Uber “dodged authorities, ignored rules”
Did it really take leaked documents to show that Uber ignored standing taxi rules and flouted tax authorities when it expanded into Montreal? It was why our neoliberal politicians welcomed it, because it disrupted the longstanding taxi conventions, breaking all the rules. It was not a secret.
However, the existence of a central kill switch operated from San Francisco is a bit of news. While our politicians were swooning with admiration for this bit of capitalist skulduggery, Uber was siphoning money illegally to American billionaires and impoverishing drivers who were already living on a thin margin.
I still won’t use Uber. Never have.
Here’s the international version of the story from the Guardian.
Joey 16:30 on 2022-07-10 Permalink
Don’t forget Mayor Coderre’s response was to force cabbies to paint their cars and wear button-down shirts.
Kevin 19:00 on 2022-07-10 Permalink
As I recall, the Couillard Liberals opposed Uber until the youth wing of the party started supporting it only because it was cheaper than a cab, without realizing why that was so.
I have similar discussions with young adults about why driving your own car for a restaurant or for Uber is a terrible economic decision.
Kate 20:15 on 2022-07-10 Permalink
The Couillard Liberals may have said they opposed Uber, but they didn’t act against it, and there was a lot of talk about how the existing taxi system was bad and encrusted with too many rules. As an occasional taxi user I honestly could not see what was so bad about our taxis and I still don’t, but it was an article of faith at the time by much of the commentariat.
Much the same as Airbnb. There’s a little verbal opposition but Quebec has never flexed its powers to corral it in.
dhomas 22:00 on 2022-07-10 Permalink
Instead of bitching against Uber, the taxi companies should have banded together and built their own app to compete. By the time Téo came up with it, it was too late.
There was plenty wrong with the taxi industry pre -Uber. No app means no way to track your cab. So, with no way of knowing when your cab would arrive, you would have to wait outside, sometimes in the freezing cold, to make sure you didn’t miss it. Sometimes they would pick up other fares while you were waiting and you would have to call the dispatch again to make sure you were not forgotten.
The begging for cash payments was super frustrating. I would often take cabs back from the airport for work and 75% of the time the cabbie would ask if I could pay cash (I absolutely needed to pay with as corporate card). Please. Pretty please! All so they could make the trip without declaring the income.
No easy way to trace or report a bad driver. I once had a bad cabbie drive my drunk brother home and charged him about 3 times the regular fare. I took down the taxi registration number, but when I called the taxi company they brushed me off and told me the vehicle was shared so they couldn’t tell who the driver was (mon œil!). With an app, you can immediately report a bad driver and it keeps a majority of bad apples out.
Finally, paying via an app is awesome. No cash, no clunky, sliding “tchak-tchak” machine (these were still in active use before Uber), no problems.
I still won’t use Uber, but I also won’t use “traditional” taxis. It’s Téo or Eva for me.
Ephraim 22:33 on 2022-07-10 Permalink
It’s not just Uber, AirBnB is all about the tax evasion. And the government that needs money has no one to blame but themselves.
Bryan 23:08 on 2022-07-10 Permalink
I was trying to figure out how to articulate my thoughts on this when I came across this comment that said it better than I could.
https://www.metafilter.com/195912/Your-Uber-is-Conniving#8269939
Kate 08:51 on 2022-07-11 Permalink
dhomas, thing is, I don’t think I’ve ever felt a need to track my cab. And there were always ways of reporting bad drivers – I think the number was on that plastic thing on the window. You could, if you wanted, write down the driver’s permit number and make a complaint. Wasn’t as simple as sending an email, but then nothing was.
Does the Téo app still work? Last time I tried using it, nothing happened. Whereas, even now, if I phone Diamond, I get a cab.
A couple of years ago I was working in a spot that was surprisingly inaccessible after office hours because the bus line only ran at rush hour. A few of us had worked late and decided to split a cab to the metro. The cabbie had his kid with him – he said he wouldn’t usually expect all three of us to jam into the back, but he had no choice. So we spent the trip chatting while shushing each other whenever anyone said a swear word in front of the little girl. I suppose we could’ve complained.
Blork 10:09 on 2022-07-11 Permalink
The Kill Switch is not so unusual for companies operating internationally, especially in countries that might be less friendly to conventional protocols regarding search and seizure and whatnot. For example, any company operating in China or Russia (among a long list of others) really ought to have a kill switch in case they get raided for some reason. The last thing your company needs is for Russian authorities to suddenly have access to your entire global corporate database just because they decided to kick the door in and grab it.
As with Thomas, I’ve never used Uber here, but I used it in Seattle a few years ago, where the conventional taxi service is known to be awful. From the user’s POV (as in, the person taking the ride) it is definitely better than a taxi, primarily due to the app and its associated connectedness.
Calling a taxi is a horrible experience anywhere. You get some gruff person who has no patience and barely listens to you. You need to know the exact address where you are (not always easy) and you are fully at the mercy of that one cranky person who doesn’t give AF about you or your situation. And then you wait, and you wait, and you wait. Then you get in a taxi with a driver who doesn’t give AF about you or where you’re going and spends the whole time mumbling into his phone while driving.
With Uber, OTOH, you just click a few things and right away your ride is coming for you. I think you can even pick between different drivers, if I remember correctly (I.e., you might have one Uber driver who is four blocks away but drives a big SUV and another that is five blocks away driving a Prius, so you can choose the Prius guy if you want. Not 100% sure if that’s true, but I think so.)
If something screws up, like an unexpected traffic jam on the way to get you, another driver can take over. And the driver has incentive to provide a good service, as they want a good rating.
Despite all that, I still don’t like Uber for all the usual corporate reasons. And it absolutely kills me that Téo were not able to make it work. It was the perfect hybrid and it should have brought all the advantages of Uber to regular taxis but it failed, largely (I think) because people are stupid and simply refused to know about it. Everybody talked about Uber but hardly anybody talked about Téo.
My understanding is that some (or maybe even most) taxi services in Montreal have some kind of app running now, but a couple of years ago they were known to be really bad. Total shit apps that were useless. I don’t know if they have improved. I doubt it.)
Kate, you say you’ve never had a need to track a taxi, which I find odd. Sitting by your front door for half an hour because you don’t know when it’s going to arrive vs. being able to see exactly where it is and when it will arrive? Standing outside of a restaurant in the freezing rain for 20 minutes vs. sitting inside finishing your coffee? It’s the kind of convenience that one you know it, it’s hard to go back.
dhomas 10:20 on 2022-07-11 Permalink
It happened to me on more than one occasion that I waited for a taxi that never arrived and I needed to call into the dispatch again. It was an archaic system, with separate dispatchers for each taxi company. They only needed to organize and each cab company could have put in some funds to develop an app for all Montreal taxi companies to compete with Uber. I understand Uber’s strategy was willfully illegal, but if the taxi companies would have looked at the reasons WHY people were flocking to Uber (other than price), and done something other than complain to government, they would have been much better off.
The Téo app still works. I used it yesterday. They get taxis from Téo (EVs), Diamond, and Hochelaga. I usually try to use Eva, but it wasn’t finding my location yesterday, for some reason.
Kevin 13:00 on 2022-07-11 Permalink
If VCs had decided to throw their money at existing taxi companies, they would have built apps and more too.
But Venture Capitalists don’t care about making things incrementally better.