I guess it depends where you are. In my city there is a taxi company that started buying lots of smaller ones. They now have an app like Uber so you can order it and see where it is. Because they bought so many firms they’re everywhere and considerably cheaper than Uber. I guess it’s only viable in large cities.
Comment on Everything old is new again.
sunbeam60@lemmy.one 3 months ago100% agreed. I’m not condoning Uber. I’m saying taxi companies should be better at copying the convenience of Uber.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 3 months ago
Chetzemoka@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Only took the cab companies ten years to catch on to what they should have done as soon as Uber came on the scene. If cab companies had innovated like this, they would have killed Uber in the cradle.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 3 months ago
It’s a lot harder for smaller businesses to invest in that level of development without hedge fund money and trying to corner the market.
If a small taxi company is making £100k profit a year it’s a big ask to invest £20k+ on developer to compete with Uber for what? A small increase in profit.
You need to expand as well as innovate. Hence the one taxi company near me buying out others to have a larger market.
Chetzemoka@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Multiple companies could have pooled resources to fund developing an app that they all used. They have existing inventory, employees, local government connections. They definitely could have outcompeted Uber if they had been able to get their heads out of their asses and even try.
Instead they ignorantly tried to kill Uber by suppressing innovation and service improvements that everyone wanted, which was doomed to fail from the start. They dug their own graves on this one.
CasualPenguin@reddthat.com 3 months ago
About 10 years a go I missed two flights for work because the taxi I had scheduled in advance never showed, and when I called dispatch they said 'he found a better fair, he’s allowed to do that’s
When I explained this to my neighbor who drove cabs be was still angry with me for switching to Lyft, but also agreed with the dispatch. Cabs don’t want to change, which sucks because I wish there was more competition