bwcabbie

Preface: Uber is exploiting the young, retired and unemployed.

Uber driver's are forced into taking rides out of their zones. Cab driver's are not. It is simply not profitable for me to take a 15 mile trip to pick someone up from a grocery store for a $4 fare. With Uber if you turn down too many forced fares you get kicked out of the system.

As for dependable, because an Uber requires a smart phone, roaming data access and a credit card you immediately remove a gigantic chunk of "bad rides" that clog up the system. 1/4 taxi rides I would be assigned would be rejected upon arrival for either not being able to pay, not being there, spoofing for fun or being deemed dangerous on my part. These rides gum up the system.

The "pleasant" part I attribute to the rating system forcing the driver's to smile through bullshit and since they are likely young, retired or unemployed (plus with there being too many driver's on the road in most markets to make anything close to a liveable wage) they are more than happy for the $5 fares they get.

Taxi companies are built around fleets that are shared among several drivers, at minimum 2 to keep the car moving 24/7 whereas Uber is people using their own personal cars so of course they will be in better condition.

Most Uber drivers last less than 9 months because they see the damage and wear on their vehicle. If they lasted longer you would see a lot more shitty vehicles in the fleet.

I've driven 2 brand new taxis in my time and I got a million compliments. Give me 3 months and see how it fares after, especially since I'm doing 20+ rides a day while Uber drivers average 5-6 and only work 3 or 4 days a week.

Your taking advantage of a system that takes advantage of the drivers.

Uber drivers don't have to deal with the bullshit cab drivers do. They don't have to deal with stiffed rides, $4 fares around the ghetto with drug addicts and the mentally ill, they aren't in jeopardy of being robbed. the simple fact you need a working credit card and smart phone to ride with Uber cuts the shared clientele in half and taxis driver's have to keep the bottom of the barrel.

Your "friendly drivers" come at the expense of keeping the bottom rung of society locked out.

I won't defend driver's I never met but I always bent over backwards to be a nice guy. I quit and moved on the second I realized if I did this any longer I'd snap. You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain.

Cab driving attracts the laziest of society. You set your own hours, little physical labor involved if any, you have a lot of control over who you pick up and don't pick up and there are high rewards ($350-400 a day can be easily attainable) and horrible lows (staying out from 9 PM-7 AM for $50 in hand).

One time on NPR there was an animal rights activist who went undercover in a meat processing plant. He made the comment most of the workers are nice normal guys but they want to go home after a hard day. Imagine your job is yo move boxes and those boxes are what keep you from going home. Of course you'll grow to hate the boxes. In this case the boxes were chickens so they kick and abuse the chickens. It was a form of stress relief like the printer in Office Space.

The cab passengers are boxes. It is our job to transport these boxes. If these boxes give you shit or keep you from getting home on time you will take it out on the next box.

Add about 5-25 years and you have a crabby bastard.

Oh cab companies are completely dead in the water, no doubt about it.

Cab companies in Toledo are completely dependent on contracted rides, the majority of them medical rides. If I did 20 rides a day during day shift 18 of them were contracted to Lucas County Welfare. Cab companies operate as non-emergency medical transport and that business is expanding every single day.

I don't necessarily know why Uber can't crack those markets, I'm sure it is largely political, but part of it may be cabs are required to have fireproof blankets, first aid kits, driver's who ant to take those rides are CPR certified, trained to handle wheelchairs, etc.

But every day (EVERY day) 500 orders come out (250 going to and 250 coming from) the methadone clinic in downtown Toledo. That alone will keep them going until the cockroaches are kings.

I racked $400 a day in medical contract rides like it was nothing. We would take people to Cleveland Clinic for $300 to get their braces tightened for Christ sake, on the welfare dime, so as long as that business is there they will survive but the night time business has been cut by what seems like 75%.

OK, hopefully this won't get me too much heat.

I'll talk about prostitutes and strippers.

Growing up I hated strip clubs. I went maybe a dozen time and can honestly say I never spent a single dollar. My cover was always paid and I would just sit in the back, usually with the strippers playing the little video game box they always have, and wait to leave.

They always came off as dirty and the men looked pathetic. Either fat, ugly or just lacking all confidence.

The majority of strippers are just attractive prostitutes. Most of them don't have cars because they squander their money on things and have criminal records keeping them from having a license, usually DUI's.. They will gladly show you pictures of an apartment decked out in giant TVs and a wardrobe that needs it's own house but don't have the means of transportation.

They talk about the men in the clubs in the most demeaning way possible, and I don't blame them. They see them as pathetic fools who outside of work they would never even look at. One stripper was laughingly telling me about how one of her regulars, a guy who has been seeing her for over a year and had spent $10,000+ on her in presents and cash, was thrown out of the club for touching her in public and she didn't give a fuck and hoped he never came back. She milked him dry.

The prostitutes are usually a little sadder.

They are either pimping themselves on Craigslist, going to completely random locations to meet God knows who for $50-150 (and they have to couch up $20-50 to me for transportation) to feed drug habits, or they have a pimp stealing all of their money and abusing them. I've taken some frightened girls (always in public housing, ALWAYS) to some very weird abandoned buildings (if your from Toledo over by Door/Detroit) and they just go inside even after I offer to take them somewhere else for free.

After picking up a hooker we almost always go to a dealers house before heading back to her house and I'll likely see her one more time that night.

The saddest thing I ever saw was around 5:30 AM Sunday morning, picked a girl up from one John and taking her to another. Her makeup was smeared, she was shiny from sweat and grease and she looked like she was gonna pass out. She was mumbling to herself stuff like "not much longer, one more..."

Halfway to the next house she just said "pull into this parking lot", an apartment complex on Airport Highway, and she just said "He's just not gonna get any tonight, I'm going to fuckin sleep."

She tipped me and went on her way.

Also had prostitutes openly tell me their HIV positive before.