Here in Philadelphia, the dispute between cab regulators and the Uber ridesharing service has gotten ugly, with the city arresting and fining numerous drivers over the weekend. Given this response to Uber, you’d think Philly Mayor Michael Nutter would be calling for the service to exit the city. But instead he’s calling for a truce. [More]
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Uber France Cancels Promo With Free Car Rides From Beautiful Ladies
By 10.22.14
Ride-sharing service Uber is currently trying to take over France. As in many areas where the app is trying to expand, French authorities have imposed restrictions and even a €100,000 fine on the company for being an unregulated taxi service. Uber’s response was an poorly thought-out promotion in the city of Lyon where passengers could go for 20-minute rides in cars chauffeured by beautiful ladies. [More]
Uber Driver Accused Of Pulling Passenger From Car, Smashing Her Phone After Fight Over Directions
By 10.21.14
In the latest report of Uber driver versus passenger, police in San Francisco have cited an UberX driver with three misdemeanors for allegedly pulling a passenger out of his car and smashing her smartphone while she tried to record the showdown. [More]
Uber Imposes Surge Pricing After Train Fatality: Is That Profiting From Death?
By 10.16.14
When there is a lot of demand for rides, the car-summoning app Uber imposes “surge” pricing, multiplying the standard fare. This serves to entice more drivers out onto the roads, and also to make some people looking for rides say, “eh, I’ll walk instead.” In the past, the company had promised not to raise prices excessively during emergencies that create high demand for rides, but not all situations that create intense demand are “emergencies.” [More]
Taxi App Hailo Hits The Road, Leaves U.S. Due To Expense Of Competing
By 10.15.14
Apparently taxi-hailing app Hailo was beyond even The Rent Is Too Damn High Guy’s help: After four years as a smartphone app for taxi divers, Hailo says it’s taking its act out of North America because it’s too expensive to compete with services like Uber and Lyft. [More]
Uber Customer Claims She Was Briefly Kidnapped During 2-Hour Ride, Company Calls It An “Inefficient Route”
By 10.15.14
There’s disagreeing with your hired driver about which route to take, and then there’s driving around for two hours and stopping in an abandoned lot before finally getting home. One Uber customer in the Los Angeles area claims she was briefly kidnapped during an extended trip home that should’ve been relatively quick. [More]
Police Arrest 4 Uber Drivers In Amsterdam For Being Uber Drivers
By 10.14.14
Ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft encounter legal roadblocks in many of the cities and states where they try to set up business: from San Antonio to Berlin, governments and taxi driver unions alike have done their best to stop Lyft and UberX, services where prescreened amateurs drive around paying customers. Now a local government has made good on one of these threats, arresting four Uber drivers in Amsterdam. [More]
Uber Wants To Hire German Taxi Drivers, Not Fight With Them
By 9.29.14
Uber is best known as an app that dispatches limos, black cars, or regular drivers in regular cars to wherever you and your smartphone are, but has a less-known feature called UberTaxi. In Germany, where the company and taxi drivers are in a legal fight over whether the company should be allowed to compete with licensed taxis, the company is trying something new: hiring taxi drivers. [More]
Uber Driver Says Female Passenger Was Asking To Be Groped By Wearing A Tank Top
By 9.26.14
I’ve heard any number of horror stories from female friends who have been harassed by overly flirtatious cab drivers — even dated a woman was kicked out of a cab when she told she driver she had a boyfriend — but the experience of one Uber passenger in Florida goes far beyond making salacious or sexist comments. [More]
How Do Uber and Lyft Work And Why Should I Even Care?
By 9.18.14
Chances are you’ve heard the term “ridesharing” floating around lately, as rivals Uber and Lyft work themselves into a froth trying to outdo each other. But depending on where you live and what your transportation needs are — maybe you own a car or taxis are readily available on-demand through local services — you could have no clue what these companies actually do. And you might not care, but if you don’t have a car and need to where a car can take you, you should know your options. [More]
Germany Un-Bans UberPop, Ride-Sharing Rolls On
By 9.16.14
Uber is a smartphone app that connects people in need of a ride with drivers willing to accept money in exchange for rides. Or it’s a fancied-up taxi dispatch service that’s out to destroy the world’s livery services. What it is depends on who you ask. Germany’s taxi drivers asked the Frankfurt Regional Court, which this week allowed Uber to do business in Germany again. [More]
Lawsuit Claims Some Uber Drivers Discriminate Against The Blind, Put Service Dog In The Trunk
By 9.11.14
When you’ve got somewhere to go, it’s awfully convenient to have a car arrive to take you there. But the National Federation of the Blind says not everyone is enjoying the right to get where they’re going with Uber, claiming in a federal civil rights lawsuit that the company’s drivers have refused to pick up blind customers, and in one case, allegedly put a service dog in the car’s trunk. [More]
Hailo Enlists The Help Of “The Rent Is Too Damn High” Guy In Anti-Uber Campaign
By 9.8.14
When two companies are competitive, there’s something to be said about making your side of the battle highly visible to the public. And how do you do that? Hire a celebrity, or if you’re car service app Hailo, get the former New York mayoral and gubernatorial candidate otherwise known as the “The Rent Is Too Damn High” guy to take shots at Uber’s rates. [More]
GetTaxi Offering $10 Flat Fees For All Rides In Manhattan For The Rest Of The Year
By 9.5.14
Another on-demand car service has fired a shot in the war with Uber and Lyft for customers — GetTaxi, also known as Gett, is offering a $10 flat fee for any and all riders in Manhattan through the end of the year. [More]
Business At Uber In Germany Is Booming, Thanks To Publicity From Ban
By 9.3.14
Yesterday, we shared the news that ride-sharing service Uber had been banned in Germany. The company’s service that lets people summon a limo with a smartphone was fine, but the peer-to-peer, lower-cost UberPop service had to stop accepting passengers under a temporary injunction. A strange thing happened when this story hit the news, though: people in Germany thought that this UberPop thing sounded like a great idea, and started hailing rides. [More]
Germany Bans Uber’s Ride-Sharing Service, Threatens $328,225 Fine Per Ride
By 9.2.14
When your company’s goal is to disrupt the entire livery industry, current taxi and other car-for-hire operators and livery regulators are not going to like you very much. The idea of a car-sharing service that connects non-professional drivers with strangers in need of rides horrifies regulators and existing professional drivers, and now UberPop (similar to UberX elsewhere) has been banned in Germany under penalty of a €250,000 ($328,225) fine. [More]
Uber Testing Prix Fixe Lunch Delivery Service Called UberFRESH
By 8.26.14
Not content with ferrying people or packages here and fro, Uber is now testing yet another service — lunch delivery. The service is rolling out just in the Santa Monica, Calif. area right now, the company says, and will be limited to the lunchtime hours. Because it’s lunch delivery. [More]
Uber Infiltrates Chicago Airports Thanks To Partnership With United Airlines
By 8.20.14
Airports have long been the domain of taxi cabs, limos, and licensed car services. Ride-sharing services haven’t really been able to break that stronghold, though some have tried. But travelers to one of America’s busiest airports may soon have new options as a result of a new arrangement between United Airlines and Uber. [More]
