“I believe there’s too many taxis and they’re nonetheless being clobbered by the rideshares.”
Remember taxis? Those orange, yellow and, to a lesser extent, blue, white and silver cars that you’d hail from a sidewalk or commandeer through voice name to move you from one location to a different? They had been Lyft and Uber earlier than Lyft and Uber magically took over the world of for-hire autos by arranging all of the rides through cellphone apps and rebranding all of the cars concerned as “rideshares.”
Uber arrived in San Diego in 2012 and Lyft adopted quickly after in 2013. Both took the area by storm as a result of the journeys had been typically far cheaper than what it could value to rent a cab. The automobiles had been a step above the tattered, outdated Ford Crown Victorias that taxi fleets favored, and the rideshare drivers may even give you bottled water or a mint as nicely. The expertise was a bit extra like a miniature highway journey with a stranger, and it appeared as if it had change into the brand new “for-hire vehicle” norm by the mid-2010s.
But then the pandemic occurred, and the world went type of wacky. So wacky actually, that the rideshares took pricing to new extremes — extremes that all of a sudden made the considered driving from level A to level B in a tattered, older Toyota Prius (minus the complimentary bottled water and mint) fairly interesting.
An October dialogue on Nextdoor detailing the spike in rideshare prices was significantly eye-opening. The authentic submit detailed a four-mile trip from Lindbergh Field that may have value the creator $34 (earlier than tip). He opted to take a taxi as an alternative and the fare, pre-tip, was solely $18. The feedback dovetailed with quite a few examples of latest excessive value rideshare fares. The most excessive of those could have been a purported $60 fare for a trip from the airport to Mission Hills, which the commenter bypassed in favor of $20 cab fare with tip included. $60 for an Uber or Lyft from the airport to Mission Hills circa 2019 or prior appeared virtually unimaginable.
Bryn Scott, who alongside his spouse, Dana, owns North County’s TLC Taxi Stop Services, didn’t sound too shocked by these numbers. He has been working as a cab driver for about seven and a half years and has owned the 2 autos used for his service for about 5. Though he operates two cabs, he nonetheless makes use of the rideshares often.
“Two weeks ago, it said if I were to take a Lyft from Fallbrook to the Oceanside train station it would be $90, but for the Uber it would be $30,” he defined. “So, that’s triple. It was just during the day on a weekday. There was no surge or anything. For some reason Lyft seems to be higher now, at least here in North County. It’s more spread out here. It’s less city. So, it’s a whole different ballgame.”
TLC Taxi Stop enterprise hasn’t spiked lately because of the rideshare value will increase — it has remained regular. This was the case all through 2020 and the Covid shutdowns as nicely. The pool of shoppers requesting rides had shrunk significantly, however there weren’t almost as many drivers competing for these rides both. Many of the rideshare drivers stopped working since they had been in a position to acquire unemployment, and Scott’s taxi service was all of a sudden an excessively massive fish in a smaller sea.
“I think North County is doing better than San Diego as far as competition,” he mentioned. “I think there’s too many taxis and they are still being clobbered by the rideshares because it’s the god of convenience on their phone, and the marketing is not established well enough within the private vector of Yellow Cab or any of the other cab companies as far as creating efficient phone apps or dispatch organization. I think that’s the major weakness.”
Scott additionally doesn’t suppose it’s probably that the taxis overtake the rideshares anytime quickly. He feels that the Uber and Lyft driver numbers are again to full power in North County, and that a lot of the clients merely desire the general expertise (from arranging the trip to the precise transportation) that the rideshares provide. Speaking of which, although the Nextdoor dialogue was primarily centered on complaints concerning the present rideshare value will increase, previous horror tales from cab rides had been on full show as nicely. It appears clear that many riders aren’t overly passionate about switching again to utilizing cabs, even when they find yourself doing so to benefit from the fee financial savings.
Scott feels if Uber and Lyft had been to depart the state that their drivers wouldn’t be keen to affix the opposing group. “If they shut them off in California, I don’t think they are gonna come running to the taxi companies and say, ‘I wanna work for you guys,’” he mentioned. He characterised most energetic cab drivers as being primarily “real old-school” and that “they have a different mentality about you’ve gotta put in money to make money.” It’s a tradition that’s keen to pay to lease cabs each day, which differs vastly from the mannequin that Uber and Lyft make use of.
In Scott’s eyes this whole dialogue shall be irrelevant in 10-12 years when he estimates that driverless autos will take over the for-hire transportation business. In the interim, he feels that the taxi business will proceed to lag behind the rideshares as a result of poor advertising and marketing.
“It’s like a piano bar. They were popular. They’re still nice places to go to. But I just don’t think they’ll make it,” he mentioned.