Fort Lauderdale Taxis & Credit Cards

[Mr. Boston]

I drove a taxi for 10 years, total.

 

 

 

I never once saw a person get rich driving a cab, not once.

 

 

 

Drivers often do not like credit cards because of

 

A. charge backs, sometimes a month or so later.

 

B. cab companies will often charge a credit card service fee (up to 10%).

 

 

 

Uber offers no value except to skirt the rules. Not having to pay cab insurance. Not having to offer service to handicapped. Not serving customers who don't score high enough on service rating.

 

 

 

It is too much like a grocer offering cheaper meats because they avoid regulation. sure, it might work for a picnic or a BBQ, but eventually it will harm the community.

 

 

I respectfully disagree. Uber's value, to me, is that I'm transported in a clean vehicle of limo quality that doesn't resemble the back seat of a police car that you have to sit sideways in. Not to mention minus the nasty things I've found in the back seat of many taxis because the drivers could care less about the passengers' experience. That's how I prefer to start my vacation.

[Lottie Linda]

LL, can I safely infer from your post that Uber and Lyft riders have no recourse from being ripped off nor any protection from pervs? Thanks for your input.

 

 

Thank you for your consideration.

 

I would say that Uber does offer some protection against pervs and thieves. The protection extends as far as the company cares to extend that protection. Uber makes their own rules and says they're adequate.

 

A community regulated taxi service will offer the protection mandated by the community through elected or appointed officials and public input.

 

One takes their chances whenever one gets into a car with a stranger. A taxi is well marked and overseen by peers and officials. I had a cab driver make fraudulent charges on my credit card. An Uber driver is internet based, somewhat stealth, and regulated by a company that continuously insists the drivers are fully independent.

 

I take a taxi so infrequently that a few extra dollars to a well regulated cab is not going to break the bank. I think ride share services like Uber are so new as to not be fully vetted, as most cab companies have been in business for decades.

[POA1]

As a Fort Lauderdale resident who's never used Uber but has used local taxis, I can tell you that unless you know where you're going and how to get there, there's a pretty good chance that you'll be taken on a less than optimal route. If the cab takes you a few miles out of the way, you - the customer - get stuck with the cost of the extra, meandering route. When we have visitors, I send them printed directions from the airport, because there's a really good chance that they'll be "taken for a ride."

 

It's a big complaint, and it's one of the things that is really hurting the local taxi companies.

[Lottie Linda]

I respectfully disagree. Uber's value, to me, is that I'm transported in a clean vehicle of limo quality that doesn't resemble the back seat of a police car that you have to sit sideways in. Not to mention minus the nasty things I've found in the back seat of many taxis because the drivers could care less about the passengers' experience. That's how I prefer to start my vacation.

 

 

You have a point, taxis are often dirty and are utility vehicles that often lack accoutrements found in limo type cars. That is because they are run nearly twenty-four hours a day and up to 500 miles a day of city driving.

 

One could always get a town car- which are often cheaper than a taxi.

 

That all being said, how is it Uber can offer a nicer car, nicer driver and a cheaper price? The taxi business is a competitive operation. Companies compete against each other, drivers compete against other drivers. And there is always a shortage of drivers.

 

Please explain how Uber can be cheaper? The technology Uber uses was available twenty years ago. Most cabs are computer dispatched.

 

The way Uber can beat a taxi is by cheating on the insurance, refusing to provide handicapped accessible cabs, and by servicing only the most profitable fares.

 

I think taxis will soon be antiquated. Services like Smart Car and Google's driverless cars, will make cabbies a legend told by old poops like me.

[Lottie Linda]

As a Fort Lauderdale resident who's never used Uber but has used local taxis, I can tell you that unless you know where you're going and how to get there, there's a pretty good chance that you'll be taken on a less than optimal route. If the cab takes you a few miles out of the way, you - the customer - get stuck with the cost of the extra, meandering route. When we have visitors, I send them printed directions from the airport, because there's a really good chance that they'll be "taken for a ride."

 

It's a big complaint, and it's one of the things that is really hurting the local taxi companies.

 

You'd think that a highly paid professional like a cab driver would take pride in taking the best route. LOL

 

Cab drivers are hired as the lowest rung in the workforce. a driver's license and a pulse are usually the only requirements. When I applied to drive for Yellow Cab in L.A. in the early 70's I was required to take a test to see if I knew how to get to different places. I scored 20% and they told me, "Congratulations! When can you start?"

 

The skill of knowing where you are in the city at all times AND how to get to any other part of the city from there is a skill. Used to be people where paid enough to drive a taxi to send their children to college.

 

Most immigrant drivers have GPS these days and so do most customers, there should never be a problem.

 

Ask how much it will cost. A driver will know and so should you before you start. Otherwise, take a different cab.

 

If the community doesn't insist on a decent wage for cab drivers, then the community won't have decent drivers.

 

Take Uber if you want, I don't care. If saving a few dollars is incentive not to pay the going rate, then go for it. But don't pretend Uber is some type of genius business model- it ain't.

[POA1]

Most immigrant drivers have GPS these days and so do most customers, there should never be a problem.

 

Ask how much it will cost. A driver will know and so should you before you start. Otherwise, take a different cab.

 

Perhaps they're all using GPS in some magical otherworld, but not in Fort Lauderdale and quite a few other places we've taken cabs. As for the price shopping / asking how much the ride will cost - that ain't happening in the taxi dispatch line at the airport. I realize that traffic, and in our area, drawbridges can impact the cost of a cab, but the customer shouldn't have to pay while the driver sort of learns the way around the city. One of the big competitive advantages that the ride sharing services have is that they can quote you a price before you book.

 

In the previous post to the one I'm quoting, you also made the claim that the technology that Uber uses was around 20 years ago. I'm relatively up on tech, but I can't recall Internet enabled, touch screen smartphones with GPS. (The Motorola StarTAC came out in 1996 and was a big deal at the time. Reasonably sure that the Uber experience on the analog, GPS less, what the heck is a data plan, phone would have been less than stellar.)

 

[Lottie Linda]

Perhaps they're all using GPS in some magical otherworld, but not in Fort Lauderdale and quite a few other places we've taken cabs. As for the price shopping / asking how much the ride will cost - that ain't happening in the taxi dispatch line at the airport. I realize that traffic, and in our area, drawbridges can impact the cost of a cab, but the customer shouldn't have to pay while the driver sort of learns the way around the city. One of the big competitive advantages that the ride sharing services have is that they can quote you a price before you book.

 

In the previous post to the one I'm quoting, you also made the claim that the technology that Uber uses was around 20 years ago. I'm relatively up on tech, but I can't recall Internet enabled, touch screen smartphones with GPS. (The Motorola StarTAC came out in 1996 and was a big deal at the time. Reasonably sure that the Uber experience on the analog, GPS less, what the heck is a data plan, phone would have been less than stellar.)

 

 

 

 

 

I would take the time to find out the price, even at the airport. Just because it seems hectic, you have to take the time to agree on a contract. Unless driving around with some dinkus who doesn't know where he's going is OK with you.. All you have to say is, "How much to XYZ?" If he doesn't know, he doesn't know how to get there- better to find out now rather than find it out on the freeway.

 

I'm telling you as a veteran cab driver, always get an estimate.

 

As far as cabs being computer dispatched 20 years ago, no problem. All the cabs had GPS and a computer would assign the nearest taxi. I was a cab driver not a computer person.

 

Here is a picture of a similar "mobile data terminal" or as the cab drivers call it, the computer, that I was using twenty years ago.

 

http://www.taxi-library.org/mccurdy.htm#mdt

 

Once again, I don't care. Use Uber, go ahead. But I think a business that only succeeds because it flaunts the law, is not good for people.

 

Uber has yet to make a profit. It owns nearly nothing. It "employs" nearly no one. All it does is raise money to tie up the courts and the lawmakers and operate below the radar. If you ever had a lawsuit against them, they'd bury you in proceedings until your grandchildren were old.

 

I have had friends who started a cab company. I had fellow drivers who bought an existing cab company. And I applied for a job because the owner (an Ethiopian dude) was on the news complaining he couldn't get drivers for his cab company because people were prejudiced. (I worked for him for three years, and he was kind of right).

 

The point is, there are tens of thousands of cab drivers sitting at the airport or a hotel, thinking, there has to be a better way. And this is the best all those minds could come up with? Skirt the law?

 

Puhleese! Some of the drivers I've known were something else back home. I had a Russian general, several doctors and lawyers, teachers galore, plenty of people smarter than me. Even burnt out Silicone Valley types. They attend taxiboard meetings, if they had a better idea it wouldn't be so hard to get the funding.

[Mr. Boston]

You have a point, taxis are often dirty and are utility vehicles that often lack accoutrements found in limo type cars. That is because they are run nearly twenty-four hours a day and up to 500 miles a day of city driving.

 

 

 

One could always get a town car- which are often cheaper than a taxi.

 

 

 

That all being said, how is it Uber can offer a nicer car, nicer driver and a cheaper price? The taxi business is a competitive operation. Companies compete against each other, drivers compete against other drivers. And there is always a shortage of drivers.

 

 

 

Please explain how Uber can be cheaper? The technology Uber uses was available twenty years ago. Most cabs are computer dispatched.

 

 

 

The way Uber can beat a taxi is by cheating on the insurance, refusing to provide handicapped accessible cabs, and by servicing only the most profitable fares.

 

 

 

I think taxis will soon be antiquated. Services like Smart Car and Google's driverless cars, will make cabbies a legend told by old poops like me.

 

 

I think you are referring to Uber X and I'm referring to Uber. Uber is usually a few dollars more than a cab. I've never used Uber X which is essentially ride sharing so I can't speak to cost on that. I don't mind paying a few dollars more for better experience.