My tweets

[lollardfish]

• Sat, 12:25: "If you give a Dev a Library" - A kid's book about Heartbleed Moral: #security is hard. https://t.co/E6K0YlEsZQ by @Entropologist
• Sat, 13:29: How to Be Less Stupid About Hillary Clinton's Future Grandchild via @tnr http://t.co/VLMj2hBo9D
• Sat, 17:06: RT @Jim_Gardner: Pre historic. RT @TV_Exposed: The moment before the most famous album cover ever was photographed, 1969. http://t.co/pPMf…
• Sat, 18:11: RT @intogethermedia: "If I want to knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle." @HillaryClinton http://t.co/Uwxw2TQyvP
• Sat, 19:54: How Lyft, Uber, etc. destroy working class jobs. Even if you use them, think about the labor picture. http://t.co/olC316UdDG @sarahkendzior
• Sat, 19:55: RT @ZerlinaMaxwell: It's Not the 'Confidence Gap' – Here's What's Really Holding Women Back http://t.co/hxosbEd4BO via @policymic
• Sat, 20:21: For my file MT @schemaly: Harvard Accused Of Retaliating a/g Prof defending Sex Assault Survivors http://t.co/RIrHQYfFHe ht @shereenTshafi

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

There's nothing stopping someone who also drives a cab from being Uber or Lyft providers, is there? Maybe the contract they have with their cab companies is the problem. Certainly if traditional taxis worked well as a car alternative these alternatives would not succeed. Except in NYC or leaving an airport, cabs don't work all that well. In some cities it is illegal to hail a cab on the street! (Used to be true in MPLS, not sure if it still is.) Civic regulation and cab behavior have room to change to meet this threat to cabbies' income. A protected industry like taxis needs to provide better service or why wouldn't people find and exploit loopholes to get the service they want?

K. [and my Uber rides have been from immigrants.....]

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

You are right that cabbies will have to find ways to respond, but will those responses just involve cutting pay for the drivers? I guess my concern is that it represents part of the big shift from full-time work to part-time work so that this kind of job becomes less and less reliable for sustaining a life above the poverty line. I'm not so into the "hipsters" accusations in the article, since I think that's sort of an easy term to lob about and get working-class cred, but the problem seems real enough to me.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure that cabbies won't respond by cutting their own pay, so I am confused by that. I see the barriers to entry for being an Uber driver as much lower than those steps needed to become a cab driver. All the fare money goes to the driver (not split with the cab company). It might pay better to be an Uber driver, especially if you maximize for driving during demand pricing.

It's true that social change and industry change have consequences and that real people are hurt and angered by those effects on them. But this change, a new job supplanting an old job but using the same skills as the previous incarnation of the job: I need to know more about the actual economics here to feel concern for whether or not this change is one to be anxious over (and to thereafter "vote" with my spending).

K.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I could be wrong. What I mean is whether the taxi industry adjusts in such a way as to make taxis cheaper and taking it out of driver pay.

There's also the question of regulation. A lot of the expenses come from regulation, but then in theory you get a safe, clean, reliable taxi ride - as opposed to some random person's car (complaints about sexual harassment from uber are here (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/28/uber-s-biggest-problem-isn-t-surge-pricing-what-if-it-s-sexual-harassment-by-drivers.html), but it's not like there aren't stories about harassment from cab drivers too).

I dunno. I worry about the part-time economy.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I cry foul with much of that anti-Uber rant.

I can't tell you about St. Louis, but in general the economics for cab drivers is pretty terrible. Profits always flow to the most constrained part of the supply chain, which in the taxi business is generally the companies with the city licenses. Cab drivers pay gross fees to those companies to lease their taxis for the day, and then do their best to make the day profitable.

Companies like Uber and Lyft put more money into the drivers' pockets, because they take a much smaller cut of the fare. In Boston there are four different levels of Uber: Uber-X (anyone with a car), taxis who are on the Uber system, "black cars" (limos on the Uber system), and SUVs. I generally take Uber-X, and the cars are *always* cleaner and nicer than taxis. The drivers are better able to navigate the city, using their GPSs and not relying on memory. (I had a lousy taxi experience today. The driver had no idea how to find the address I wanted, and I was stuck doing the navigation from my phone. That never happens with Uber.)

The drivers are working class, mostly immigrants, some students, and more women than in taxis, trying to make a living too. They're happy being able to be on the system without having to commit to nasty hours or giving a big cut to the cab companies.

One Uber driver I met in San Francisco really liked the fact that he can operate in different cities. He was planning on spending the summer in Austin, and working from there.

No, Uber hasn't pulled the racism out of the taxi business. Yes, Uber needs to work out insurance (although I believe they have in some cities for Uber-X). But I think pulling the intermediaries out of the taxi business is a good thing in general.

I'd be curious if the author of that essay is just a taxi driver, or if he owns a taxi company.

B

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'd definitely like to to see comparative salary information. I'm still seeing this is part of the drive towards contingency work in America, which isn't always a bad thing, but usually is.