When Is a Taxi Not a Taxi? Uber fights to change Taxi industry perception forever

When Is a Taxi Not a Taxi?

The new car service company Uber exposes the idiocy of American cities’ cab regulations.

Uber is a company that’s exciting, innovative, useful, and arguably shouldn’t exist at all. It is a solution to a ridiculous problem created by cartels and overregulation.

“I wanted to be able to press a button and get a classy ride,” explained CEO Travis Kalanick when I asked him to describe Uber’s origin story to me at a launch event for its D.C. branch on Wednesday. So last year Kalanick, Oscar Salazar, and Garrett Camp founded a company originally known as UberCab in San Francisco.

The original name made perfect sense, since at root what Uber provides is a taxi service. Just about every major city in America has, in addition to its heavily regulated cab drivers, a largish fleet of private sedan drivers who do things like take businessmen on pre-arranged drives to and from airports. These limo services generally feature nicer cars, higher prices, and—crucially—different moments of peak demand. Car services get a lot of business weekday mornings, and to a lesser extent in the afternoon rush hour. But very few business travelers need a ride from the airport late on a Friday or Saturday night, which is the time lots of drunk young people want a ride home or maybe to a different bar.

These are two fairly distinct market segments. Airplanes take off and land at defined.........

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P.s.

Warning to Uber and Lyft drivers

"Uber Destroyed My Life

I was looking for a way to generate some extra income to supplement my veteran pension, give me something to do with my spare time, and most importantly help make the $409/month payments on my 2013 Chrysler 300. I saw an ad from Uber guaranteeing a very lucrative job as well as great working conditions and a secure future. I hired on as an Uber driver and at first everything they claimed seemed to be mostly true. I was earning decent money (though not as much as their ads promised) and was getting plenty of work. All was good until one day I became involved in an accident. It was only then that I discovered that my personal liability insurance did not cover me because my car was being used for commercial purposes. Uber’s mythical “1 million dollar liability coverage” only covered Uber, not me or my car. I am now being sued by the other driver’s insurance company for thousands of dollars and my smashed Chrysler 300 sits in a junk yard racking up storage fees. On top of all of this, no traditional taxi companies will touch me now because of the accident on my driving record.
I was only trying to earn an honest extra income and now I have no car, just the $409/month payments and a huge pending lawsuit. None of this would have happened if I had been working for a legitimate taxi company that is required by law to provide both a car and commercial insurance for their drivers. If only I had known then what I know now. Uber is a lying, dishonest company that does not give a damn about their drivers and is only out to make a dishonest buck.DO NOT WORK FOR UBER OR THIS MAY HAPPEN TO YOU LIKE IT DID TO ME! "

Taxi Drivers Fighting Windmills ?

Honking Cab Drivers Demand San Francisco Ban On Ride sharing Services

With horns blaring, a long line of taxicabs circled San Francisco City Hall this afternoon, with cab drivers demanding that the city ban smartphone-enabled rideshare services.

As their colleagues circled the block, dozens of taxi drivers gathered on the steps of City Hall to call for the regulation of rideshare companies such as Lyft, Sidecar and Uber.

One of the rally’s organizers, Barry Korengold, president of the San Francisco Cab Drivers Association, called the startup companies “unfair competition.”

He said, “legal cabs are getting screwed,” citing a large drop in taxi ridership since the companies began operating.

The taxi drivers are asking city officials and the California Public Utilities Commission to step in.

The CPUC, which regulates passenger carriers, has asked an administrative law judge to compile a report on rideshare companies.

In December, the commission tasked the judge with gathering information to “evaluate the safety of ridesharing businesses that utilize the Internet, social media, and location services to arrange transportation of passengers over public highways for compensation,” according to CPUC documents......

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Are All Taxi Drivers Crooks?

By JC

For some, thinking of taxi drivers will conjure up images of crooked swindlers and professional con artists.  People think of characters like Louie De Palma and Danny DeVito's Character from the TV show “Taxi” and, imagine that any person in this profession must be just like them; an opportunistic, greedy, and completely self-serving thief who has no issues with stealing the money off weary travelers.  A few trips through a big city like New York can easily make this stereotype seem like fact.  The problem is the stereotype fails when you ask a single question; if all taxi drivers are crooks, why do people still use their services?

The Scams

People who live in cities rarely have issues with local cabbies that tourists and business people do, simply because the locals know the layout of their home.  In New York for example, the use of cab drivers is practically a tradition; it’s hard to swindle someone who knows what the quickest route is and, knows when their driver has suddenly opted for a longer trip.

What visitors rarely realize is that they often stand out as a tourist.  This makes them attractive customers to the few drivers who are looking for an easy target.  It gives “cabbies” the option to take longer routes that eat the meter, or to “assume” that they were supposed to keep the change as a tip and drive off before the mistake can be corrected.

Do Some Research

With scams like these, it's no wonder that some people regard taxi drivers with such suspicion.  Many drivers, however, are friendly, honest, and forthright.  Often, the problem is that tourists and business professionals who use taxi services unknowingly communicate that they're easy marks.  Some research can go a long way in making sure you get honest cabbies and thwart the couple of sneaks you might come across.

In any area where you’ll be spending a lot of time, do research on the taxi licenses that drivers should have.  Know what they should look like and know where the important information should be displayed upon them.  If the Taxi doesn't have a license don't use their service, most of the more dangerous and threatening cons are pulled off by unlicensed cabs!  Once you determine your cab driver has the right papers and permits write down the name and license numbers, the simple act of recording this information will show any dishonest drivers you may be dealing with that you're paying careful attention to what is going on; many tricks require oblivious or unaware customers.

If you have a smart-phone, use a GPS application to track the route they're taking.  When the driver diverts from the most efficient route promptly ask why.  You don't need to be suspicious right away as there can be completely legitimate reasons (such as closed roads) to change routes.  While you can use a paper map for the same thing, a cell phone is less obtrusive and maps kind of defeat the object of not drawing attention to yourself.

These few steps will help you thwart the handful of dishonest drivers you may come across on your travels.  Just pay attention to any red flags that come up during

Toyota Prius as a Taxi Cab

What is general opinion of cab drivers on using Toyota Prius as a taxi ?  

How long they last? 

Do they develop mechanical / electronic problems and at what points or after what mileage ?

How much does it cost to repair Toyota Prius ?

After how many miles / kilometers battery needs to be replaced and how much does it cost ?

How long lasts Toyota Prius  electric transmission ?

What can go wrong Toyota Prius electric transmission?

How many miles to a gallon or liters per 100 Kilometers does Toyota Prius taxi gets in real world usage?

Dave Matthews drives Toyota Prius, He Likes New York, dislike 50 sex stores at Frankfurt airport, he thinks about being a "sword" on ..... watch interview 

Dustin Hoffman drives Toyota Prius

Florida taxi drivers / writers wanted

Picture by wikimedia.org

Taxi driver stories wanted, - if you a cab driver or person who takes cabs often, write about it from your own experience.
Make $15 per story, each story must be 250 - 450 words long of ORIGINAL content,- have fun, tell the world what had happened in your taxicab or while you were in it as a passenger, get your text published on internet and make money while doing this.


>>> Go to Taxi Stories
We also need taxi drivers / article writers on daily life of cab driver, cab drivers opinions, places worth visiting in Florida, issues concerning taxi drivers in Florida, tips to other cab drivers on how to improve their lifestyles or how to reduce overhead cost of taxi driving business, etc
We are interested about anything related to taxi driving in Florida, either in Saint Pete, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Gainesville or Miami, just to name few major places.

Articles must be + 400 words long, it will be published with its own link, you will be credited with its creation and you will get paid between $15-25, depending on quality of writing and relevance of content.


We reserve the right to refuse to publish certain articles with inappropriate content and without pay.

Crashing Cabbies: Las Vegas, Nevada by Sasha

Taxi Cab Crashes into Garage at Fashion Show Mall

Stories and news articles on taxicabs are about awkward passengers, sticky situations; For the most part, it is rare that taxi drivers make headline news for their indiscretions or odd behavior. However, one taxicab driver in Las Vegas, Nevada managed to change the way in which people look at the expectations of a cab driver.
Shopping malls across America are filled with people shuffling around looking for the best bargains or the newest trends to hit the market. The parking lot is filled with cars smashed into tiny spaces; or taxi cabs lurking around searching for a passenger, picking up lunch, or simply running the meter while their customer is inside exchanging an expensive ugly sweater they got as a gift.

Fashion Show Malls

Fashion Show mall is another typical shopping mall in Las Vegas, Nevada and on April 11th, 2013, the stores were filled with people, cars were parked like sardines in the lot, and cab drivers did their normal run. However, an unidentified cabbie drove his taxi into the wall of the parking garage instead of fulfilling. According to investigators, the driver was taken to the hospital with serious injuries and yet there was no particular reason reported for the single-car crash.
Although the story is quite disturbing, it leads to the question of whether or not taxi drivers are held to a different standard because they are supposed to be the levelheaded ringleader. Whether or not the driver intentionally drove his (or her) car into the wall is irrelevant. In specific professions, there are standards that allow no room for human error. For example, patients in the medical profession hold their doctors and nurses to the highest regards, and students in a classroom think their teachers know everything and they expect to learn everything their teacher knows.
When these professionals make a mistake, it does not stop people from going to the doctor or to school; it just makes them more cautious. Is this accident going to make people at Fashion Show mall stop riding in a taxicab? Probably not, however, it will allow them to make a change in how they perceive their driver. It does not matter what their ethnicity, race, religion, or gender is. What matters is that they can drive and they know the difference between a cement wall and a paved road.

The Strange Tales of London Cab Drivers

picture by i.telegraph.co.uk

Taxi Tales: London Cabbie Confess All

For most cab drivers, their only responsibility is safely maneuvering their way throughout the city, drop off passengers, and get paid. Occasionally, the cab driver looks in the rearview mirror hoping to get a glimpse of the person he or she decided to give a ride. It is in that moment they realize they are not doctors or lawyers; they are street priests and their cab is the confessional. Along the narrow streets of London, taxis stop to scoop up tourists, women, executives, and young students trying to find their way home. The driver asks ‘where to?’ and zips along the streets of London fast enough to drop off their passenger and slow enough to run up the meter. They often look at the reflections of their customers in the mirror and shake their head in amazement at the oddity of others.

Experiences

The interesting thing about people is that regardless of how peculiar they may be there is someone shortly after them that were even more peculiar. A woman asking her cab driver to stop at a convenience store in order for her to purchase another pair of stockings to hide an affair from her husband, for a cab driver like Terry, may be a reasonable request. It is the moment when Terry glanced at her in the rearview mirror and saw she had her new stockings scrunched in her hands and putting them, on that may have seemed to be a little much. In the life of a cabbie, the next passenger after a woman like her is probably more fascinating. For example, the account of the anonymous driver who watched as a much older gentleman and two young women began a rendezvous in the back of his cab. John, a London cab driver whose last name is unknown, once noticed something strange on the floor of his backseat. When he pulled over, he realized that the last passenger did not leave a briefcase, bag of money, purse, or phone. Instead, the passenger left a living snake and according to his account, it was the same length of his taxi and he had to drive to the police station and requested that they removed it.

Seasoned Drivers

As in any profession, there are the more seasoned drivers. The ones who are in tune with their city and have a laundry list of streets to avoid. For example, London’s popular Clampham High Street turns into fraternity town on the weekends according to cabbie John Kennedy. By his account, the worst season is the summer because it is the time of the year when he is driving around an intoxicated passenger with the windows rolled down and the mixture of alcohol and vomit permeating his cab.
Regardless of the city, country, or continent taxi drivers will often encounter bizarre people and attention grabbing conversations. For them, it is not the odd people that are odd, but the people considered normal and sane by societal standards that may cause their driver to lift their eyebrow and shake their head.