1641
Everything old is new again.
(lemmy.world)
That said, Taxi drivers have something Uber drivers don't- a union.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Taxi_Workers%27_Alliance
I guess it depends where you are. In my city there is a taxi company that started buying lots of smaller ones. They now have an app like Uber so you can order it and see where it is. Because they bought so many firms they’re everywhere and considerably cheaper than Uber. I guess it’s only viable in large cities.
Only took the cab companies ten years to catch on to what they should have done as soon as Uber came on the scene. If cab companies had innovated like this, they would have killed Uber in the cradle.
It’s a lot harder for smaller businesses to invest in that level of development without hedge fund money and trying to corner the market.
If a small taxi company is making £100k profit a year it’s a big ask to invest £20k+ on developer to compete with Uber for what? A small increase in profit.
You need to expand as well as innovate. Hence the one taxi company near me buying out others to have a larger market.
Multiple companies could have pooled resources to fund developing an app that they all used. They have existing inventory, employees, local government connections. They definitely could have outcompeted Uber if they had been able to get their heads out of their asses and even try.
Instead they ignorantly tried to kill Uber by suppressing innovation and service improvements that everyone wanted, which was doomed to fail from the start. They dug their own graves on this one.
That's exactly what banks did for quick money transfer. (not that they're small businesses but) The mayor banks in the US got together made a joint company and created Zelle to compete with cashapp and all he other quick money transfer apps.
And wages? They couldn’t pay the drivers as little as Uber by making them contractors.
Uber wouldn't have been able to keep customers if big name, well-established taxi companies had really tried to compete with them. Middle aged adults (like me) would not have been inclined to jump into a stranger's car no matter how cheap it was, if it was just as easy to get a licensed cab.