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dezza

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Was at a brewpub in North Burnaby after work. Coworker pulled up the app, it said 10 mins to get picked up. He ordered... 30 mins later I found him outside asking another colleague for a ride...
 

Yoda

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Not up and running yet is it? Thought it still had things to sort out even though it was approved.

I’ve used it in the US and it’s great.
 

Regs

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Not up and running yet is it? Thought it still had things to sort out even though it was approved.

I’ve used it in the US and it’s great.
Announced Thursday I think that Province approved it all so operating in Metro Vancouver as of yesterday though Lyft is restricting themselves for now to just a small area in Vancouver.

Or something like that.

I think the Province has put so many restrictions here that it isn't going to work well other than get the taxi cartel to pull a finger out and face the reality of competition :)
 

knvb

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I've not used it here, but will for sure. I saw some reports the app was hit or miss day 1 and will take a few days to work out some bugs. Lyft is limited to downtown and kits for now.

I find it ridiculous that this service is used in major cities world wide and BC somehow finds away to choke the life out it to this point. Surrey is threatening $500 fines to drivers caught dropping off or picking up, but admits it has no way to enforce it. The Taxi union is lining the pockets of the mayor with-out a doubt.

Long overdue and needed badly. Like my sex life.
 

freddy

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I haven't taken it here, but plenty of times in the US. Many with excellent results, but I got picked up outside of Dallas for a 45 minute trip with an ex-Canadian hockey player who took a bad injury and ended up getting hooked on pills, heroin and meth. He looked almost dead, but felt compelled to tell me his whole story, while constantly looking back at me to emphasize key points and not looking at the road ahead. It was sad, but I was glad to get out of the car safely.

Another time, my wife and I were in LA and go picked up by this HUGE very scary black guy with dreads. He had the sound system blasting a song with the lyrics, "N****r put the pot in the crock pot" which cycled over and over. We opted to get out long before out destination. "Um, I think we will get out right here, sir"

You never know what you will get with Uber, but I do like it most of the time.
 

dezza

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Another time, my wife and I were in LA and go picked up by this HUGE very scary black guy with dreads. He had the sound system blasting a song with the lyrics, "N****r put the pot in the crock pot" which cycled over and over. We opted to get out long before out destination. "Um, I think we will get out right here, sir"

He was playing Migos. The genre of music is called trap.

From Wikipedia:

The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the first chart-topping single for both Migos and Lil Uzi Vert. A week after its peak, it was dethroned by Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You", but retrieved its peak position the following week and stood there for two more weeks before being replaced by "Shape of You" again. It remained in the top ten of the chart for 14 consecutive weeks and was later ranked as the sixth biggest song of 2017.[13]

"Bad and Boujee" has also peaked at number five in Canada, making it Migos and Lil Uzi Vert's first charted single in that country. As of June 20, 2017, the song has sold 4,000,000 units in the United States.[14] The song was certified 4× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)



Scary stuff :dead:
 

freddy

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He was playing Migos. The genre of music is called trap.

From Wikipedia:

The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the first chart-topping single for both Migos and Lil Uzi Vert. A week after its peak, it was dethroned by Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You", but retrieved its peak position the following week and stood there for two more weeks before being replaced by "Shape of You" again. It remained in the top ten of the chart for 14 consecutive weeks and was later ranked as the sixth biggest song of 2017.[13]

"Bad and Boujee" has also peaked at number five in Canada, making it Migos and Lil Uzi Vert's first charted single in that country. As of June 20, 2017, the song has sold 4,000,000 units in the United States.[14] The song was certified 4× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)



Scary stuff :dead:

Be that as it may, the song seemed inappopriate and frankly this guy scared the sh*t out of us. With that said, I have nothing against pot or crock pots.
 

dezza

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Any loudly played music is inappropriate in a taxi/uber unless you've asked your passenger first.

That's what 1* reviews are for :cool:
 

Yoda

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Wasn’t some of the issue that taxi drivers had to buy expensive licenses from the province to operate their cars and now anyone can Uber with a Class 4?
The cab companies can’t bitch if they can’t facilitate the need and not decide who they want to pick up and where they want to go at their own discretion. If they aren’t willing to fill the need I say bring on anyone who will compete or at least pickup the ones they won’t, and likely cheaper!
 

bulljive

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Wasn’t some of the issue that taxi drivers had to buy expensive licenses from the province to operate their cars and now anyone can Uber with a Class 4?
The cab companies can’t bitch if they can’t facilitate the need and not decide who they want to pick up and where they want to go at their own discretion. If they aren’t willing to fill the need I say bring on anyone who will compete or at least pickup the ones they won’t, and likely cheaper!


I got into this with my father in law who owned 3 cabs and drove one of them for a living in Alberta. The reality is cabbys cornered the market, they kept demand high by limiting the amount of Cars. They had us by the balls. Often huge wait times during in demand times. They would say no I’m not driving you over the Fraser even though transit had stopped.

I feel bad for the cab driver who may have this cut into the amount of money they bring home. I don’t feel sorry for owners/operators. People who didn’t adapt to market demand. Sorry the world is changing, adapt.

Surrey on the other hand fcuk me. You call yourself a progressive city. no Pot Shops, fining Uber. Christ get out of the way old man.
 

Yoda

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That’s what I don’t understand, the people who actually use the service, day to day people, who have cabs not show up, get turned away because driver doesn’t want to drive somewhere, or make people wait hours, want this service! How can you fight this when you aren’t capable of covering the service yourself? Had you just stepped up your customer service levels and sorted your shite out, cities wouldn’t be begging for it.

As for cab drivers that may lose money, I’ve heard some are now doing both. And I like that Uber holds these drivers accountable by ratings. You pass on driving somewhere? Zero stars. Or they just won’t take it.
 

bandcamp

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Anyone know what has happened to the value of cab licenses? I believe at one point they were in the $1M range and were coveted. I believe they are worth a little less now...
 

Yoda

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Anyone know what has happened to the value of cab licenses? I believe at one point they were in the $1M range and were coveted. I believe they are worth a little less now...

Yes $1M was the range and I think that’s what the fight is about. Gov made them get licenses and some paid a hefty some to get one and will be paying forever and then Uber comes in and now all you need is a class 4 and no license. Bit of a kick in the teeth.
 

FC Red Star

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Anyone know what has happened to the value of cab licenses? I believe at one point they were in the $1M range and were coveted. I believe they are worth a little less now...

When somebody was ready to pay $200,000, $500,000, $800,000, and, finally, the latest amount mentioned was $1,000,000 for a licence to operate a cab business then it tells you how lucrative that business was for the owners and what kind of monopoly they have had for decades.
Now, the same cab industry is threatening how they are not going to offer service anymore to disabled passengers which just shows who we have been forced to deal with for years and years. Total monopoly and abuse of the system!
Also, we can only imagine what kind of corruption was out there when such system existed for so long and when no one dared (why?) to break up such monopoly until now.
 

mtkb

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Will never use them. Their whole business model is based on the competitive advantage they gain by being a taxi company without having to play by the taxi rules. Same as AirBnb. Degenerate scofflaws and they will never see a nickel from me.
 

Canucks4Ever

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The share economy is an interesting one...

In principle you see how these things start out as a good idea. Uber was essentially supposed to be a hitchhiking app. I need to get somewhere, is anybody already going there that has extra room? AirBnB was a couch-surfing app. Hey, I need a place to crash, does anyone have some extra space? The app made it possible to connect suppliers and demanders with a secure way to handle payment.

Then, all of a sudden, it explodes as people start using it as a way to get around well established hospitality and taxi regulations. When Uber started out, nobody was supposed to be a "full time" Uber driver. Now there are tons of them. Same with AirBnB; people buy income properties and just exclusively rent them as DIY hoteliers.

On the one hand, it makes sense and can be viewed as a market self-correction. The barriers to entry in the hospitality and taxi industries were extreme (ie $1,000,000 for a license). If people have a chance to make a few extra dollars, that is fair play and has been going on forever, it was just harder to connect the buyer and the seller in the past.

The issue is how do you regulate the industry? Uber drivers want benefits. A passenger who is assaulted by a driver wants to sue the company as vicariously liable. Uber argues no to both. We are not an employer, we are just a software provider. All our drivers are independent contractors/sole proprietors who simply use our platform to find customers. There is a reason that these industries are so heavily regulated, it is to protect the consumer. Right now, though, and perhaps this will change as the lack of consumer rights becomes more and more apparent as this continues to evolve, it seems customers are happy to trade off these regulations and protections in favour of greater supply and, ostensibly, lower prices.

But the demand from the public is there. As was said, the taxi industry has largely no one to blame but themselves given their historically tight control on supply to ensure that it always outstrips demand as well as their ever declining customer service levels.

I have used both platforms all over the world with mixed results, but no horror stories or real issues. It will be interesting to see how it continues to evolve. The share economy, in principle, seems to be a relatively simple and smart idea. Some would say communism is too and, traditionally, that one hasn't exactly worked out...
 

mtkb

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exactly... they want the benefits of operating with unfair advantages, but the second anything remotely goes wrong, "oh well we're just a software company, nothing to do with us"...

fcuk right off...
 

Dude

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Took it all over the rest of Canada, US, and South America with great results. Maybe Surrey can sort their shite soon.
 

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