An Uber killer
Uber is not ride sharing, let alone is it a part of the sharing economy, never has been. It is exploitation, serfs working for an app at less than the minimum wage.
Ride sharing is what took place when I was at university. A card on the notice board, I am going up to London this weekend, anyone want a lift, share costs? Or, I need a lift to London this weekend, anyone going that way?
A high-tech version would use a sharing platform.
Nor is Uber technological innovation. It is unfair competition to a regulated sector.
Uber engage in lobbying, it used to be called corruption.
That is where the money haemorrhages from Uber, lobby to avoid regulation, expensive court cases, corporate bulling of local municipalities and regulators.
In London, they went to Court to argue their drivers should not be required to be competent in English, something I would have thought to be a very basic requirement.
If you wish to destroy Uber, it is very easy, regulate them out of existence.
Design a platform that puts them out of businesses.
That is what they have done in Austin.
Austin had in place checks to ensure the bad guys did not get a taxi licence, taxi drivers had to be fingerprinted as part of a criminal background check.
Uber and Lyft poured $8.2 million into getting this overturned. They failed.
It’s possible to spend $8 million to piss off an entire city,
Uber and Lyft both shut down operations within 36 hours.
10,000 serfs abandoned by their overlords.
Uber once again illustrates why we must get dirty money out of politics, it should not fund political parties, it must not be used to sway local elections or referendums.
I though still fail to see why anyone needs a ride hailing service.
If I want a taxi, I call the taxi office, pick one up at the airport, or hail one in the street.
I prefer to walk or use public transport.
But, if an Uber bashing service is required, then develop a local app, which is what they have in Austin, Texas. It is not-for-profit, which covers for all manners of sin. Since its launch, Ride Austin has raised more than $7 million in donations, mostly from members of Austin’s tech community. Passengers can round their fare up to the nearest dollar, so far this has raised over $100,00 for local charities. Drivers get to keep 100% of the fare (passengers pay a booking fee).
Lin Hughs, a driver who works with Ride Austin:
If it says $7, I get to keep all of that. That gets deposited into my account on Thursday. With Lyft, whatever you would see on the screen, they’d take almost 20 percent of it.
I would prefer to see it was a local coop, members are all properly registered and regulated and licensed taxis, passengers could also be members. Any ‘profit’ ploughed back into the system, or go to fund local community projects. The platform or app, open source software, an Uber killer, that is available for use in other cities that wish to rid themselves of Uber.
We need to encourage more cities to follow that of Austin, tough regulatory action, plus users to Delete Uber and encourage investors to Divest from Uber.
I have proposed Deliver2U, an open source open coop platform to put Deliveroo out of business.
The future is better, more efficient, cheaper, safe, clean, reliable public transport.
