Friday, March 28, 2014

Ride Share vs Taxi- War of future transportation business

The most recent combats on the road transportation is all about who has a right to take passengers from one point to another. According to new trendy services, let pedestrians hire a car and drive through smart phone application it is because their credit card information is already on file and there is no need to mess up with cash problem.
Some find this option easier, convenient and responsive than call a cab on the corner of the street. But taxi operators are always be the subject to rules regulation and licensing cost.
The Taxicab, Limousine & Para transit Association mentioned this to “a serious threat to public safety” which represent around 1100 cab companies. Recently a campaign has been launched “Who’s Driving You?” Objective of this campaign is to make passengers aware of risks the group of people says they are unprotected to when they get in a car from a riding share company.
They are not insured, there isn’t any training or check of drivers. According to Dave Sutton, a spokesman of the campaign “This service also lacks basic public safety mechanism”
Dave Sutton added “When people travel with strangers through any transport there is always a clear element of risk exist, and cities across Unites States have come to recognize that the taxi cab industry is now require a careful authority for public safety issues,”
Some rival companies have reverted the rules and regulation of safety issues for the passengers, and are not even following it. Companies include Uber, which is available in around 33 countries and some 40 cities in N.America. Its UberX division delivers licensed citizen drivers who can make their cars available for hire.
Another Company, Lyft is operating around 24 cities of America, matches passengers with licensed motorists who have signed up to provide the service. Although driver decorates their cars with giant pink mustaches and welcome their customers. In some places drivers get donations rather than a taxi fares.
Some companies said they do extensive background check on the drivers as well as riding fare rate of a passenger after a ride. Both Lyft and Uber are extremely popular in customers because they offer real time service to the customer,” said Siona Listokin, Asst. Prof at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University.
She also said that you don’t have to wait outside and for the typically around the same price of a regular cab service. “It’s especially when you want to travel in a new city for any reason” she added.
Company like Uber claims it’s a market place rather than a taxi company. It also claims that it doesn’t own only cars and employ drivers. Even the last months, the company announced that it was increasing background of extensive checking process and even in last week it has a covers a potential Insurance gap. Besides that Lyft said it is providing drivers with excess liability insurance around $1 million per incident.

In addition to regulatory issues, Uber has also come beneath fire because of its “vibrant pricing” policy, which can lift the cost up of a fare several-fold during times of peak demand, like New Year’s Eve.
Listokin comment “Who’s Driving You?” campaign calls it “price scoring,” and she also defined the campaign a free market at its core, and customers have already experience somewhere else. Uber is on a fine way she also added. She explained about the market scenario that if you allow vibrant pricing double than regular price, then that could be a disaster in market.
Still she forecasted that both the companies that is, Lyft and Uber will continue to be in growth stage during this time traditional taxi services will be developing their own application for ease of customers.

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