
Delhi to penalise Ola and Uber for surge pricing during odd-even restrictions - electic
http://mashable.com/2016/04/18/ola-uber-surge-pricing-delhi/
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Overtonwindow
I get the concept, but I think surge pricing is useless. It doesn't put more
drivers on the road, it lets drivers time their working hours to maximize
profit. Not that's a bad thing, it just sucks as a passenger.

~~~
randyrand
I usually get on the road when surge goes up past 2x.

So considering I am 1 person, and 1 person is more than 0, surge pricing
_does_ put more drivers on the road.

Does that prove surge pricing is "fair?" No. And you should always assume a
company is operating int their best interest. This is why competition is
important.

Fortunately the entry costs to the ride sharing economy are small. Apps are
easy to make. Regulations sometimes pretty minimal. Theres little to stop
anyone from making a better Uber.

~~~
ubernostrum
_Regulations sometimes pretty minimal. Theres little to stop anyone from
making a better Uber._

Careful, there. Various jurisdictions are getting smart and coming at Uber and
Lyft in ways that aren't easily dismissed by the "we're just disrupting, bro"
or "rent-seeking rent-seekers gonna rent-seek" arguments that typically are
brought out. Specifically, they're acting in ways which follow logically from
taking claims at face value. Uber claims its drivers aren't employees, so SF
is saying they need to pay the same registration fees as every other sole
proprietor operating in the city, and on the other side of the country in NY
there's a suit pointing out that a bunch of "independent" contractors who all
somehow perfectly coordinate changes to the fares they charge are a perfectly
obvious violation of antitrust law.

~~~
randyrand
Then SF is a good example of regulations gone bad.

SF regulations should encourage competition, not diminish it.

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ubernostrum
If every other sole proprietorship in the city has to pay a registration fee,
why shouldn't an Uber driver have to? The "rules for thee and not for me"
attitude is a big part of why people dislike Uber as a company.

~~~
randyrand
_No one_ should be paying registration fees. Registration is incredibly cheap
in the day of computers, and their costs are not justified. They're also
regressive, and hurt the small guys most.

Laws should encourage free market competition, not diminish it. So in that
vain, a registration fee needs to be removed or otherwise paid for through tax
revenue.

There are already enough reasons starting a business is hard, we don't need to
add more.

~~~
ubernostrum
_No one should be paying registration fees._

Except the Uber approach isn't to try to truly level the playing field. It's
to just decide "this law is inconvenient, I'm going to let my competitors deal
with the overhead of it and ignore it myself". There's no high and lofty
principle in that, just arrogant entitlement.

------
dang
Url changed from [http://www.engadget.com/2016/04/18/uber-forced-to-suspend-
su...](http://www.engadget.com/2016/04/18/uber-forced-to-suspend-surge-
pricing-in-delhi/), which points to this.

