
SuperShuttle is going out of business - prostoalex
https://www.latimes.com/travel/story/2019-12-12/supershuttle-says-it-will-stop-service-to-lax
======
awalton
Let's face it, Ridesharing ate their lunch. I was a religious SuperShuttle
user until Lyft showed up - it usually cost me roughly the same amount to take
a Lyft shared, I didn't have to wait on the right van to show up, and instead
of winding through taking a half dozen other people home first, it often takes
me straight home, or at most with a couple of stops.

It's a hard world for traditional scheduled taxiing to be in, when you can
summon a vehicle to you on demand.

~~~
asdfasgasdgasdg
I remember one time my wife and I took the Super Shuttle home from SFO to
Mountain View. It took about two hours since we were the last stop and in fact
the shuttle went north a little first before turning south. That was the first
and last time I used their service.

~~~
dmix
I love Lyft but I took a shared lyft for the first time and the driver did
three circles around a busy block trying to find a GPS dot (that never moved)
that was obviously on the other side of the street, and after an extra 10min
jammed an extra person in the car when we hardly fit, despite our protests.
That was the last time I took a shared ride.

~~~
greggman2
I am curious how hard a problem it is for the system to figure out what side
of the road the driver should be on. Could they put a little arrow or
something in the UX so I could point to which side of the street I'm on?
Ideally before I order the car so the dispatch algo can prioritize cars that
are more likely to approach from the correct side.

If the street is busy it can be hard as a pedestrian to safely get to the
other side of the street. I've also had drivers just go the wrong way like I
was standing between Gough and and Octavia on Market maybe 10-15meters from
Gough. The driver came down Gough and turned left on Market at which point I
knew it would be > 10 minutes before they could make all the correct turns to
get back to pick me up. I cancel the ride and was surprised the system didn't
direct them better.

~~~
xzcat
Looks like civilian GPS accuracy is 4m or so. I could imagine that dropping
someone's dot in the middle of a street, and then a driving having to guess
which side of the street the error is coming from.

~~~
UncleEntity
...or know that even numbers are on one side of the street and odds on the
other as happens (I'd guess) everywhere.

~~~
jcranmer
Some places will put both evens and odds on the same side of the street if
there's only one side, and then use more numbers if there is subsequently
development on the other side of the street. Some places will assign a new
house number whenever a new building is added, no matter where it is located.
Some places will number in clockwise (or counterclockwise) direction.

------
awillen
More than once I had a SuperShuttle driver tell me their credit card machine
wasn't working. When I told them I didn't have cash, they'd insist we stop at
the ATM on the way home. When I pointed out that the website where I booked
plus the outside of the actual van we were in said they accept Visa, they'd
really get in a huff. Always magically had paper credit card slips, though.
Some of them really sounded vaguely threatening, with the Always Sunny style
implication that I needed them to get home. Lucky for me I'm a reasonably
large guy and could've just called a cab if needed - I'm sure their shtick
worked on a lot of foreign travelers and people who felt intimidated or wanted
to avoid confrontation.

For all the hate that Uber gets, I'll always appreciate them for being the
first mode of transportation where you have some form of recourse against your
driver via ratings/complaints, so the driver has an incentive not to be a
total scumbag.

~~~
legohead
I took my first SuperShuttle on my last conference trip to SF. I didn't talk
about payment until I was already at destination, at which point he told me he
didn't have a machine. I thought it odd, and just gave him cash. He told me
$19 even though the guy at the airport told me $18. Gave him a $20 and went on
my way.

Also the ride was very odd. The guy mentioned how he wished he could drive a
tank, and even had tank models in the shuttle. And he drove very aggressively
and angrily. I couldn't help but thinking he was in the wrong business...

~~~
Jamwinner
Nobody is in the right business. There arent exactly lines to become shuttle
drivers for dismissive people who assume malice when the damn machine is a
POS.

~~~
awillen
When someone in that industry tells me the machine is broken, I presume
they're being dishonest because it benefits them (they avoid fees and
presumably tax reporting to the income) and I've seen too many cabs have their
machines magically working if you tell them it's CC or they aren't getting
paid.

Also, if the machine _actually_ isn't working, they always used to have paper
slips to make CC charges. Those are never mentioned unless you tell them it's
CC or they aren't getting paid. Dishonesty by omission is very much still
dishonesty, and telling someone that the CC machine is broken implies that
they can't accept CCs at all.

------
gwbas1c
When I used to fly between SFO and Boston, I would always use Knights in
Boston. They are a shared van service that often has 2-3 well-planned stops
per ride.

I did Supershuttle once, and the length of time it took for me to get home was
absurd. All the other stops just made, what should be a 30 minute ride home,
absurdly long.

Good riddance. Supershuttle only made sense if you have a large group and can
take up most of the van.

You'd think it'd be obvious that they needed to cut down on the number of
stops.

~~~
hkmurakami
I distinctly recall texting with a friend in 2013 who was a Stanford grad
student who opted for Super shuttle instead of Uber/Lyft back to his campus
housing. Took him 2+hours instead of the ~30 minutes.

~~~
starpilot
Exact thing happened to me on a shared shuttle ride from LAX to Redondo. Went
all the way down to drop off people at Long Beach first.

------
petsormeat
I miss the Quake City airport shuttle drivers at SFO. They were usually over-
educated liberal arts graduates, sufficiently "alternative" in their grooming
to thwart their hiring in ordinary jobs (even S.F. employers used to be
uptight about that). Spent one ride home getting a useful summary of the
latest Terence McKenna book.

------
gramakri
I use SuperShuttle pretty much all the time. I understand why the service is
widely disliked. Most people expect a predictable shared ride with least
surprises. The pick up is predictable but not the ride itself. Sometimes it's
like 3-4 stops and the whole thing takes a long time.

On the other hand, I have tried uber shared ride from airports and it's way
worse (at SFO). The rides keep getting cancelled. Late at night, you have to
keep re-booking or do a non-shared ride for a very high price. Atleast with
super shuttle, pick up is never an issue.

~~~
flafla2
I thought this, until my ride _to the airport_ was cancelled , _20 minutes
before the arrival_. I almost missed my flight, good thing Uber wasn’t
particularly busy that day (this is in Pittsburgh where rider supply can
really screw you).

------
benatkin
City to city shuttles and buses seems to be growing. The one I'd been taking
from Flagstaff, AZ to Phoenix and back got bought out by a national company
called Groome, while FlixBus, Megabus, and OurBus have been adding routes in
Arizona (my home state) and Florida (where I live now). In Colorado there is a
publicly run bus called Bustang that goes long distances including from Denver
to Fort Collins. I also took a publicly run bus from Merced to Yosemite, and
its service had recently expanded. There seems to be a lot happening in the
space with reduced rates of car ownership [1].

I think the place they're in between got squeezed on both ends, and so did
some of their customers, for whom neither UberPool nor city to city shuttles
is as good of an option, or an option at all.

1: [https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/demographic-
shif...](https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/demographic-shifts-
shaping-future-car-ownership/)

------
raz32dust
I preferred supershuttle over uber/lyft because of more certainty and it works
as a good forcing function for me to be at the airport well in time. Just this
Friday was my first bad experience where they called me at 2:30 am to cancel
my 4 am shuttle. A double whammy as it killed any chance of getting a few
winks. I was really annoyed and thought that that was weird because
supershuttle never cancelled on me before. This probably explains it. I'll
miss the service but I see why it's not viable.

~~~
epage
Same. I generally take rail to my airport except it doesn't run at all hours.
I know I can count on a shuttle to get me to the airport but don't want to
risk a rare Lyft driver at that hour deciding against taking me an hour to the
airport. Helps that shuttle is half the cost and doesn't make it take all that
much longer.

------
satya71
The first time I landed in the US, I took SuperShuttle from the airport to my
apartment 60 miles away. The company I worked for had paid for it ahead of
time and they dropped me at the door. Sad to see the business go away, because
of VC subsidies.

------
fnord77
this is hardly surprising. a ride to SFO from my home using uber/lift is about
$23. $19 using supershuttle. And I don't have to schedule anything or take a
long van ride while other passengers are being dropped off.

Very unfortunately for the mom & pop supershuttle franchisees, though, with
van payments and a dried up source of income.

~~~
gcheong
The one reason I take super shuttle to the airport is because I can schedule
it ahead and I can at least be certain they will do whatever they can to honor
the reservation. While for now uber/lyft are probably available often enough
there is no guarantee that one is going to be available especially if you are
flying very early or late.

~~~
totalZero
You can schedule an Uber ahead of time.

~~~
freddie_mercury
That's not what scheduling an Uber actually does, though.

"The Scheduled Rides feature allows you to select a 10 minute window for a
driver to come pick you up. At the start of the window, the app will send out
a ride request on your behalf."

So if you "schedule a ride" at 7pm, it is exactly the same as just using the
app manually at 6:50pm. There is absolutely nothing remotely close to a
guarantee that anyone will you pick you up at all, much less at the time you
chose.

~~~
ghaff
In my case, there is no way there are going to be drivers available at 4am to
take me 45 miles to the airport which is fairly typical of what I need. There
are barely drivers available to do it during the day and cancelations for
going into the city are not infrequent. I just use a private car service even
though it's about 2x the price.

~~~
wiseleo
You’d be surprised. Try doing a dry run sometime. I did countless early
morning pickups.

~~~
ghaff
Why bother? I can book a reliable service and it’s a business expense.

------
jhoechtl
Another indication of the super-poor state of public transport in the US.

This super-nation is so ridiculously behind in this regard in every aspect of
development of public transport that you have to consider if the people in
force have all their senses together.

~~~
masonic
This is _private_ transportation, addressing needs that public transportation
doesn't address anyway (mostly random residential to/from airports).

~~~
morsch
Why wouldn't that be a need public transport addresses? Most airports are
connected via railway or subway, right?

~~~
usr1106
In the US? My experience is that most airports are _not_ connected by railway
or subway. Admittedly most of my trips were more than 10 years ago, but I
would be very surprised if things have drastically changed. Yes, in Europe it
starts to be become rarer that major airports have only bus connections.

~~~
khuey
There's probably no more than twenty airports in the US with rail/subway
connections. Notably the second busiest (LAX) does not have a rail connection
but they're finally building one.

~~~
jcranmer
I count 25:

Boston, Cleveland, Chicago O'Hare, Chicago Midway, Providence, JFK, LGA,
Newark, Philly, BWI, DCA, Atlanta, SFO, Oakland, Denver, Fort Lauderdale,
Miami, Portland, Seattle, Dallas/Fort-Worth, St. Louis, Minneapolis/St. Paul,
Milwaukee, Salt Lake, Phoenix.

If you include proposed or in construction links, there's also Honolulu,
Washington Dulles, Orlando, LAX. There's also a few more airports that have
bus service to the light rail line (e.g., San Jose airport).

Essentially, every city with a subway system has a stop at the airport, LA and
San Juan being the two exceptions here. Some commuter rail networks stop at
the airport. Several light rail systems don't stop at the airport,
particularly if the airport is well out of the center of town. So it's more of
indictment of the degree to which US cities lack rail transit.

~~~
huebomont
LGA has no rail connection and JFK isn't directly connected, you have to
transfer to and pay extra exorbitant fare for the AirTrain.

------
Grokify
Back in the day, I used SuperShuttle over taxis for airports, but when
ridesharing arrived, it was just much more convenient. For early morning
flights, there was no more getting up super early so you can be on a shuttle
that picked up a few more people.

That said, I miss SuperShuttle because I met some really interesting people on
it in the SF Bay Area. Some of the more notable people I talked to included
one of the original engineers on the Apple Lisa and one of Larry Ellison's
private plane pilots. It was neat to listen to stories from both.

~~~
achow
Care to share some :-)

------
momokoko
Very interesting in that SuperShuttle was sold to a PE firm specializing in
distressed assets in September. This bankruptcy was likely already a given at
that time.

~~~
blevin
You wonder what analysis went into that deal. Just the month before, Uber had
announced a $5.2 billion loss for the quarter, which gives a sense of the
competitive landscape SuperShuttle faced.

There are also arguments that PE has been doing a lot of poor deals lately and
institutions allocating to them are going to be disappointed:

[https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/02/private-equity-
ov...](https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/02/private-equity-overvalued-
overrated/)

~~~
tjalfi
Thanks for the link - this article is eye-opening.

------
supernova87a
The problem with Supershuttle was the variability and never knowing quite what
you were going to get. You could get a straightforward ride home (+25% for the
extra dropoffs), or you could get a 2x of your journey time and a shady
driver.

The manual pooling of rides (suboptimal), low volume, and subjectivity of the
driver deciding how to drive just couldn't make for a consistent and good
experience. And add to that the inability to enforce or provide feedback
essentially gave you taxi driver incentives to cheat / work the system.

Much as Uber/Lyft has its disadvantages, I say good riddance to Supershuttle.

------
SeanBoocock
Oh wow that's sad. I have been taking SuperShuttle for over 15 years and have
always had positive experiences. Being able to schedule rides outweighed any
uncertainty around how long the trips might be, particularly around busy
holidays. I also appreciated how local franchises took pride in building their
businesses. A shame to see it run aground on the shoals of VC subsided gig
work.

------
Slartie
I started in 2013 to have a yearly trip to Miami for a cruise at the beginning
of February. For a solo traveler, taxi had been rather expensive unless you
managed to pool with someone right at the airport, so I was glad to find the
shuttle operators sitting next to the taxis right at the curb, and I could
just walk there and get a ride. Nice low barrier to entry. Especially after
realizing that indeed, public transport of the kind typically found at
international airports in most other countries (trains, buses) was almost non-
existent there.

While I clearly see how Uber and Lyft can provide an identical or better
service (because of less drop-off stops) I still think the higher barrier to
entry of a) having to know about them and b) having to download an app and
open an account is a significant downside, especially for foreigners who
haven't been in the US yet. It's another slightly weird thing that you have to
know about and prepare for in advance.

~~~
cardiffspaceman
I have been the foreigner using an unfamiliar terminal. Since it was a cruise
to Vancouver, my cruise travel agent recommended I use a cruise message board
for that city. I thereby got info on the whole range of options. Plus of
course we could have used the cruise line's transfer (i.e. big ole bus) from
cruise ship to airport. We hired a car and got a description from the driver
of the places we passed through. Thus I learned to use such message boards as
a starting point. Plus I learned to have contacts.

------
bpaddock
Good. They almost killed my late wife and I. While we were on board I watched
the Shuttle driver force a car up onto the side walk to avoid a collision. If
anyone had been standing at that corner they would have been killed. That was
only one incident in a half hour ride!

In LA I found it was cheaper to have a Limo on call than use a taxi and more
reliable than the ride sharing services. The Limo driver made it seem more
like a tour explaining the things we drove by, unlike they others that had no
interest in anything other than our $.

------
starpilot
Good, fuck these guys. Twice at LAX, following a paid reservation, they just
_never picked me up_. I got refunded but believe me it's no fun waiting 2+
hours, past midnight, and then getting the last cab there when you realize
your ride has dropped the ball. Rideshare apps are vastly better. If we didn't
have the legacy of taxi system today, we'd have just gone straight to Lyft.

------
chrismcb
Super shuttle was too expensive for what it was. For less than twice the cost
I could schedule a town car. For a single rider the shuttle was cheaper, but
for me it was always to log. And I was shocked when I saw two and three people
groups take the shuttle. The turning point for me was when the shuttle refused
to take the faster hov lane.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _when the shuttle refused to take the faster hov lane_

Any guesses as to why?

~~~
Tempest1981
I doubt this is why, but... on Hwy 101 near SFO, I see lots of rear-end
accidents in the HOV lane. Speeds often go from 65 mph to 0 in seconds
(crash), whereas the other lanes go from 30 to 0 (hard braking).

Granted, _if_ you're alert, the HOV lane can offer some median space to swerve
into.

------
janineyoong
I had a GREAT super shuttle experience years ago [https://medium.com/this-
happened-to-me/supershuttle-gave-me-...](https://medium.com/this-happened-to-
me/supershuttle-gave-me-a-lift-baff171951e9)

------
shuckles
Not only will some not miss Super Shuttle because of its occasional marathon
ride, but also others will not miss it for their drivers’ tendency to appear
and disappear from the pickup location at a random time without even calling.

------
JumpCrisscross
> _In November, Lyft, Uber and taxis were relegated to a pickup lot next to
> Terminal 1; travelers can either walk there or wait for an airport shuttle
> to ferry them._

I really hate cities that do this.

~~~
vinay427
LAX is a nightmare to drive to for dropping off passengers, though, so I'm
actually fine with the policy here. It's the busiest origin and destination
airport in the US so it has the most people entering and leaving landside.

If and only if there's a decent public transit alternative (train, metro,
etc.) from the original terminal to the city then I really like cities that do
this. That's rarely the case in the US and isn't at all at LAX, for now, but
hopefully that will change within the decade.

------
WillPostForFood
SuperShuttle is garbage. Unpredictable timing, you don't know how many stops
so you have to budget in more time. If you aren't traveling alone (e.g. family
of 2,3 or more) it is substantially more than a taxi, uber, or lyft. Miserable
reviews on Yelp. I have a hard time buying the nostalgia here... It was a bad
version of UberPool to compete with taxis back in the day, but obsolete now.

[https://www.yelp.com/biz/supershuttle-south-san-
francisco-2?...](https://www.yelp.com/biz/supershuttle-south-san-
francisco-2?osq=supershuttle)

------
highprofittrade
They had $20 dollar rebate that was really hard to claim and had relations
with a shady company called Great Fun I'm sure pissed of many customers
...don't blame Uber or the new stuff... SuperShuttle thrived in era where
there was little real competition but company had mismanagement issues, bad
employees, and it was not innovative and when competition came along they just
tanked

------
bluesaddoll
Sad to see profitable businesses falling prey to “new, cool, trendy”
businesses that will hardly ever be profitable and are waiting for the
investment bubble to deflate.

------
someonehere
I had to catch an AM flight in Austin. Used SuperShuttle to book my trip to
the airport. I literally was the first person he picked up. We drove for like
an hour all over Austin picking up a couple more people. It was night out
still so I had no idea where we were because I was tired. Anyway, Finally got
to the airport. After that no more SuperShuttle. This was ten years ago and
I’m glad things have changed.

------
r00fus
Ah, SuperShuttle. Great idea, poor execution. Back in 2011, one 10pm ride home
(from a very nice trip to Kauai), the driver was apparently dozing off during
the ride, and veering into the opposing lane - this happened multiple times
and he was resentful to anyone who corrected him.

I bet during that ride lost their business for good for every single passenger
on that ride.

------
dullgiulio
Just wanted to point out that every Soviet citizen could have predicted this.
They have tried marshrutka:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshrutka](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshrutka)

------
makerofspoons
SuperShuttle hasn't served Denver International for a while. I remember seeing
their vans frequently, but I have to imagine here the new airport train as
well as ride sharing ate their lunch. I haven't not used the train ever since
it opened.

~~~
nathancahill
I use Green Ride Boulder which is the same concept as SuperShuttle but way
better execution. Scheduled rides, most people get on and off at the office,
but they will drop you off at your door after the office customers.

------
josephjrobison
They could have pivoted to solving intercity shuttles. Works well in that 1-2
hour range between cities without good buses or trains.

Groome Transportation in the southeast looks to be doing this well!

------
spicyramen
I only remember their Vans leaving SFO driving very slowly on 101 , which
seems to match what people is commenting

------
gok
I can't believe it took this long. SuperShuttle offers worse-than-Greyhound
service at UberX prices.

------
mark_l_watson
In the mid 1990s, I commuted from San Diego to SF for a tech lead job on an AI
project. Super Shuttle at the time worked very well for me, even though I
typically lost twenty minutes waiting forthe van drop offs before my drop off
point. With a 6am flight, I arrived at the office earlier than almost all my
local colleagues. Yeah, today, I would use Uber or Lift.

------
rolltiide
If its too good to be true, it’s probably subsidized by venture capital

~~~
desertrider12
Sure is, but it's an arbitrage opportunity for everyone who wants a ride.

------
executive
Huge in Mexico, especially cities with rideshare ban (Cancun).

~~~
nathancahill
Cancun needs to get their shit together and stop taking bribes from the taxi
unions.

