The new service app UberX sweeping eastern Canada can be very useful but will harm the lively hood of those working in the taxi industry. The San Francisco based company has come out with a very innovative way of getting the customer from point A to point B. In many countries like the USA and Singapore where the public transportation system is unorganized, Uber is a very useful service. But on Canada I don’t think it a good idea. My reason is simple, to protect jobs.
How Uber works is, you open the application and all the private “taxi’s” in your area will pop up on the screen. Having already submitted your credit card information, you select where you want to go, the class of your vehicle and you are on your way. That simple. Prices are affected by the class of the car coming to pick you up, you could get the standard Toyota Corolla or Prius or upgrade to a Limo and anything in between. Uber is an amazing system because it allows you to always have a safe ride home, but in Vancouver do we not spend millions of tax payer dollars upgrading our already amazing transit services?
Uber is like an invasive species, the moment it moves in Taxi drivers who make a solid living out of what they do will lose business and eventually be forced to go private, making less profit and having to pay more for private insurance. This may benefit the consumer but no the people who actually do it for a living. Although UberX does put many precautions into who their drivers are with criminal background checks, high insurance rates, it will harm the “ecosystem” of already existing cab drivers.
I personally would not use Uber, my reasons are simple. I can transit anywhere I want in the lower mainland all with my U-pass. For $47 dollars a month, thats a great deal, not having to tip my bus driver or constantly be searching for change. If I’m ever stuck somewhere I know a bus will come, but if by the odd chance I do need a cab, I would trust them more than a private Uber driver. Cab companies like Yellow-Cab or Belair-Cabs have already established a strong market position in my mind and my friends also agree. They are always safe and always on reliable. I mean if you are paying for a limo to be your taxi then clearly you cab afford to not use transit. But for the rest of us who support local business at a faire price, keeping taxis in and Uber out is our decisions.
Besides the law suits going on about how unsafe Uber is, and has been proven to be in Singapore and the USA, many people are not willing to make the switch. And actually to bust Ubers bubble about being cheaper, it actually isn’t in Canada. You pay more in the end on credit card fees and unregulated fees than a normal cab. Although Uber is cheaper in countries where public transit is almost non-existent, here in Vancouver regulated taxi’s that will keep honest are the way to go. I mean if your credit card is already hooked up to the system, they can overcharge and you wouldn’t be able to notice because all you do is get in the car and then get out at the end, no physical transaction would ever be taken.