"Recliner" wrote in message
...
tim... wrote:

"Recliner" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 17 Aug 2016 12:35:19 +0100, "tim..."
wrote:


"Recliner" wrote in message
...
tim... wrote:

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 09:58:33 on Tue, 16 Aug
2016,
tim... remarked:
And when Uber drivers arrive for a pick up at someone's house,
surely
they
announce themselves in the same was as any mini cab would?

Or do they just sit outside and "hope"?

My experience of (pre-Uber) minicab drivers is they just sit outside
in
the road tooting the horn until someone emerges from the house. Yet
another completely illegal procedure, of course.

I was aware of that

Recliner was talking as if they didn't even do that

Uber is more likely to be used by people who are out and about.

I don't use it

Rather obviously,

I don't use it, as never have the need for a taxi

as you seem to have an irrational hatred for it,
without any knowledge of what it is or how it works.

I don't like it because it has a business model based upon making extra
"profit, by ignoring or circumventing regulations.

I have a hatred for all companies that do this, and that includes any
company that tries to get around giving their employees rights by bogus
SE
contracts - though I accept that Uber drives are almost certainly SE
workers, it is elsewhere that Uber are lazy about compliance.

as such it isn't irrational.

but I thought the MO of Uber was to be able to hail a mini-cab at an
agreed
price, with all of the billing taken care of "automatically"

I can't see any reason why your normal mini-cab user wouldn't use it,
none
at all

That's because you know nothing of Uber, then.

One obvious reason: it's more expensive, especially at 'surge' times.
- Second reason: it's less likely to have cars available locally in
residential areas (just like black cabs).
- Third reason: you have to have a smart phone, with a signal/wi-fi
access (which is why very few blind people will have an Uber account).
- Fourth reason: you have to have an Uber account before you can use
it, and Uber's app installed on your smart phone.

Enough?


Once a
driver has been assigned, Uber sends the client a description of the
car,
and it's up to the customer to identify it and get in.

Someone getting a mini cab from home is more likely to phone their
local
firm,

why, they have all the aggro of paying in cash

Not necessarily. You can set up an account with other mini cab firms,
and frequent users often do. Or you can often pay with a card.

With Uber, you have to have an account, before you can use it at all.
Cash isn't an option, and nor can you just order an Uber car without
first setting up an account.

You might just as well argue that there's a deterrent to using the
Dartford
crossing as you (almost) can't pay for that without setting up an account
(you can stop in a some garages somewhere to pay, but that's got to be
even
more aggro)

which will be cheaper

will it. I thought that Uber was cheaper (or at least the same price)
as
mini-cabs

No, you're wrong again. Do you really know nothing at all about Uber?

As a user, no.

You know nothing about Uber in any context,

I know loads about Uber

I read the press, both normal and technological.

there are plenty of articles about it, all saying much the same thing.

I also read about what happens in other countries, and the common theme is
that the don't play by the rules there either

but still make all sorts of
barmy allegations about it.

such as?

Its staff *were* imprisoned for not complying with lawmakers demands that it
follow their rules

The drivers that they "employ" do, regularly flout local compliance laws for
cab drivers and Uber do SFA to stop it.

what is barmy about that?

Though what I do see is complaints from drivers about how little they end
up
with in their pocket (before tax). I had naturally concluded that that
was
because there fares were lower.

It's usually cheaper than black cabs, but more expensive than mini
cabs. Uber is really competing with black cabs, not other mini cabs.
That's why most of the anecdotal reports attacking Uber comes from
grumpy cabbies who see it as unfair competition that undercuts them.


and more likely to have a car available
locally.

why?

Just like black cabs, Uber drivers hang around busy places, with lots
of potential customers, not residential areas. Local mini cab firms
are far more likely to have drivers available close by.


They will also accept pre-bookings, which Uber does not.


which is completely irrelevant if you want a car now

Sure, but many (most?) mini cabs are pre-booked.

only in the "10 minutes before" sense

Not for the many people using them to go to the airport, station, hospital
appointment, etc. People who might otherwise drive or use public transport
(like me) uses a mini cab for such purposes.

I didn't say that everybody only booked 10 minutes ahead

but I bet most do

The only time that we, as a family (I was a child at the time) pre-booked a
cab for the airport, they didn't turn up!

As I said, Uber
competes more with black cabs.

I'm curious why you have this deep hatred for something you've never
used, and know nothing about?

because it's a bottom feeding cherry picking predator.

No it's.

It's exactly that

As I said, you seem to have an irrational hatred of somethig you
know nothing about.

I know enough about it to know that my hatred of it is not irrational

Just because you don't agree that my reason are valid, I do. That
categorically DOESN'T make my dislike irrational. It is for a reasonably
believed reason.

you need to look up the meaning of irrational.

It's using technology to provide a new,

I didn't say otherwise.

But it's hiding behind that technology to pretend that it is a "digital"
company that ought to be allowed to get away with non compliance as it's a
startup when it's just a bottom feeding cherry picking predator.

and for many
customers, a better way of doing something.

Many people though that the Ryanair model was great too. That doesn't make
it right.

The people who dislike it most
are its competitors who still do things the old, inefficient way.

I shed no tears for taxi drivers.

I just think that if there is to be competition, it should be fair, and it
isn't Uber cheats.

And this isn't based upon just my vision of its UK operation. I am
following its "abuses" in other countries as well

If there is a valid criticism of Uber, it's that it treats its drivers as
employees,

does it?

I don't know what their contracts say, but do they:

allow drivers to choose their own hours on a day to day basis

allow drivers to "drive" for someone else?

but pays them as if they're self-employed. So it doesn't provide
employee benefits, but expects them to follow the sort of rules that
employees. That's a particular issue in the US.

They seem to have settled that in the time honoured (US) way of paying some
money to make it go away, because fighting it would cost more, even if they
won.

tim