I definitely understand the cabbies' concerns about prices, but this is huge for Uber. As the cabbies seek to shorten the gap between taxi prices and Uber prices and shut down for an entire day, Uber swoops in with a huge customer acquisition push. This won't be the death of the cabs, but I'll love to see how Uber makes out on the deal.
not sure if promoting this to existing customers was a good idea for uber. They sent me the marketing email. I'm a happy customer. But i didn't realize their prices were 2X cab prices. Now that is stuck in my head every time I call an uber
That's a downright twisted use of the word "solidarity".
The taxi strike is described at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry...
"From noon to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, taxi drivers are being urged to park their cabs to protest the practice of charging drivers 5 percent of every credit card transaction, the consideration of an electronic tracking system and an idea to put more taxis on the street."
So why are Uber fares higher than taxis on a typical day?
i wondered if this was as gray moral area, but I couldn't find a single reason why this hurts traditional cabbies.
In fact, the fact that uber has the cabbies' back in terms of serving the city, makes it a win-win situation for everyone involved except the target of the cabbies' strike cries.
If you are a cab driver and you're upset by this marketing gimmick, holler.
Why would you drop prices when there is no competition? Makes no sense. Basic supply and demand.
Bloody scabs! At a time when unions worldwide need solidarity and they're undercutting them. Nice one. I guess this is the lovely caring capitalism we've been hearing about.
It's bizarre that they're trying to spin this as pro-taxi-driver. I can't tell if they really believe taxi drivers would be happy with them for doing this, or if they're just cynically positioning themselves as "for the people" to erode public support for the union (or score PR points from public disdain for the union, I guess).