- "Are you going to get in trouble with NPR?" he asked. "You are almost at three times the [normal] amount."
Final cost of a one-hour cab ride: $192.00.
I had found Furye through Uber, a company that makes an app that connects cabs and cars with people who are looking for rides. One thing about Uber: When there's a lot of demand — like, say, in the middle of a snowstorm — the price goes way up.
Uber calls this surge pricing; a lot of people might call it gouging. But Uber drivers aren't employees with hourly schedules; they choose when and whether to drive. And, Uber says, raising prices when demand is high is a way to get more drivers on the road to meet that demand.
I've never quite understood why cabs are so regulated. I think services like Uber are awesome, since they can bring some entrepreneurship back to the cab business. If I get a license to do so, why the hell shouldn't I be allowed to charge whatever I want for a ride around town? It shouldn't sound weird to say: "...raising prices when demand is high is a way to get more drivers on the road to meet that demand." That's just the way the world should work.
It's a weird debate here in DC, to be sure. I know the president of Uber is a really shitty person, (see this NSFWCorp article I unlocked for this purpose ) and his attempts to change things are brutal to an unnecessary extreme (he also opposes licensing of cabbies), but on the other hand, I don't believe the cab association is any better. Here we require cars to have credit card readers, and yet they consistently fail. They recently had the ban on fare limits lifted, and then proceed to gouge riders exorbitantly-- to the point where Uber is about the same price (and cheaper even with Uber X)-- yet they bitch about how much Uber is gouging people. So perhaps this is one of those cases where laissez-faire should be in place. The cabs want the business back? Make your prices reasonable. Our metro stops running at midnight on weekends, and if I need a cab, there's no fucking way I'm taking a dirty car, with a driver who has no idea where he's going and refuses to use GPS, and then pay 65 bucks, when I can get things better, cheaper, faster, and cleaner from Uber X. And on the flipside, the cab company's competition and opposition forces Uber to have that cheap alternative as well. Rarely do Adam Smith proponents have such a clean case to wax intellectual about. In reality it will probably lead to collusion that fucks over the customers. I suppose that already started with Travis Kalanick's downright refusal to obey some laws.
I agree. However, I think the license should be a must. You and your car should meet certain standards. As long as the sector isn't monopolized (like ISPs in many regions), cabs should then charge what they think you can get.If I get a license to do so, why the hell shouldn't I be allowed to charge whatever I want for a ride around town?