• Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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    3 days ago

    I would say lack of a union is a bigger problem. Most of what you say isn’t really true about taxis anymore, but even if it were, that doesn’t justify Uber fucking over its employees.

    • Skates@feddit.nl
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      3 days ago

      My city’s taxi system was completely changed by Uber, as were many parts of the country. So while it might not be true anymore, and taxi drivers with bad attitudes and those fudging the meter might have been mostly weeded out, it’s because of Uber that this happened. And it’s because of their unions that it hadn’t happened before. But the moment there started being some competition in town as opposed to their previous monopoly on the market, they had to back down if they wanted to even survive, let alone come out on top over Uber.

      So while yes, uber employees are being fucked over, that has less of an impact on things than you imply. I’ll still get an Uber/Bolt instead of a taxi 9/10 times, because immoral business practices are still better than immoral & illegal practices backed by a monopoly that you are powerless to change.

      • entropicshart@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        Very much agree with this. I still remember coming out of the airport and thinking I’ll just grab a taxi instead of ordering a ride!

        • got shit from the taxi driver for not paying cash (and watched them use the old school paper carbon copy of my card),
        • listened to them grumble the whole time about how there was traffic,
        • got to ride in a car that had duct tape on the seat and no working AC
        • and experience a ride that made me wonder how long until they lost their license

        All this without any ability to give feedback or a rating to the driver.

        That was the last time I ever used a taxi.

      • Lev_Astov@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        And I still haven’t seen any taxis yet that offered Uber’s transparency about trip cost before committing.

    • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      This could also be solved with a little more competition tbh. The same system that allows Uber to exploit drivers lets them jump ship with literally zero effort

      • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        What we need is a p2p ridesharing that cuts out the corporate middleman. Ratings would have solved all the problems with taxis.