Lyft vs Uber: which is less scummy?

[Rxanadu]

I need to take a taxi to someone's house today, but I can only find Uber and Lyft to get to the house. I've heard some scummy things about both companies that I don't want to get into right now. 

 

Ultimately, which one is less scummy when it comes to the driving experience? If anyone has any stories of scummy or less scummy experiences from either one, I'd love to hear them.

[Badfinger]

My default position from what I've seen and heard, until it's proven otherwise, is that Uber is always the scummiest option currently available.

[JonCole]

From everything I understand, as the bigger company Uber is doing the biggest amount of weird anti-labor lobbying so I guess they'd be the scummiest. But in a way, it's like comparing cable companies - they're all scummy, but Comcast just happens to be next-level scummy since they have big, big money.

[Cordeos]

I have had multiple Lyft drivers complain about how Uber treated them.

Uber encorages drivers to get subprime loans: 

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/5/27/uber-promotes-subprime-auto-loans-to-increase-driver-pool.html

 

Uber also has some privacy issues:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/22/uber-ftc-privacy-customer-location-contacts

 

I haven't seen anything similar about Lyft.
 

[Badfinger]

  On 7/14/2015 at 3:58 PM, JonCole said:

From everything I understand, as the bigger company Uber is doing the biggest amount of weird anti-labor lobbying so I guess they'd be the scummiest. But in a way, it's like comparing cable companies - they're all scummy, but Comcast just happens to be next-level scummy since they have big, big money.

 

It's funny to hear people say this and then cheer loudly when Verizon fiber services are close to their area, because Verizon (at least as of about 2010) was twice to three times larger as a company. It's not that Comcast isn't scummy, but cheering for an even bigger fish is hilarious.

 

e: so as not to derail, Uber is completely unregulated, anti-labor, runs roughshod over government concerns until they literally have to be shut down at the federal level. Every article I read and blurb I see, as above, bears that out. I've never seen any sort of article along the lines of "Uber agrees to comply with legal regulations so they aren't literally a lawless corporation in Europe!"

[Twig]

They're no more or less scummy than a taxi, as far as I've been informed. Not really worth worrying about. If you're using any of them, you're contributing to some real shit. Capitalism.

 

Just walk!

[Badfinger]

  On 7/14/2015 at 4:28 PM, Twig said:

They're no more or less scummy than a taxi, as far as I've been informed. Not really worth worrying about. If you're using any of them, you're contributing to some real shit. Capitalism.

 

Just walk!

 

They are, in fact, far more scummy than a taxi service, which has to comply with passenger transport regulation, pays taxes, employs people who go through training, actually employs people, and can be reached through avenues that can provide legal recourse if they get fucked over!

 

An additional hearty El Oh El at "just walk", too.

[Twig]

Oh okay cool. Guess everything I've read was bullshit, nevermind, thanks for SETTING ME RIGHT OL' BUDDY OL' PAL.

[Mangela Lansbury]

  On 7/14/2015 at 4:28 PM, Twig said:

They're no more or less scummy than a taxi, as far as I've been informed. Not really worth worrying about. If you're using any of them, you're contributing to some real shit. Capitalism.

 

Just walk!

 

The heads of taxi companies do not threaten the livelihoods, careers, and maybe even lives of people who give them bad press. This makes them distinct from Uber.

[Badfinger]

  On 7/14/2015 at 4:37 PM, Twig said:

Oh okay cool. Guess everything I've read was bullshit, nevermind, thanks for SETTING ME RIGHT OL' BUDDY OL' PAL.

Everything you've read such as?

 

My point isn't that taxis are great. I don't have a shirt that says "I <3 Taxis". From everything I know that Uber is a horrible company on a level to the point that nothing else in competition compares.

[Twig]

  On 7/14/2015 at 4:53 PM, Mangela Lansbury said:

The heads of taxi companies do not threaten the livelihoods, careers, and maybe even lives of people who give them bad press. This makes them distinct from Uber.

That's true! Uber is bad. Taxis are also bad. They're bad for different reasons, and it just comes down to what you are more comfortable with.

 

Actually I don't really know much about Lyft, maybe they're saints. But they have those pink mustaches so I'm inclined to hate them.

 

  On 7/14/2015 at 4:53 PM, Badfinger said:

Everything you've read such as?

I dunno, there's stuff on the internet, somewhere! It can basically be summed up as "Uber is shitty, but also so are taxis, but Uber is cheaper, but also it's cheaper because it's shitty, so, you know, do what you gotta do." The thing taxi drivers hate are the tokens, if I recall correctly. They're super expensive, or something. Also they get paid very little, percentage-wise. But then Uber drops their prices across the board without warning to the drivers. Taxis expect tips, Uber doesn't support tips in the app (which annoys me, for sure, because I don't carry cash).

 

I know from using Uber and talking to drivers (because boy do some of them like to talk) they on the whole seem to like driving for Uber? Which really surprised me, to be honest. Most of them seem to do it in their spare time, though, rather than as a full-time job, which is interesting. Dallas recently passed some ordinance that Uber drivers have to get inspections. I guess it costs thirty bucks.

 

Taxis smell weird, like rotten oranges, and the drivers smoke and play the music so loud I can't hear them talking to me. Okay that was just one guy one time. He also had a PS2 hooked up to a screen in the back of the passenger seat. That was a weird night.

 

The biggest difference is that Uber is largely the same in every city (prices withstanding), whereas taxis are run by tons of different companies. So some taxi companies are probably much better than others. And some cities are probably better with the token system.

 

It's all gross, though. Just make me some fucking trains that work and aren't filthy and go everywhere, you shitty city of Dallas fuck you.

[Professor Video Games]

I think from a business model perspective, both companies are equally shady ("disrupt" ie sidestep expensive regulations and employee benefits), but Uber seems to be run by total amoral shitheads well above and beyond what I've heard about Lyft (they don't use the mustaches anymore btw).

 

Personally, the taxi service in my city is/was total garbage so having a good alternative has been a godsend. I've used both services and never had a driver complain about one or the other, but that's totally anecdotal obviously.

[Cordeos]

  On 7/14/2015 at 5:13 PM, video games said:

I think from a business model perspective, both companies are equally shady ("disrupt" ie sidestep expensive regulations and employee benefits), but Uber seems to be run by total amoral shitheads well above and beyond what I've heard about Lyft (they don't use the mustaches anymore btw).

 

Personally, the taxi service in my city is/was total garbage so having a good alternative has been a godsend. I've used both services and never had a driver complain about one or the other, but that's totally anecdotal obviously.

 

Some of the expensive regulations companies like Uber and Lyft sidestep were put in place by taxi companies/taxi driver unions to freeze the market and try to block out competition, so I am all for those being avoided. 

[Twig]

Yeah I've read about that, too. Regulations are good and all (I think?) but when they're used maliciously, well, that's that, I guess.

 

EDIT: Didn't know they got rid of the mustaches! Dang.

[SuperBiasedMan]

Both Uber and Lyft operate on the idea that their employees are just 'contractors', which in modern times essentially means that there's no job security, no benefits, no minimum wage. A company owes nothing at all to a contractor, except the exact amounts they earn for the jobs they do. They're incentivised to have way more contractors than they need, since that costs them nothing and makes the service more available, even though that then actively harms the employees who have less and less work. Also drivers are beholden to the whims of their passengers, since passengers can give them a bad rating and get the drivers fired. Uber can also change their cut of the profits on a whim, and the drivers have no means to negotiate.

 

Also the services are designed to squeeze as much effort out of the drivers as it can with complete disregard for them as humans, because realistically they actually want a fleet of self driving cars, not people. And as explained before, once you start working at Uber they sometimes will try to get you to buy a car from them with ludicrous interest rates.

 

The short of it is that both are bad, but Uber in particular is more popular and therefore abuses their drivers more.

 

Also sure, regulations can be bullshit. But Uber is literally illegal in France. It was a ruling brought in specifically because of Uber's shitty practices. But Uber decided to just flaunt the law and continue working there.

[pkirkner]

The taxi business is a mess, at least in my experience on the East Coast. I'm mostly aware the regulations in Philly and New York. Essentially, in response to a high volume of unsafe cabs, a system was established in the 1930's that required operators to undergo vehicle inspections and purchase medallions from the city in exchange for the exclusive right to operate. Over time, the ownership of those medallions concentrated into the hands of a small number of people. Drivers no longer purchase medallions directly from the city, but lease them from middlemen, the most famous of which is Gene Friedman, who's one of the largest medallion holders in both cities I'm familiar with. These medallion holders wield a great deal of power over their drivers and political influence over local regulators, and have largely been successful at keeping cities regulating taxi services with their interests in mind rather than the broader interests of the city.

[JonCole]

Uber tracks its Chinese drivers by GPS, threatens to fire them if they attend pro-labor rights taxi protests

 

Uber Driver Threatens to Slit Woman's Throat Over Canceled Ride

 

Uber pays so poorly in NYC that drivers are taking illegal fares and getting arrested for it

 

One of Uber's rental/lease programs essentially requires 20 hours of driving week to pay for just the rental (no insurance, gas, taxes, phone charges, bottled water)

 

By asserting that drivers are not employees (they are app users, yay), Uber claims no liability for accidents, providing legally required breaks for hourly workers, paying worker's comp, and many other worker's rights

[BobbyBesar]

 

  On 7/14/2015 at 5:37 PM, SuperBiasedMan said:

Also the services are designed to squeeze as much effort out of the drivers as it can with complete disregard for them as humans, because realistically they actually want a fleet of self driving cars, not people. And as explained before, once you start working at Uber they sometimes will try to get you to buy a car from them with ludicrous interest rates.

Man, BusinessTown is on point.

 

[Twig]

Wow a lot has happened in the past few months!

 

That one about the death threat is particularly insane, although that's a human being doing it, and not Uber. Though if the guy didn't get fired (the article only says suspended, which is suspicious)...

[Twig]

  On 7/14/2015 at 5:58 PM, CLWheeljack said:

 

Man, BusinessTown is on point.

Self-driving cars will be the best thing to ever happen to the automobile market.

[SuperBiasedMan]

  On 7/14/2015 at 6:00 PM, Twig said:

Self-driving cars will be the best thing to ever happen to the automobile market.

 

They are the most terrifying form of robot to me. As bad as people are, I trust them as drivers more than as system designers.

[Mangela Lansbury]

  On 7/14/2015 at 6:00 PM, Twig said:

Self-driving cars will be the best thing to ever happen to the automobile market.

 

Uber agrees, which is why they're heavily investing in replacing their entire workforce with self-driving cars!

 

But it's worth noting that cab driving can still be a really interesting, kind of noble thing!

[pkirkner]

  On 7/14/2015 at 6:00 PM, Twig said:

Self-driving cars will be the best thing to ever happen to the automobile market.

 

And the worst thing to happen to the labor market, at least in the short term. That's millions of jobs in the US alone.

[Twig]

That's a problem with capitalism, not a problem with self-driving cars.

[Apple Cider]

I take Lyfts because they show up when I want them, they get me where I'm going and they LET YOU TIP OVER THE COST OF THE SERVICE. Which afaik, Uber does NOT let you do so I always tip my Lyft driver a ton. I hate dealing with taxis who also don't take cards since I usually don't carry cash.