Eva Liu's Blog

Living in Vancouver for most of my life, I never really wanted or had to take a taxi to get anywhere. The whole system of having to call them first and then pay a hefty sum of money when I could easily take the bus or skytrain, made the process quite unappealing. 

Class 14 on innovation and entrepreneurship gave me the inspiration to write this blog post on Uber. Like how email has disrupted the postal mail industry, Uber, a taxi like car-sharing app, is a new disruptive innovation that is posing dangerous risks to the taxi industry. Even though, with plans to expand to Vancouver many external forces are trying to lobby Uber’s entry into the market, I believe we should encourage the entry of Uber into the taxi industry. 

One of the most important reasons is that recently taxis travelling from the YVR are to apply a set price based on different zones. What I find really absurd about this new regulation is that with the new set rates, taxi drivers are basically able to charge more depending on which corner they choose to drop the passengers off of, making the inconvenient experience even more inconvenient. This issue has already caused much debate, and I personally would much rather turn to a company like Uber, where the customers are given the flexibility to choose the price, even though prices might be higher depending on the time and day.

This will also increase the competition between the taxi companies and Uber-like services, which might finally lead taxi companies to decrease their prices to keep up with the competition, giving consumers more affordable choices on the market.

References:

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Taxi+community+cries+foul+over+Uber+lobbyist+also+serves+Vision+Vancouver+executive/10277843/story.html

Set fares for taxis leaving YVR for Vancouver, Richmond destinations

Pictures from:

https://utstatic.a.cdnify.io/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/uber11.png

Set fares for taxis leaving YVR for Vancouver, Richmond destinations