First It Was Easy Taxi, Now Uber Doa?!

[mikic007]

Maybe because we all know what the word "tax" means?

In this case uber goes above state and the fee they are charging is actually a tax. Calling it a fee doesn't change nothing.

They are also not very original, which could justify a bit their high charges. In Europe websites and apps for car sharing existed for decade, most of them were for free, but a lot of them had to quit due to the laws. Uber has enough capital to fight on the highest level and ignore them..

I guess Argentina should copy their app and use it under their regulation. I wonder how uber would react, when someone would breach their rights?

 

[thorsten]

Anyone here really thinks that Uber's business plan has anything to do with providing drivers? Yes, it's what they do currently to build up a large customer base in a typical winner-takes-it-all market, but fast-forward about 15 years (at least in other countries) and you won't hear a lot about drivers anymore, but order a self-driving car to get from A to B... Even if Uber should fail, car manufacturers would take over the market with their pooling concepts like Car2go/DriveNow or another company like Alphabet or Tesla would fill the gap.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

No, it is all about evading taxes. Otherwise they should be 20% more expensive than local taxis.

This is a blog of taxi drivers where they explain the busisness to the newbies:
http://detaxistas.com/foro/f9/es-negocio-el-taxi-27.html

Only the license cost about 25.000 usd.

The payroll (retirement + medical insurance) 2200 pesos per driver per month.

The taxi companies has to provide as a warrantie 2 cars just to open and 1 car every 10 cars. I think is the quivalent in cash for answering to law suits.

The union has a record of every taxi driver that is used for taxi companies like taxi premiun or Manuel Tienda Leon to choose the best drivers. This is why they are reliable.

 

[MikeB12]

Agree with some of Bajo's points. I still look at it as a monopoly though, because the medallions are finite, they won't give out an unlimited amount...like they do for restaurant licenses, which can be equally as dangerous. That's why you have wall street fraudsters buying and selling taxi medallions .

Would be nice if taxi companies at least adopted some of the technology from easy taxi, uber, etc. Ability to order free from an app, driver info, ability to rate/review drivers. If they remain a protected group, I imagine they don't have much of an incentive to do so.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Taxi premium did:

http://www.movilion.com/radiotaxi-premium-app-solicitar-autos/

Easy taxi too but it was declared illegal, here the taxi driver chat about that:
http://detaxistas.com/foro/f20/importante-leer-easy-taxi-ilegal-multas-suspensi-de-licencia-362.html

They are for free, seems they do not charge the 20%.

 

[mikic007]

I don't see the problem in the case of easy taxi, payments doesn't go through them, they aren't contracting no one. This should be allowed.

 

[RodalfoWalsh]

I don't see the problem in the case of easy taxi, payments doesn't go through them, they aren't contracting no one. This should be allowed.

Radio taxi companies are opposed.

 

[RichardP]

I notice that Uber is valued at 62.5 billion U$ but is reported to not be turning any profit. Could it be a huge pyramid scheme (un cuento del tio) designed to lure rich investors?

http://www.forbes.co...s/#34084a2d5c99

 

[thorsten]

A company like amazon also didn't make profit for about 15 years (even today the profit is marginal, but more due to tax "optimization"). The business plans for these companies don't focus on income - it's all about growth. In the end, there is one huge company which survives, and its most often the one with the most aggressive growth strategy - given there is enough financial backing behind it.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

When a huge company doesn't make profit, it is only for the books to pay less tax.