Victorian taxi drivers have done a u-turn in dealing with Uber. Their focus now is to improve their service and be more competitive rather than expecting politicians to protect them. The CEO of their association spoke to this with the The Guardian:
“In 2015, if we’re not providing a service people want to use, then the amount of competition will see our industry decline,” Samuel said.
“We won’t let that occur. We’ve been around for about 150 years and have responded to many challenges over that time, and we’ll do it again.”
And then this:
“But there have been some shortfalls from drivers, and we’re trying to weed out those drivers,” he said.
The position reflected by the association is along the lines of what I have said recently about newsagents, tatts and the supermarket challenge.
The best way for any business to be successful in any negotiation is to be what the other side wants, and more.
The best way to win in any competitive situation is to be better than the competitor.
If the numbers don’t work, the best approach could be to walk away.
Being better does not have to mean being cheaper.
I urge newsagents to read about the dispute between taxi drivers and Uber and to consider the latest moves. I think it speaks to challenges we face.
As I understood it, the actual income from driving a cab wasnt all that great. In fact there seemed to a lot of noise that the fare rates were too low. The real money in cabs apparently was in the value of the license plates. Well you’d have to be nuts to actually pay anything for cab plates now rendering the licenses worthless. So my question is are taxis (or uber for that matter) good businesses to be in?
James my understanding is they are like any small business. They are good if you focus on the money you make daily rather than expecting a windfall in goodwill when you sell.
I suspect another industry like 24hr convenience retail with a business model based on preying on vulnerable employees willing to accept wages well below award rates. And like it or not, those employees seemed to be drawn predominantly from recently arrived migrants or those on student visas. Surely as tell tale sign. From a Business Insider article in 2014:
“Taxi drivers now collect an average of $400 a day, Jools says, or $10 an hour after fuel, licensing and other costs – down from about $15 an hour ten years ago”
Industry disruption by its very nature doesn’t play by the establishment rules. Im all for it except when it takes unfair advantage of the most vulnerable.
well many times i have been ripped off by taxi drivers by taking longest route, have used uber and keep using it until taxi driver learn to adapt.
Mark is correct. They can be lucrative if you own the taxi and drive it at least part of the time. Had a bit of a look into it before I bought here.
I know a few people who have been involved in the industry and if you just drive the money is only there if you know what you’re doing (or rather where to be and when to be there as one person said !) and get a resonable buy in rate for the shift. Most drivers are now paying anything up to circa $200 to “own” that days shift so they have to make that back in fares before they start making anything themselves. There used to be alot of takings splits between drivers/owners but that seems to have largely gone by the wayside.
There are racial problems in the industry and I have heard of at least one instance where a driver was allowed to drive even though he hadn’t passed the prerequisits because a particular group was going to start making discrimination complaints.
Uber has been the best thing to come along as it will really shake up the Taxi industries in all states. Probably drop the value of master licences and hopefully lead to a removal from the industry of several people who shouldn’t have been allowed into it. It should leave a large core of professional drivers (there have always been some very good drivers but it’s just the rest that have often not even been mid level but outright dreadful),
Speaking of taxis, I’ve been in stitches at their latest “campaign” to try and tidy up their image.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/my-cab-driver-fell-asleep-taxi-industrys-social-media-campaign-backfires-20151109-gkuwis.html
I note in NSW that the State Government is effectively putting in regulations to “legalise” Uber. Part of the package is compensation to Cab Drivers for loss of exclusivity.
Yes everyone is now going to be competing with each other, but the cabbies have managed to wrangle “disruption” compensation for themselves on the way through.
I suspect for Newsagents that the horse has well and truly bolted, but an interesting comparison in both outcome and obviously the capability of the respective industry groups to lobby effectively.