Tech
Uber launches taxi service in Toronto
Just a day after we mentioned that Hailo has expanded to Toronto and plans to launch in the next few weeks, Uber has seemingly beat them to the punch and this afternoon will begin offering taxi service in Toronto. Yes, Uber customers will now have the ability to select taxis in addition to the black towncar and SUV options currently available.
This is the second city (following Chicago's lead) where Uber has expanded their offerings to include taxis. Like Hailo, Uber is working directly with taxi drivers (not local cab companies) and providing iPhones, training and other incentives to get them involved in the program.
Uber isn't disclosing the number of cabs in their fleet to-date, but Uber Toronto General Manager Andrew MacDonald assures me Uber "will always have enough drivers on the system to be a reliable and high quality option for customers."
I asked MacDonald if Uber would prohibit drivers from also working with Hailo and he gave me a cryptic response stating that "we think that our drivers will do so well supplementing their income with Uber, that they won't want to use any other product."
Sounds to me like a two-horse, er, smartphone race to sign up cabbies in Toronto. Either way, looks like we the taxi-seeking public will be the big winners. All of a sudden, taking a taxi in Toronto will never be the same.
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We''ll tweet the announcement when it's live. Follow us @uber_tor
Timing on the article seems suspect given this release: http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1028717/city-of-toronto-grants-first-ever-taxi-license-to-app-based-taxi-company
This isn't the case, we are operating legally and have never received a cease and desist from the city.
http://www.globaltoronto.com/app-based+taxi+service+to+hit+toronto+streets/6442706282/story.html
All of our drivers are fully licensed by the city. We're always open to productive dialogue with the city, who has expressed openness to working with technology companies like Uber.
I just want to clarify that we are not a transportation company. We assist in connecting passengers with licensed taxi drivers. We are a technology company.
We do not own a cars. We do not employ drivers. Think of the difference between Expedia and Air Canada.
Again, the taxi drivers Uber partners with are fully licensed and insured.
Think as if a customer were to hail a taxi on the side of the road. That customer would still be covered by the drivers insurance policy.
We certainly appreciate your interest in our business. Feel free to reach out to our support email if you have more questions.
You hope the drivers and vehicles are licensed by the City of Toronto and you won't charge surge pricing during peak demand times. The licensed companies are afforded this flexibility and are accountable to a governing Bylaw which is designed to protect the public. Oops, I forgot, your terms and conditions with your passengers absolve Uber from any liability no matter how caused. Now you're going to be a cab company? At least Hailo took the time to understand the regulation in this City and are charging the metered rate to the public.
Jim
I think it's great that you guys are active in the blogs and answering customer's concerns.
I wanted to clarify that this service is available with your Android app too? If so you should really advertise that more since Android has a much larger market share than iPhone. There isn't a single image on your website of an Android phone and I only realized you had an app by looking in the small text at the bottom of the page.
This service is indeed available for the Android app too. It's free to download:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ubercab&;hl=en
Lucas,
Uber Toronto Community Manager
Secondly, if you're someone like Larry above, just don't use it. How about that?
If you got a problem then don't use the service and let the rest of us enjoy.
I will never, ever use Uber. If you're comfortable compromising your safety and security, by all means use their service. But just so you're aware, if your Uber driver gets into an accident and you're injured or (god forbid) killed, you or your family have no recourse with the city or Uber, as Jim said above (see the Indemnification section of their terms at https://www.uber.com/legal/terms). And I can assure that if a complaint is lodged with the city, they will investigate immediately. As Lucas mentioned earlier, their drivers are licensed. However, this holds no weight and doesn't mean anything to the city if their company is not operating as a licensed limo or cab company.
Any cab or limo company that tries to dispatch or operate a car service without a licence is in violation of Chapter 545 of the City of Toronto's Municipal Code: http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/municode/1184_545.pdf. This code is in place to protect you, the consumer.
Passing yourself off as a licensed car service (limo or otherwise) is not only a violation of the Municipal Code, it's also a crime and will no doubt be investigated by Toronto Police Service.
Somehow i doubt you even have a smart phone, so why do you care so much.
Let me ask this: if I lived in Toronto, Boston, Chicago (pick a city) and wanted to open a convenience store could I just buy a building, some shelves, a cash register and some stock then slap an "open" sign on my door without first obtaining a business license? Same concept with a transportation business.
Keep letting the illegals pick up your wives, your drunk children or your grandma going to the store. Sometime, somewhere, something will happen to one of them and the Uber driver that no one can find was driving the car when it hit that light pole will go on his/her merry way (if they're not all dead first).
There's two reason we charge the automatic 20% gratuity.
1) So the rider doesn't have to fumble with change or breaking a bill to tip the driver, which is also why we charge everything directly to your credit card. Never having to take out your wallet means a seamless and convenient experience. It also means you'll never forget your wallet in the TAXI.
2) So the driver is guaranteed tip. This way the rider can never run out of the TAXI and skip out on tipping the driver!
20% is pretty standard tip. $2 on a $10 TAXI ride.
I do see the other side of this, the driver gets an Uber call he at leasts know he will get a tip...gives him the incentive to take care of the client & provide the good service he is being paid for.
TAXI gives you the convenience of Uber (ordering and payment) and a quality level yet to be experienced with traditional taxi companies, at a lower price point than our Black car or SUV options.
Lucas,
Uber Toronto Community Manager
Cab drivers looking for fares are either pylons on four wheels, accidents waiting to happen, or asses if you dont live far enough. And when you're in a cab the driver can be rude, lost, unhygenic, or on his bluetooth and unattentive.
Cab companies are bureaucratic machines operating another form of sweatshop. I used to work at a hotel as a valet driver so I learned about all the red tape from cab drivers and limo drivers. If you can tell from the "Larry the cab company guy"'s tone of voice, it sounds condescending. I wonder how many friends he has in City Hall.
Anyway...it's good to see some new competition in Toronto's cab game. Especially when it's based on ingenuity and technology woven together by smart people trying to make people's lives easier and better. It's only a matter of time before every 25-40 year old in Toronto, especially in the core, calls a cab/limo using Uber. It's about time.
As someone who found using taxis every day was less expensive than car ownership in the city, I have spent more time in cabs and relying on them than most people.
Some observations about cabs in Toronto after taking a few thousand rides in them:
1. They have no service culture. This is partially because the non-ambassador drivers rent the cars daily for a 12h shift. Drivers have no stake in being good or safe, only fast, because they are screwed at every corner. For example that price increase a few years ago to compensate for gas was promptly confiscated by insurance companies.
2. A huge number of taxi medallions are held by a few politically connected families who lease them back to cab companies. There is at least one former mega-mayor whose family gets some serious rent from their medallion holdings. There is a culture of cynical corruption throughout the business. Drivers come from a lot of corrupt countries and are surprised at how familiar their lives are here.
3. You can never find one when you need one. Drivers gripe about how the ambassador licenses cause there to be too many cabs, but until I can flag a cab in the morning outside the downtown core in less than 15 mins, there are too few.
4. The drivers are dangerous. They have no idea how even a grid like toronto is laid out and they drive like they're in countries where life is cheap. Since they just rent the things for the day, they have no skills or training. They don't own their business, so why should they care? Foreign doctors make for poor drivers anyway.
5. The city runs the licensing commission like the mafia. Ask anyone who deals with them. It's a fief. We have to find a way to break their stranglehold on the business. It's more than just regulated, it's a racket. That medallions go for hundreds of thousands of dollars and are the retirement assets of the drivers suggests something is fundamentally broken in the system.
6. Cops prey on them. It would be nice if police nailed them for the u-turn of death or letting passengers off into bike lanes, but it's the parking and stopping infractions that just harass them and make them cynical about the laws here.
7. flat pricing is anti-competitive, way too high, and hurts drivers. more people would take cabs if they could afford them, and if drivers want more fares, they are going to have to charge less to get more business.
We need a company like Uber to actually serve people who take taxis in a way that is efficient, reliable, and worth paying for. If the taxi business can't rise to provide better service when there are people ready to pay for it, then they should shut down and let real business people run it (entrepreneurs, you might have heard of them, french word) instead of city cronies.
So, Dear Taxi Companies: stop paying flacks to post on blogs and put the dollars into launching a competitive service. Technology means transparency, and transparency means evolve or go extinct.
I also don't know how I feel about the 20% tip. I've had variance in cab fares up to $7 due to traffic / congestion in the city. Why should the driver that got caught in traffic earn an extra $1.40? As was mentioned above - gratuities should be based on service.
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