Ride-hailing in Metro Vancouver: Uber, Lyft, Sidecar - emerging technologies

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by ilikeredheads

https://globalnews.ca/news/6460851/surrey-uber-cease-operations/

lol McCallum

McCallum is now officially a one-man homeowners' association.

[casper]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Yeah, I didn't understand it either at first.

Base Fare + (Cost per minute * time in ride) + (Cost per mile * ride distance) + Booking Fee + Other Fees = Your Fare

They give you an estimate which is probably better than what you currently get with taxis unless you're leaving the airport.

It is not clear if the "time in ride" is the real time or the estimated time. I would suspect estimated time. That would make it a pre-paid guaranteed number.

[MIPS]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Feedback? Try calling and complaining to a taxi company. They tell you to pound sand. There are endless stories of cabbies being assholes and doing illegal things.

Yes, I am very much aware why taxi drivers get the stereotype for being scummy union goons that will put you in gridlock to milk money out of you but I don't understand how an unregulated (or significantly less regulated) ridesharing program can somehow be better when most of the drivers lack credentials beyond "yeah I got the right license and they approved me". Every ride is a crapshoot because there is no strictly (you don't HAVE to rate your driver) enforced standards.

It's like how hotels are heavily regulated because of those old stories of nasty turnpike motels with hourly rates and awful prices but services such as Air B&B are magically better even though you are sometimes paying for rooms in a hastily remodelled Vancouver Special's basement.

I will admit I have used neither service but seeing others get shafted with regulations I don't understand how these serves are able to get a pass.

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by ilikeredheads

https://globalnews.ca/news/6460851/surrey-uber-cease-operations/

lol McCallum

What incompetence, from the other regional mayors/councils as well. They've had years to figure this out. People overwhelmingly want this.

It's a reminder that there are still strains of provincial backwater thinking here.

[NewfBC]

BREAKING NEWS!

'City of Surrey sends cease operations notice to Translink...'

"Mayor Doug McCallum states that having Bus and Skytrain coverage in the city presents an unfair advantage to Taxi operators.. as well he states that taking the bus or riding Skytrain can be unsafe at the best of times.. something which never occurs with Surrey taxis..."

Now we know the real reason McCallum did not want LRT connecting large neighbourhoods of the city!



Ron.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Citation needed.

[logicbomb]

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

What incompetence, from the other regional mayors/councils as well. They've had years to figure this out. People overwhelmingly want this.

It's a reminder that there are still strains of provincial backwater thinking here.

My indo-canadian wife says that they try to use practices that would work back in India. They are lining the pockets of the Mayor but fortunately we have checks and balances here thay prevent a municipality from going rogue. She refuses to visit her country due to the complete and utter corruption there that is beginning to spillover here. The amount of nonsense that's plaguing the trucking industry exemplifies how bad it's getting...

We hear how the South Asian community is pro-taxi but I can say that many in the community are celebrating the introduction of Ride Hailing due to the reputational harm the cab drivers did.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Yes, I am very much aware why taxi drivers get the stereotype for being scummy union goons that will put you in gridlock to milk money out of you but I don't understand how an unregulated (or significantly less regulated) ridesharing program can somehow be better when most of the drivers lack credentials beyond "yeah I got the right license and they approved me". Every ride is a crapshoot because there is no strictly (you don't HAVE to rate your driver) enforced standards.

i have never used it, but whenever there is an option of rating driver and passenger i think that automatically improves the system. it encourages both to act like decent people vs what we have now where the taxi does whatever it wants at anytime. i always look at online ratings such as google to see a business, and i am more willing to trust those than anything else really. i think this is a similar case.

i am curious to see if we get any of the stories they get in the states, and i am curious what this will do to traffic in Vancouver and transit use. should be interesting to see. in most other cities transit use went down, and congestion in downtown went up.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Could go either way... though the TTC and STM don't seem to have been hurt particularly badly by rideshare as compared to the States.

[giallo]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Yes, I am very much aware why taxi drivers get the stereotype for being scummy union goons that will put you in gridlock to milk money out of you but I don't understand how an unregulated (or significantly less regulated) ridesharing program can somehow be better when most of the drivers lack credentials beyond "yeah I got the right license and they approved me". Every ride is a crapshoot because there is no strictly (you don't HAVE to rate your driver) enforced standards.

It's like how hotels are heavily regulated because of those old stories of nasty turnpike motels with hourly rates and awful prices but services such as Air B&B are magically better even though you are sometimes paying for rooms in a hastily remodelled Vancouver Special's basement.

I will admit I have used neither service but seeing others get shafted with regulations I don't understand how these serves are able to get a pass.

I guess you've never lived in a city with Uber. Uber drivers have an incentive to do a good job based on Uber's rating system. If a driver is unprofessional, you can score the ride accordingly. If that driver gets a few bad reviews, they will get significantly less work or even fired.

Shanghai, for instance, has terrible taxi drivers. They drive erratically, and are always trying to scam the customer. The introduction of Uber (now Didi) changed the game completely. Drivers don't want to get a low rating. If they do, they become less of a priority for calls. All of a sudden, driving in a car in SH became a pleasure rather than a stressful ordeal.

The problem with the taxi industry in Metro Vancouver was that these companies simply didn't care about the customer. They had a monopoly on the industry for so long that it became totally complacent to change. Now that change has come, they are left without sympathy from the public at large.

[jollyburger]

Uber issues notice to McCallum to stop being a giant blow hard and try to make sense when he talks.

[WestCoastEcho]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i have never used it, but whenever there is an option of rating driver and passenger i think that automatically improves the system. it encourages both to act like decent people vs what we have now where the taxi does whatever it wants at anytime. i always look at online ratings such as google to see a business, and i am more willing to trust those than anything else really. i think this is a similar case.

i am curious to see if we get any of the stories they get in the states, and i am curious what this will do to traffic in Vancouver and transit use. should be interesting to see. in most other cities transit use went down, and congestion in downtown went up.

Correct; by virtue that there is a system that responds to bad reviews, where bad drivers get less jobs before being booted off, and bad customers don't get priority for pickup before being booted off the platform, there is incentive for everyone involved to be on their best behaviour.

[flipper316]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c...ncouver-here-s-what-we-learned-1.5440805
Well that didn't take long. Wonder if the guy complaining that he only made 100 in 3 hours if that is his take home pay. Wonder how much gas he burned in that time and how much more his insurance cost. CBC, CTV, and Global should do a follow up story in a month and find out how much drivers are actually making and how many quit if they're making peanuts.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by flipper316

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c...ncouver-here-s-what-we-learned-1.5440805
Well that didn't take long. Wonder if the guy complaining that he only made 100 in 3 hours if that is his take home pay. Wonder how much gas he burned in that time and how much more his insurance cost. CBC, CTV, and Global should do a follow up story in a month and find out how much drivers are actually making and how many quit if they're making peanuts.

He can start the union

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by flipper316

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c...ncouver-here-s-what-we-learned-1.5440805
Well that didn't take long. Wonder if the guy complaining that he only made 100 in 3 hours if that is his take home pay. Wonder how much gas he burned in that time and how much more his insurance cost. CBC, CTV, and Global should do a follow up story in a month and find out how much drivers are actually making and how many quit if they're making peanuts.

i don't know why he is so surprised and complaining. years of stories from all over the world have gone on about how the drivers are underpaid... what did these people expect?

[SpongeG]

Their job ads promise the world though

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Their job ads promise the world though

LOL I support ride hailing but it's not like there's a magic formula for low cost rides and high paid drivers.

[casper]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Yes, I am very much aware why taxi drivers get the stereotype for being scummy union goons that will put you in gridlock to milk money out of you but I don't understand how an unregulated (or significantly less regulated) ridesharing program can somehow be better when most of the drivers lack credentials beyond "yeah I got the right license and they approved me". Every ride is a crapshoot because there is no strictly (you don't HAVE to rate your driver) enforced standards.

It's like how hotels are heavily regulated because of those old stories of nasty turnpike motels with hourly rates and awful prices but services such as Air B&B are magically better even though you are sometimes paying for rooms in a hastily remodelled Vancouver Special's basement.

I will admit I have used neither service but seeing others get shafted with regulations I don't understand how these serves are able to get a pass.

My first experience with it was Montreal. A city that has had Uber and then removed it and then let it back in. What a difference.

Used a taxi to go from the Airport to Leval. Taxi drive almost went down an on off ramp at a highway near the airport. Was somewhat lost at finding the Sheridan Hotel. You would not expect that to be obscure destination. Had to phone someone for help. Car was not clean. Did not want to take a credit card, finally agreed to take a credit card, lot of problems making the machine work.

Going back it was Uber. Driver was pleasant. App give him turn-by-turn direction. He was attentive. Car was spotless.

From then on Uber was my service of choice. I have used it countless cities across the US. In Canada Saskatoon has Uber and it is fantastic. In that city you could sometimes wait 30 minutes or more for a taxi.

Honestly as a rider I don't care how the driver is paid or who owns the car. Could the taxi industry have developed an uber like app and offered a quality of service on par with Uber? Yes. They chose not to.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by casper

Used a taxi to go from the Airport to Leval. Was somewhat lost at finding the Sheridan Hotel. Had to phone someone for help. Car was not clean. Did not want to take a credit card, finally agreed to take a credit card, lot of problems making the machine work.

this is the reason people want more choice. there is no excuse for this stuff. your job is driving around a city, either know it or use a nav system. no reason not to have a clean car. and not wanting to take a card? sorry, i wont help you cheat on taxes. either take my card or don't, because i don't carry cash, and no, i wont go to a bank to get you cash.

Originally Posted by casper

Going back it was Uber. Driver was pleasant. App give him turn-by-turn direction. He was attentive. Car was spotless.

Could the taxi industry have developed an uber like app and offered a quality of service on par with Uber? Yes. They chose not to.

exactly this. i will admit i have never used ride hailing, and i have used taxis i think 4x in my life; each time was shitty. also, i see how these taxis drive on the road, atrocious.


there is even less reason to be understanding for Vancouver/BC. ride hailing has been out for YEARS. everyone knew it would eventually come here. you can only postpone it so long. the taxi industry had literal YEARS to prepare for this in Vancouver/BC; they chose not to. they decided to fight for the status-quo and no one liked it, other than them.


you made your bed taxis, now you need to lay in it.

[scryer]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

there is even less reason to be understanding for Vancouver/BC. ride hailing has been out for YEARS. everyone knew it would eventually come here. you can only postpone it so long. the taxi industry had literal YEARS to prepare for this in Vancouver/BC; they chose not to. they decided to fight for the status-quo and no one liked it, other than them.


you made your bed taxis, now you need to lay in it.

Exactly. It would have made a hell of a difference if the taxi companies just switched to mobile apps with options to review.