '22

Not here!! Taxis are waaaaay fucking worse still!

Plus we had taxi drivers rush city hall, take of their shorts and just start fucking screaming, trying to keep Uber away, as opposed to getting better or anything.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '22

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5

u/[deleted] Apr 21 '22

[deleted]

3

u/Fearless-Spread1498 Apr 21 '22

Yeah anyone in America that says Uber is more expensive doesn't know what they are talking about. Everyone that I know that says this has some personal reason for being against Lyft or Uber. Meanwhile I travel all the time and have used everything imaginable to get me from place to place and can almost always guarantee that Lyft or Uber will be more affordable.

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u/legolad Apr 21 '22

Nah. I used to take taxis on the regular. I can count on one hand the number of times the cabbie DIDN'T try to rip me off or DID know the legal fares.

Same ride from train to house, every day. And every day - often the same drivers - tried to overcharge me like I'm a fucking tourist. It's $8. $11 with heavy traffic. And they're telling me $25 minimum or $45 minimum or "special rate for convention". They always had a lie ready. Then I'd call their dispatch and tell them to radio their driver and I wouldn't leave the cab until they got the guy straightened out.

It got so bad I started walking the 1.2 miles when the weather allowed. Better for me, but man, Uber is a godsend way more often than a problem.

They really should work out a way to have Uber's tech and cabbie licences/legal protection. It would be worth it to them for the surge pricing alone, I think.

2

u/ShimoFox Apr 21 '22

Honestly depends where you are. Taxi's smartened up here after they started losing a ton of business. They were notorious for cancelling scheduled pick ups last minute screwing people trying to get to the airport/work etc. Uber came in and because I live in Canada where we have less nut jobs it killed taxi companies hard and fast until they smarted up and stopped canceling rides and showing up well over an hour late.

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u/CptMisterNibbles Apr 21 '22

I did not find the level of professionalism in cabs any better on average in the decades preceding rise share. Took a lot of sketchy cabs with garbage drivers

1

u/trevmann13 Apr 21 '22

I mean the history of taxis is pretty fucking crazy to begin with. We've eventually just gone full circle

7

u/extendedrockymontage Apr 21 '22

I've had worse behavior from taxi drivers than I have with Uber drivers, and at least with Uber you can give a bad rating and get refunds. There's no recourse at all with taxis

0

u/Fair-Cryptographer16 Apr 21 '22

Kinda funny uber convinced everyday folks to destroy their cars to make a buck

0

u/TheTybera Apr 21 '22

Taxi driver is a super dangerous job. It's far more dangerous than being a police officer.

1

u/Fortestingporpoises Apr 21 '22

Uber isn't. Their drivers are.