If you have company flying into Atlanta for the holidays, they may have a hard time getting a ride to your place.

  • kpw@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    “I did a ride the other day, and she said she paid $102 for a 40-minute ride. I got $25, and that’s because I had a $5 bonus!” said Lyft driver Debora Williams. “It’s just ridiculous.”

    Come on, cut out the middle man. They’re providing nothing of that value.

    • N-E-N@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      I’m not sure id just hire some random guy without some middleman providing me some kind of safe guard for being scammed

      • firecat@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        The middle man is a millionaire who modified the law to cheat customers like you out of hundreds of dollars in the name of profit.

        VS

        Some guy who wants to buy food.

        • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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          11 months ago

          Ideologically, I agree.

          But when I am putting a friend in the car to get them home after a night out or have too much luggage to keep it in the back seat? Liability, even with limits, goes a long way

          • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            I agree with you, but that isn’t worth that ungodly amount of money.

            • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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              11 months ago

              I mean, avoiding DUI and the hassle of a DD is often worth even the surcharge price. Same with not getting your car fucked up at an event.

              I try to avoid surge pricing times. But there is very much a reason people pay it

              • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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                11 months ago

                the reason being they are pretty much an oligopoly now, so people have no choice but to pay up

                drivers are getting shafted, customers are getting shafted, Uber’s shareholders are getting richer.

      • TigrisMorte@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        And how precisely does having an app any rando can download provide any safe guards? I can assure you their background checks are pure PR. These drivers are not employees, according to the company. What do you think happens when a driver assaults or robs someone? What makes you think that criminals wouldn’t just steal a phone from a driver and use that to get victims? The app provides no security other than theater.

          • kpw@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            Maybe. Every time I used a taxi it was a random person I gave money when I arrived at the destination.

            • Alto@kbin.social
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              11 months ago

              There’s still a central dispatching service the vast, vast majority of the time.

                  • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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                    11 months ago

                    Medallions specially are used in several large US cities. Transferable licenses are used in a great many other places. Non-transferable licenses in almost all of the rest of the world. Sanctioned taxis are highly regulated even in places that are otherwise quite dangerous.

            • El Barto@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              A legal taxi driver, or a clandestine one?

              I understand an argument against middlemen, but your argument ain’t cutting it.

        • BakedGoods
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          11 months ago

          Exactly. There are plenty of reasons people don’t use them anymore and price isn’t one of them. Safety and predictability is why Uber has taken over.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      It’s a match making service. They also provide some nominal oversite. Are they abusing things? Absolutely.

    • billwashere@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      So heres the problem. If you made this every hour consistently that would be like $37.50 an hour or about $78k a year. But you likely wouldn’t have a ride back to the airport and $78k a year is probably shit pay given house prices and cost of living in Atlanta. And this isn’t taking into the fact that you are destroying your car with all the wear and tear.

      I have a close friend who drives for Uber and he treats it like a game and is very selective about when he drives and rides he accepts since this isn’t his primary job. It’s the only way to do this. Otherwise you’re just making lots of money for Uber.

      • techiegreg@lemmynsfw.com
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        11 months ago

        The answer, IMO, is an open source ride sharing service. Share the software, but run the companies locally.

        Once the software exists, no individual company will have that type of power, because launching competition will be relatively inexpensive.

        • FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          There’s an app called My Stop it’s for all the local busses in the world. It’s great, it has real time tracking to see where they are and such.

          • TigrisMorte@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            Here in TX, I have to either drive 45 minutes across town or take a bus on a circuitous hours long drive to the bus terminal to then get on a bus that goes the rest of the way, also in a circuitous hours long trip. Utilizing mass transit here eats most of the day. Oh, and it is over a half hour walk to the nearest bus stop on roads with no sidewalks.