Toronto rolls out welcome mat for Uber with new rules

[Skipper]

New rules approved by city council late Tuesday include allowing cabs to use “surge pricing” and raising the minimum fare for private transportation companies.

[video]https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2016/05/03/toronto-city-council-debates-uber-rules.html[/video]

https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2016/05/03/toronto-city-council-debates-uber-rules.html

 

[Anto]

Good news for our rights to competition.

 

[Creepy]

All the 2 am drunks can now breath properly. Most taxis won't pick you up if drunk.

 

[Boing]

Does that mean no more blocking City hall with blocked taxis and create more chaoes?.

 

[Bingo]

At least they had to raise their base rate, I believe $3.50 now.

How many of you have their app on their mobile?.

Anyone tried their Uber-pooling method, how is it?.

 

[Johnnybegood]

I use Uber all the time man. It's a great app and no tips required.

 

[Martin]

Taxi!
The stale cabbage at a local grocery has more layers than the utterance of that very word; and is equally susceptible to rot.
Add Uber to the lexicon – made legal in Toronto by a city council vote Tuesday -- and the nose burns from the stench of an industry doomed to perpetual funk by our political class.
One is forced to stifle the snicker when listening to the new frontiersmen and women who embrace the app-addled world that continues to destroy jobs and lives. Indeed, today it’s you who bite the dust; tomorrow, it’s me.
As the cabbie who called in to Matt Galloway of CBC Metro Morning Wednesday, said, Uber X has ruined his life and years of investment in the taxi industry. He is quickly followed by a second caller who says, “Life is unfair; life is tough. You have to adjust.” Then, a third caller, a casual 10-hours-a-week Uber driver, said, you “can’t make a living from Uber” and the new rules will only make it tougher.

So, who wins here? Everybody. Nobody. How modern.
Is Toronto’s taxi industry toast?
Not destroyed, but certainly diminished – to the point of despair for many who gave so much and received so little in return from the feudal system fostered and encouraged and enhanced and presided over by the city. It will survive. The core always lives on to re-invent itself. But even the most naive cabbie now knows for sure that city politicians are among their vilest enemies.


How do you look a father in the face, slap him with huge fees for a license, force him to go to taxi school, take CPR, have multiple inspections, drive a new car, pay big money for a cab license because you refuse to issue them in order to maintain an artificially high selling price?

How do you maintain such a regime for years – only to change your mind and remove the requirements when a new, younger, hot shot driver shows up with a smartphone and ride-sharing app and demanding to be let in – rules and regulations be damned?

I know. Tough. The world is changing every day. Progress. Adapt or die. Besides, who feels for cabbies when, one night, a cabbie turned down my fare because I wasn’t going far enough to make it worth his while. Or got lost. Or had a dirty cab. Or was on the phone for the entire ride. Or smelled bad. Or can’t even speak English.
They are not a lovable lot; these cabbies.

Yet, they are people, too. The drivers bought into a system set up by the government on our behalf and the government has suddenly changed the rules to allow a new shiny toy.

And, so, cabbies must and will take legal action. And, using our money, digging into the deepest pockets, the city will defend its tenuous and immoral position for an interminably long time. And if the city loses, and has to pay out damages, maybe long after some of the victims forgot the fight, it will be we, taxpayers, who will lose.

Across the globe, in industry after industry, old business models crumble. But this, too, is certain. Uber will be Ubered some day – maybe sooner than we think.

Uber X apparently has thousands of drivers in Toronto. Other similar companies will enter the market – all chasing the same dollar. The city is to release hundreds more cab licenses in a free-for-all. Theoretically, consumers should benefit from the competition. Prices should drop. Wait times should evaporate into instant response. What’s there not to like.

But already the seeds of demise and discontent have been planted. City council did not want to tell Uber that it cannot impose surge pricing – the scandalous practice of charging passengers whatever the company chooses in an emergency or period of high demand. Critics shamed the politicians into “levelling the playing field.” Instead of doing the right thing – ban surge pricing and protect the consumer -- council has now allowed the taxis to impose surge pricing as well.

So, the market forces will reign.
Taxis are allowed to impose surge pricing, but only on fares booked on an app? How long before cabbies ignore regular street hails and phone requests – during high demand periods – so they can cash in on higher fares during surge periods.

Despite city council’s much-anticipated vote on the future of ground transportation in Toronto, the new landscape is much like the old. There are many changes leading to many questions, concerns, angst and always, increased risk to consumers.

We rush headlong into oblivion, because, seemingly, we must.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/05/04/who-wins-with-new-uber-rules-james.html

 

[Ihandsome]

[h=1]Female drivers may be rare in the cab industry, but they’re signing up by the hundreds with Uber[/h]

 

[User-E]

Uber attracts $3.5bn from Saudi Public Investment Fund

The money will help the ride-hailing service to expand in the Middle East, where the company says 80% of its Saudi Arabian users are women. Women are banned from driving themselves in the country.

The new funding values Uber at $62.5bn and will put one of the fund's managing directors, Yasir al-Rumayyan, on the board. The investment from the Public Investment Fund, set up by the kingdom to develop the country and invest its oil revenues, was part of Uber's most recent fundraising round.

Uber will invest $250m in the Middle East, where it has been expanding aggressively.

Ride-hailing apps have attracted significant cash injections from a range of investors.

Carmakers Toyota and Volkswagen recently struck separate partnerships with Uber and Gett, an Israel-based rideshare operator.

Uber's deal with Toyota followed Apple's $1bn investment in Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing.

In March, General Motors invested $500m in Lyft, a US rival to Uber, to help develop an on-demand network of self-driving cars.


https://www.bbc.com/news/business-36430850

 

[User-E]

Wal-Mart testing Uber, Lyft for online grocery delivery

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it will be testing its grocery delivery service with ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft in the next two weeks in Denver and Phoenix.

That's in addition to a quiet pilot program that started in March with Deliv for its Sam's Club customers that involves delivery of general merchandise and grocery for business members in Miami.

The move is the latest step in the retailer's efforts to better compete with Amazon, which is delivering groceries directly to shoppers' homes in several markets.

Wal-Mart's test works this way: A customer in one of the test locations orders groceries online and then selects a delivery window. A personal shopper then selects the products and the team may request a driver from one of these services to go to the store, pick up the customer's order and take it directly to the customer's location.

Customers pay Wal-Mart the regular $7 to $10 delivery charge online and make no payments to the driver.

"We're thrilled about the possibility of delivering new convenient options to our customers, and about working with some transformative companies in this test," Michael Bender, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of Wal-Mart Global e-commerce wrote in a blog posted Friday. He noted that the company will "start small and let our customers guide us."


https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/wal-mart-testing-uber-lyft-for-online-grocery-delivery-1.2929432

 

[Boing]

Wal-Mart testing Uber, Lyft for online grocery delivery

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it will be testing its grocery delivery service with ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft in the next two weeks in Denver and Phoenix.

That's in addition to a quiet pilot program that started in March with Deliv for its Sam's Club customers that involves delivery of general merchandise and grocery for business members in Miami.

The move is the latest step in the retailer's efforts to better compete with Amazon, which is delivering groceries directly to shoppers' homes in several markets.

Wal-Mart's test works this way: A customer in one of the test locations orders groceries online and then selects a delivery window. A personal shopper then selects the products and the team may request a driver from one of these services to go to the store, pick up the customer's order and take it directly to the customer's location.

Customers pay Wal-Mart the regular $7 to $10 delivery charge online and make no payments to the driver.

"We're thrilled about the possibility of delivering new convenient options to our customers, and about working with some transformative companies in this test," Michael Bender, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of Wal-Mart Global e-commerce wrote in a blog posted Friday. He noted that the company will "start small and let our customers guide us."


https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/wal-mart-testing-uber-lyft-for-online-grocery-delivery-1.2929432

Why didn't I think of that Hmmmmmm

 

[User-E]

Why didn't I think of that Hmmmmmm

But how are Walmart customers going to get their exercise now? :unknw:

 

[Signingin]

[h=1]Uber set to test self-driving cars in Pittsburgh[/h]

 

[User-E]

The real reason Uber developed self driving technology - to deliver beer.

https://www.techworm.net/2016/10/ub...iser-beers-makes-first-delivery-colorado.html

 

[User-E]

Uber drivers in U.K. win right to paid time off and minimum wage

Uber drivers in the U.K. won a landmark court case Friday that means they will qualify for the minimum wage, paid time off and other perks. An employment tribunal in London ruled that the drivers should be considered "workers" rather than self-employed contractors, dealing a major blow to Uber.

"This is a monumental victory that will have a hugely positive impact on over 30,000 drivers in London and across England and Wales and for thousands more in other industries where bogus self-employment is rife," said Maria Ludkin, legal director for the GMB labor union that represented the drivers.

Under U.K. law, they could even claim back pay for the period they've already worked for Uber, said Ed Marchant, an employment lawyer at IBB solicitors. "From Uber's perspective the substantial additional cost resulting from the judgment means that they are likely to significantly change their business model and/or pass these extra costs onto customers," Marchant said.
Uber said it would appeal against the ruling.

"Tens of thousands of people in London drive with Uber precisely because they want to be self-employed and their own boss. The overwhelming majority of drivers who use the Uber app want to keep the freedom and flexibility of being able to drive when and where they want," said Jo Bertram, the head of Uber U.K.

https://money.cnn.com/2016/10/28/technology/uber-drivers-workers-rights-uk/index.html

 

[JBelushi]

Uber drivers in U.K. win right to paid time off and minimum wage

Uber drivers in the U.K. won a landmark court case Friday that means they will qualify for the minimum wage, paid time off and other perks. An employment tribunal in London ruled that the drivers should be considered "workers" rather than self-employed contractors, dealing a major blow to Uber.

"This is a monumental victory that will have a hugely positive impact on over 30,000 drivers in London and across England and Wales and for thousands more in other industries where bogus self-employment is rife," said Maria Ludkin, legal director for the GMB labor union that represented the drivers.

Under U.K. law, they could even claim back pay for the period they've already worked for Uber, said Ed Marchant, an employment lawyer at IBB solicitors. "From Uber's perspective the substantial additional cost resulting from the judgment means that they are likely to significantly change their business model and/or pass these extra costs onto customers," Marchant said.
Uber said it would appeal against the ruling.

"Tens of thousands of people in London drive with Uber precisely because they want to be self-employed and their own boss. The overwhelming majority of drivers who use the Uber app want to keep the freedom and flexibility of being able to drive when and where they want," said Jo Bertram, the head of Uber U.K.

https://money.cnn.com/2016/10/28/technology/uber-drivers-workers-rights-uk/index.html

That is good news. Uber has been milking individuals for years. They must still be happy they don't have to carry any sort of inventory or buy vehicles.

 

[User-E]

Do you think this would catch on in Canada?


Uber for doctors: U.K. app hails a GP to your home

Doctor home visits are not well known in Canada. For many, the idea harkens back to another era. But in Britain, the house call has moved into this century.

Now you can hail a doctor as easily as an Uber, using an app called GPDQ, or General Practitioner Delivered Quick.

A few taps on your phone, and a physician will arrive on your doorstep within 90 minutes, according to GPDQ's website. The doctors are on call from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., 365 days a year, and will spend at least 25 minutes with you.

Of course, it comes with a cost. The semi-privatized British health care system allows GPDQ to charge between $190 and $240 Cdn.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/u-k-nhs-house-calls-app-1.3824241