this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2024
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Am I crazy or is everyone just describing car service? Lots of major cities have private storefronts with a group of drivers and a single person that answers the phones.
The only thing those businesses were ever missing was a good online presence and/or a smartphone app.
Which is, of course, no small thing and the thing that makes uber/lyft thousands of times better than the car service model.
I disagree with this. Uber and Lyft just did it at scale. My local car service can make a website with payment processing without knowing any coding. They don't need a full service app with a global presence. It's not trivial but totally doable.
How old are you? Did you spend any time in the pre Uber days trying to get a cab? Wrong part of NYC? Good luck. Out in the suburbs and you don't know a local cab company's number? Lol never going to happen.
The electronic payment system is not what made it such a big improvement. It's the ability to instantly call a cab almost anywhere, at any time, with no knowledge of anything local. It's the connection between the drivers and the passengers that was the big leap.
I grew up in New York City, called the same car service from my neighborhood wherever I was to get home. The main problem is the suburbs, I agree.
In my suburbs, if there were enough of us around, there was someone who knew the local cab company's number too. Although that was also not great late at night. The issue is that when you are not from the area and don't have someone who knows the number. This is what Uber (mostly) fixed.