About four thousand taxis gathered in the centre of London, they remained idle without any movements with the intention to protest against the app based raid-hailing services. The London protest followed the protests of Rome, Madrid, Paris, Berlin and Milan. All these protests were targeted in the raid-hailing services such as, Uber, Lyft and many such services.
The complaint from the taxi drivers is that, the raid –haling services allows the customers to hail the private cars for their travel and they also permit the drivers to earn money by taking rides, some companies allow the drivers to earn money out of the rides, whereas some companies provides salary and they drivers can’t take money from the rides.
The raid-hailing services operate in around two hundred cities around the world. The raid-hailing apps are also the part of the sharing revolution. The Uber app handles and manages the driver and fleet management, interaction between the passengers and the drivers and payment and taxi hailing.
The threat provided to the taxi drivers, taxi service providers and the regulators are in terms of discrimination, pricing and the work allocation. But there are more critics imposed on Uber for its predatory and exploitative charter. It is improving its corporatization day by day, which is one of the threats to the tradition taxi industry.
The background behind the protests
The survey was conducted with the traditional taxi drivers, Uber drivers and the users in the major cities. In which one of the cab drivers of London said that, the customers are afraid of the drivers and vice-versa. The cab driving is the challenging work, in which drivers work for some long hours in order to have the reasonable earnings to lead their lives.
In London, the cabs are divided into two, one is black cabs and the other is mini cabs. The black cabs accept passengers on the roads and offers them rides, whereas, the mini cabs accept passengers who have requested and booked for the cab in advance. The black cabs rides are expensive, and the drivers have to be knowledge, and they should clear the exam about the geography of London, which many take three to four years to complete.
The San Francisco cab business is not much segmented. The yellow cab drivers should pass the exam with the stipulated medallion. The license to drive a cab in the city may take some hundred of thousand dollars.
The regulations of the taxi industry impacts the drivers experience heavily. When the de-regulations happened in the taxi industry, many drivers grew up. In the regulated cities, the costs of the rides are higher due to the medallion prices or obtaining the regulatory tool permit for the drivers to drive. According to the San Francisco statistics, the drivers get $11 per hour, whereas, the U.S drivers get $14 per hour. This variation of the salaries is due to not reporting the salaries for avoiding taxes. Basically taxi drivers get low income, which is above the minimum wages. Uber launched in the market in San Francisco in 2009.
Groups affected by raid sharing
The groups which are affected by the raid sharing are the Uber passengers, traditional taxi drivers and the Uber drivers.
Uber driving
The traditional taxi services are the basic point of comparison in this regard.
Uber Users require the Uber account, the valid credit card and the billing address, which means that, Uber cannot be used without having a bank account. Some of the users have found that the app is more reliable than the other taxi services and the app gives more information regarding ride before taking the ride.
A survey was conducted in San Francisco regarding what would have happened if there was no Uber, for which, 8% of people have been told that, they would have not taken the trip in any of the raid-hailing services, about 39% of people said that, they would use taxis, about 33% of people said that, they would have use the public transit and 6% of people said that, they would have driven on their own.
The time, distance and cost are not only the factors which the people consider taking a ride from Uber, instead, people think that the journey can be reasonably taken by taxi or the journey will become waste if they take a taxi.
Uber passengers said that, if they book for a cab through the Uber app, it will show the time at which the driver arrives, it will also show the countdown for the driver’s arrival, which cannot be expected in taxis. Some of the passengers felt that, the private car will be maintained better than a taxi. The traditional taxi driver and the leased fleet cab have, the closer relationship.
According to Uber, their passengers believe Uber drivers as trustworthy, and they have a good opinion about their services. Uber has enhanced level of services and the friendlier environment.
At the end of the journey, drivers are rated by the passengers about the ride and vice versa. Many passengers are unaware that they are rated by the drivers, and because of their low ratings, drivers refuse to accept their rides. The rating will be in the form of stars. When the passenger requests for the ride, the passenger rating will be displayed to the driver and also the driver rating will be displayed to the passenger. So if the passenger is not satisfied with the driver, he can request for another driver. And in the same way the driver also has the right to not to accept the passenger if they have a low rating. The ride finally closes with the payment.
Taxi driving
According to the city regulations, the traditional taxis are more expensive than the regular cars. To get the passengers, the taxi drivers keep waiting in the streets, sometimes they may wait for some long hours without hailing even single passenger, in such situations it will be difficult for the taxi drivers to make money. As taxi driving is dangerous, it is important to know some cautions about the passengers.
To solve their issues, taxi drivers have to find good fares. One of the drivers said how he will cover up the users at the hotels to get a ride to the airport. The work of the taxi drivers is concerned with the low mutual dependence and high mobility. Once the raid was hailed, then the drivers should navigate as directed by the users. The black cab driver uses the least of the technology. If there was no GPS technology, then the black cab taxi would have won. Even in some cases, the passenger many runs without paying for the taxi driver. As of whole the taxi driving is a difficult and challenging task.
Conclusion
It is clear, how the app based raid-hailing services affect the taxi services. Without focusing on the “app economy”, people should try to find out the effects of the app in the economy and also in the lives. Without coming to a conclusion that Uber and such similar services are good or bad, it is important to check how it affects in all aspects, and how the app predict the winners and losers.
It was mentioned that, Uber provides faster service, Uber drivers will not let the passengers wait. Above all, Uber is not applicable to the people who don’t have the bank account or credit card; it is applicable only for the high and middle standard people. But taxi ride is applicable to all sorts of people. Technology should be used in such a way that it is not affecting the people on the opposite side.
Author Bio:
Anand Rajendran is the Co-founder & CEO of Casperon. He is a a content marketing and social media marketing Specialist. He covers many things like ecommerce, marketing, design, development, strategy, plus emerging trends, including omnichannel and cloud replatforming. GetmeTaxi Script is a Software developed by Company called Casperon Technologies which has launched a Taxi Software called Cabily.
Link : http://getmetaxi.com/
Anchor Text : GetmeTaxi Script in Author Bio
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