
How Uber conquered London - f_allwein
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/27/how-uber-conquered-london
======
KaiserPro
Meh.

Its really not. Uber isn't actually a new idea in london, we've had app
bookable minicabs for a long time, through addison lee(and others).

Now, Addison Lee are almost as odious to their staff as Uber are. However the
genius of AL is the finance agreement between the drivers and the company. The
company lease you a car, and you have the option to work when ever you want.
But you have to get booking through their master system. and it only costs you
25% of each fair. Plus the £300 a week rental of the branded vehicle.

This means that the have 100% control of their employees, and if a driver
under performs, they are still liable for rental of the Addison Lee branded
car.

As a business model its awesome. As a moral proposition its pretty shitty.
Drivers are contractors, liable for inflated costs and because they have no
employment rights are forced to work round the clock to break even.

Uber just goes one step further cutting overheads and offloading risk onto the
user instead. Car not road worthy? just 1-star it! got raped by the driver?
just 1-star it! got kicked off because your disabled? just 1-star it (but
don't do it too often, remember in uber's Randian vision, its your fault for
being weak and holding back the strong.)

Fortunately the minicab rules are quite comprehensive in london: you need to
have a clean record, ID, and a road worthy car. Anything less and its
finesville and jail for you.

~~~
anexprogrammer
I'm surprised, with their reputation, AL are able to get enough staff.

35 years ago I did some motorbike dispatch for them for my summer job. So many
fake deductions, charges to take jobs via them, and discrepancies at the end
of the week. Not forgetting rental of the compulsory branding. Same for all
the couriers. I left for a smaller firm after a couple of weeks, and for
broadly similar amount of work, took home roughly double.

They have had a shit reputation for decades, yet seem to go from strength to
strength.

~~~
KaiserPro
I suspect because they recruit people who are less likely to fight back...

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askyourmother
Most people I know tried uber and moved back to more reliable black cabs and
minicabs in London. Uber often seems to have 'ghost cars' on the map - never
seem to be real or reachable - maybe trying to inflate the perception of
availability of cars?

The large number of drivers who refuse dogs, especially guide dogs for
registered blind people is appalling.

The London transport regulator wanted to bring uber under reasonable
regulation, uber bugged their users to go and annoy the regulator to back off.

~~~
austinjp
Just a data point: this is not my experience, nor that of my many London Uber-
using friends. We exclusively find it prompt, reliable, and drivers are
courteous to the point that some offer to play the passenger's choice of
music, give them lollies, etc.

An Uber-XL will happily carry a bicycle or large amounts of luggage. And I've
not once experienced an Uber driver refusing to take me anywhere. "South of
the river? Not at this time of night guv". Pffff.

Black cabs are now campaigning and many rally behind the slogan "the safest
ride with the greatest guide" (from memory). This betrays how fundamentally
they have failed to understand the trouble they're in.

Safety: Uber purport to address this with registrations and reviews. (This may
be fallible, but no more than black cab registration).

"The greatest guide"?? Puh-lease. Nobody but nobody wants their cabby to be a
guide, nor to offer their opinions on anything. Perhaps a tiny minority of
tourists may feign interest for a few minutes. Perhaps.

Unfortunately for black cab drivers, it seems that the current generation have
sat cosily on the monopoly they inherited, and they've been caught napping.

None of this is intended as an anti-black cab rant, I simply think they're
failing to deal with the primary issue: the times they are a-changing.

Edit: typo.

~~~
askyourmother
The black cabs are under more stringent regulation than minicabs or uber -
they are the safer ride. Not sure what's too hard to understand about that.

As they say: once you've been surge priced (by uber), you never go back (to
uber)

None of this is intended as an anti-uber rant, I simply think they're failing
to deal with the primary issue: regulations and real service are not just for
breakfast.

~~~
dasil003
Although I have to say the regulation is no guarantee.

I actually had to catch a cab from Earl's Court to Kew Gardens because
District Line had issues. I got in and told the driver, an elderly man, my
destination of Victoria Gate, Kew Gardens. First red flag, he wasn't sure
where that was. Second red flag, he pulls out a _paper map book_ , like the
kind I haven't seen for 10 years. Third red flag he doesn't even know which
lane to exit the roundabout to go towards Kew.

I proceeded to watch on my smartphone how he went completely the wrong way and
added 20 minutes to the trip getting stuck in heavy traffic. I'm well familiar
with The Knowledge, and I can tell you without a doubt, someone lent this old
codger his black cab. Whatever idiot cabbie did that did far more damage to
the cause of the traditional black cabs than anything Uber could ever do.

~~~
askyourmother
Whereas a friend borrowing his friends car and phone for uber would be an
improvement?

~~~
dasil003
Yes because with Uber you know what you're getting. I'm not sure if you're
familiar with London black cabs, but as far as I know they are the most
expensive taxis in the world, and they justify the expense by citing their
training, knowledge and expertise. Short of that all you're getting is a tight
turning radius (admittedly quite useful in London).

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RodericDay
> George Galloway, who is now a leftwing mayoral candidate, came and addressed
> the room. “What does Uber give you except grief?” he asked. “Because we know
> what you give Uber, which are profits that are beyond the dreams of
> avarice.” When Galloway left, I followed him out. Parked close around the
> hall, there were Toyota Priuses and Mercedes E Classes, their private hire
> stickers showing in their rear windscreens. I opened my app. The screen
> showed empty streets where those cars should have been. But I didn’t have to
> worry. A vehicle came into view. My Uber was two minutes away.

Submarine advertising strikes again?

~~~
genericone
Good point, this could very well be a submarine advertisement. If it doesn't
exist, there should be a handy curated website that lists and analyzes
submarine advertisements from big name newspapers/blogs/editorials, something
like what snopes does for urban legends.

Claim -> Headline / Apparent Story

Whats true -> Headline related information

Whats false -> The hidden agenda ( disinformation, ad for CompanyX, repackaged
press release )

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esoteric_nonces
What I find interesting is the sheer size of the taxi industry (Uber included)
given the costs involved. I'm guessing it's some sort of socioeconomic group
thing. Hardly anyone I know takes taxis of any kind in London.

For personal use, they're just so astonishingly expensive that it's difficult
to justify them. As far as I can remember I've used Uber once, to get home
after missing the last public transport, and I had to really consider whether
it was worth just finding something to do for a few hours until the 5am train.

I live <1h from Central London via train. The fare for that is ~3GBP off peak
or 5GBP peak. An Uber costs an order of magnitude more (~30-40GBP).

It would be an extremely notable expense in my budget - probably the largest
single item.

I think I'd have to have a home paid off and a fairly high salary before a
taxi became anything other than a frivolous luxury, to be honest.

(Business use is excepted here. I've used taxis plenty in my professional
life. Uber as a platform doesn't seem focused on business travel, though.)

~~~
robrenaud
I'd bet typical users live closer to the city center. I've been using uber and
lyft a lot in Chicago, Austin, and Denver recently, and my average cost per
ride is probably around $12.

~~~
esoteric_nonces
Perhaps.

I used to live in Zone1/2, and had 24 hour bus routes. So still ~an order of
magnitude - 10GBP vs 1.50.

I'd forgotten about sharing with friends. Taxis certainly work out well there.
Maybe that's it?

It's probably simply that I hate spending money! :)

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burnstek
London has definitely not been conquered by Uber. YMMV, but I've had nothing
but bad experiences in London (multiple driver cancellations, slow pickup
times, etc.) especially compared with Paris and many cities in the US.

~~~
adotjdotr
100% incorrect. Uber has definitely won over most Londoners it is a complete
game changer for the following reasons irrespective of your minimal bad
experiences.

I've spent several thousand pounds via work on Uber. This has resulted in 2-3
bad trips (which round out to 0.02%).

\- Quick pick up times \- Usually responsive and helpful drivers (no
complaining) \- Helpful carrying heavy items (almost 100% of the time) \-
Cheap fees \- Bill splitting is easy no friction \- UberPool does make me
slightly nervous

The service works and is default for myself and 100s of business users,
personally it works well too esp for date night.

In comparison, London Black Cab drivers are rude, racist, crass, willing to
rip you off and take advantage of you. They do not have their cars auditing a
lot of the time, refusal to take cash is unacceptable in this day and age and
should be in place in ALL taxis. There is no excuse for this.

~~~
tobz
Sorry, I'm not sure I get your last point: are you saying the black cab
drivers selectively take cash, or don't as a whole? I've never paid for an
Uber with cash, so I'm struggling ti understand the argument you're making,
because seemingly Uber wouldn't take cash either...

~~~
sefrost
Black cabs almost exclusively take cash, they'll take you to an ATM if you
only have card.

~~~
switch007
That's not true. Around 50% currently take cards. [1] If you get in one that
doesn't take cards, don't ask, then they will likely take you to an ATM.

Anyway, by October this year they will all take cards. [1]

[1] [https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-
releases/2016/februa...](https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-
releases/2016/february/card-payments-to-be-accepted-in-every-black-cab)

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f_allwein
What I found interesting about this is how they created a system where taxis
can become cheaper and drivers can earn more at the same time as their idle
time is reduced.

Also, at the same time, it is very illustrative for how humans (in this case,
drivers) really don't matter very much in such systems. As the one guy says,
"Uber don’t see drivers as humans". In that way, it looks they are just one
step away from driverless cars.

~~~
CPLX
> it looks they are just one step away from driverless cars

That step, of course, is actually inventing a working driverless car.

Coincidentally, I am the same number of steps away from writing the great
American novel.

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cbeach
I just walked past a long row of diesel cabs, sitting with engines idling,
waiting for fares at Canary Wharf. They sit there all day pumping out noxious
fumes. I'd much rather see the efficiently-allocated modern hybrid vehicles of
Uber.

Taxis aren't dying nearly fast enough in London

~~~
Symbiote
I couldn't agree more.

I refuse to use a black cab in London on principle. Their drivers fight
against regulations limiting the maximum age of their cars, so filthy, worn-
out diesel engines from 15 years ago are still polluting the city.

~~~
iNerdier
Cabs actually have more stringent MOT tests than private cars do and have them
more often. I'm not sure where your idea of 'filthy worn-out' engines comes
from.

I understand that diesel engines and particulate emissions are a big problem
in London at the moment but cabs are hardly going to be the worst offenders
here.

~~~
mdpye
I understand that they are. And the cars (and engines) are much older than
would be preferable because updating the regulations to mandate newer vehicles
gets a lot of push back. The vehicles are privately owned, the drivers do
_not_ want to fork out for a new one. Black cabs are much more expensive than
prius because of the limited number of approved models and manufacturers.
Source: friends who work air quality policy for tfl/city hall

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Animats
What Uber means by "liquidity" is lots of drivers competing to be available to
Uber. Not lots of apps competing for drivers.

Incidentally, the screen Uber shows at startup with many vehicles near your
current location has nothing to do with actual vehicle positions. That's just
a screen saver.[1]

[1] [http://motherboard.vice.com/read/ubers-phantom-
cabs](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/ubers-phantom-cabs)

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lackingcaffeine
I'm surprised it doesn't mention the referral system. Pretty much every
Londoner I know in their early twenties who uses Uber was given an initial
£10/20 (can't remember exactly how much) to spend if they referred a friend. I
remember thinking at the time how much money this must cost but it clearly
worked, everyone who had it was looking to give their uber code away to
someone new so you could travel in luxury for free.

~~~
hrrsn
That was a big factor here in New Zealand. I referred 10 people for $110 NZD
in credit.

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RobPfeifer
Whether it's true or not, you realize this article is purely driven by Uber
PR, right?

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I-M-S
Someone should link this article to David Fincher!

