There's a battle going on between Uber and the entire taxi industry. The taxi companies don't like the competition and are pursuing all sorts of legal strategies to ban or restrict Uber from cutting into their business. While in San Diego for Comic-Con this year, a bunch of us were in a taxi and the driver delivered a tirade about how terrible Uber was. Some of it was about "amateur, untrained drivers." A lot of it was about how he's saddled with permit costs and higher insurance costs and all sorts of other expenses that make it too easy for Uber to undercut him.
He was railing about "Uber drivers who don't know their way around" when he suddenly realized that he was taking us the wrong way to our destination. A street was barricaded because of some convention-related event so he had to let us off six blocks from where we were going. I can't say for sure but I think an Uber driver would have known about that. (I immediately went onto Waze, a GPS app on my iPhone that's good at tracking that kind of thing. The barricade was indicated there. A good percentage of the Uber drivers I've had supplement the Uber GPS with Waze, often having two Smartphones in their vehicle.)
I am not against cab companies. I generally like cabs…though I do have a few horror stories. (And the very next cab driver I had in San Diego tried the old trick of not turning on his meter so he could collect the fare and not share it with his company.) I've usually though had good experiences in cabs but I must say this: The taxi industry has only itself to blame for the rise of "ride-sharing" services like Uber and Lyft. The cab companies have let the experience of taking a cab somewhere become old-fashioned and needlessly cumbersome.
It might help this explanation if I list some of the ways in which I think Uber is better than Cabs and ways in which I think the opposite…
I can order an Uber car on my Smartphone and one is usually here in under five minutes, well below the average with taxicabs. Not only that but I can look and see where they are and how far my driver is from me, and once I'm in the cab, how far we are from our destination, etc. There are apps via which one can summon a cab but since there's one Uber and lots of cab companies, the apps aren't as impressive. Advantage: UBER
On the other hand, you can't phone Uber to summon one of their drivers or explain things if your order involves anything more than an address. Also, it's sometimes not enough to just give an address. I once wanted to call an Uber to take me home from the Sportsmen's Lodge out in the Valley. I could tell Uber the address of the Sportsmen's Lodge but I couldn't tell them which of about six different places there I'd be waiting. It's the same address for the hotel as it is for the restaurant as it is for the banquet hall, etc. In this case, I solved my problem by walking across the street to a Ralphs market and giving Uber that address. Advantage: CABS
I've taken somewhere between 40 and 50 Uber trips. Every car I've been in has been relatively new (often very new) and immaculate. Every driver has been friendly and I've only had one less than stellar driver — a fellow who refused to listen to my directions, followed his GPS instead and wound up taking me to my destination via a non-direct route. I've been in some pretty ratty cabs and had some very rude or (worse) non-communicative drivers. This may be just my own experience but if I weighed my last 40 Uber rides against my last 40 cab rides, it's no contest. The Uber vehicles and the drivers were much, much nicer. Advantage: UBER
On the other hand, Uber drivers are for the most part, part-timers and new to the profession. I've had cab drivers with no experience or commitment to driving but not as many. On a simple, by-the-book drive, the difference may not matter but if the GPS is out or wrong, the cab driver is more likely to be able to get you there. In unusual situations, experience can really have a value so I'm going to say: Advantage: CABS
Credit cards in cabs are a hassle and often, drivers won't take you if you intend to use one. So when I take a cab, I have to worry about having cash in proper denominations. At least twice in the last decade, the fare has been, say, $7.00 and I had a twenty and a driver with insufficient change. I didn't want to tip thirteen dollars so the driver had to drive us someplace where he could go in and break my twenty. In an Uber car, I don't fuss with cash at all except to tip. Uber has a credit card of mine on file and the fare is billed automatically which makes it easier for me to pay and easier for me to track travel expenses for tax purposes. Big Advantage: UBER
Uber is generally cheaper. Advantage: UBER
But not always. Uber does "surge" pricing, multiplying its fees during peak hours. Once, I took an Uber somewhere and the trip cost me $10.00. When I was ready to return, a "surge" was on and the cost was multiplied by 2.5; ergo, $25.00. While a ride in either can skyrocket due to traffic, the base prices on cab rides don't change unexpectedly on you. Advantage: CABS
And they're probably right that Uber drivers aren't as well insured as cabs. If I'm ever in an accident, that might matter a lot. Advantage: CABS
I suppose I could think of others but I'm not really trying to get to a point of declaring one much better than the other. My thesis here is that if cabs want to beat Uber…well, they may be able to do it via legal pressures but if they really want to triumph — and maybe to get more people to take cabs — they need to become more like them.
When I go to the doctor who fixes my knees, I take an Uber car. Unless I hit "surge" pricing, it's five bucks each way and it doesn't take much longer than it would for me to drive there and park. It's also not that much more expensive since parking at the doctor's office is seven dollars and the lot is rough to get in and out of. I tip my two Uber drivers each a buck so it costs me five bucks (minus whatever I save on gas) more to Uber there and back than if I drove and it's so much easier.
I am not taking Uber because it's cheaper since sometimes, when I least expect, it isn't. I'm taking it because it's easier and more efficient. The cab companies should be scrambling to come up with an all-company app that will let me see where drivers are and to summon the nearest one with one click and to have the cost of the ride billed to my AmEx card. They should be embracing GPS systems, especially the kind which continually update with current hazards and closures.
If you can't beat 'em, learn from 'em.