I’ve never written an editorial
type of letter before in my life, and I never planned on using this blog as a
means of political or social action, or to promote any cause (other than travel
and food). I try to keep my beliefs off of this blog. However, since this issue
relates to travel and recreation, I thought that it was a pertinent topic.
As chronicled on this blog, I
went to New Orleans for my babymoon. For the transit to the airport from
our home, we used UberX, which was easily
accessed through my smartphone, paid automatically by a credit card, with a
clean, safe, and fast ride from Point A to Point B. There was a GPS unit in
full display, which the driver used to navigate to the destination (I’m sure
that he knew how to get to the airport; the GPS provides the customer peace of
mind). The car was clean, stylish, and the ride uneventful. The driver was
polite and a safe motorist.
The experience was overall
positive. A driver was at my house within 2 minutes of activating the signal on
my phone, I didn’t have to explain what I needed to a dispatcher, and the fare
was not expensive at all. In fact, I’ll use it again next time I need a ride to
a ballgame, airport, mechanic, whatever. It was nice just having my credit card
on file, and immediately afterwards, I was sent a detailed receipt in my email
(a great feature for business travelers).
For our return trip, we were
stuck with taking the airport cab service available. This time, the cab was
clean, but the entire trip was…sketchy. The driver turned on the meter, but
failed to have any sort of GPS. In fact, he kept asking us for directions.
Pretty unprofessional. When we arrived at our home, my husband wanted to pay
with a credit card, as we did not have enough cash to pay the fare. Despite the
cab stating that credit cards were readily accepted, the driver haggled with my
husband over taking a credit card, stating that he would really like some cash,
and would negotiate the fair within a certain range.
We still didn’t really have
enough to provide an adequate price for the fare (and were more than a little
skeeved out by his aggression at not taking a credit card), so he took our
card, refused to help us unload our bags, and drove away. While this is not the
norm of cab companies for certain, it provided sharp contrast to the experience
that we had with UberX.
What is Uber doing? Providing an
alternative and creating a more fair market for motor transit companies. Right
now, the taxi companies are pushing to get Uber and their other competition, Lyft, made illegal. It seems to me, that in a
fair market, the taxi companies should probably update their game, rather than
poo-poo the competition. Using senators’ time and tax dollars to push their own
greedy agendas is especially annoying to me. Basically, the cab companies are
trying to maintain their monopoly while not updating to the modern era.
What can we
do? Reach out to your
Senator in the CA Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee:
Senator Marty Block
Tweet @MartyBlock39
Senator.Block@senate.ca.gov
(916) 651-4039
Tweet @MartyBlock39
Senator.Block@senate.ca.gov
(916) 651-4039
1 comment:
I definitely agree! I've had the same experience as you... positive while using Uber and Lyft, negative while using a city cab. I find it very unfair that cities are trying to discourage people from using services like Uber and Lyft!
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