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Comment by jedberg | Hacker News Reader

I got the cab attitude at SJC once for the same reason. I had to go to work, which was literally next door (property abutted the airport). Unfortunately there is no easy way to walk and I had luggage anyway.

When I told the cabbie where I was going, he got out of the car and started yelling at the dispatcher. They almost got into a fight until the dispatcher informed the driver that he is required to take me to keep his medallion.

He refused to talk to me for the entire 5 minute trip.

I felt bad because I knew he had waited in the long line, so I gave him $20 for the $9 fare.

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Wow, I wish I could get all pissy and yell at my customers when they ask me to do things that are mildly inconvenient for me, but I am required by law to do. Your situation is why Uber exists.

But where's the law that ensures that Uber will take this fare over other (more profitable) fares?

Uber drivers don't see the destination until they start the trip. According to the drivers in London.

So Uber stops drivers (for now), but what guarantees exist that Uber will keep doing that if they feel they can make more money that way? Or adding a 20x surge charge? This is why regulation exists that bans discrimination.

If they start refusing trips or jack the price I will take my business to lyft. Competition dissuades companies from engaging in that type of behavior far better than legislation ever would.

No guarantees. Why do you need guarantees? What's the cost of downloading the competitor's app? Even make your own non-discriminatory rideshare service, but if it's not sustainable, don't force the cost on others.

Regulations that attempt to guarantee total security while favoring entrenched interests are exactly why the current horrible taxi cab situation exists.

Freedom to compete is like bleach to the pathologies of entrenched lazy players.

I paid a huge fare once for a long drive home from the airport (in Chicago) because I didn't feel like taking the L as planned. Of course, the taxi driver also had attitude about that, because apparently they are acustomed to quickly flipping back and forth from the nearby hotels, not driving all the way into the city to drop people off. I have avoided taking taxis as much as possible because I hate the attitudes that many of the drivers have. I actually find I'm more willing to pay for an Uber/Lyft because the drivers are usually pleasant, or at least not actively hostile.

I wouldn't have tipped him a single fucking cent. What does he expect people to do, move further away from the airport just for him?

Cab drivers like him are shitheads, and are the reason that Uber is doing so well.

He drove you next door, I think $9 was probably generous to begin with.

I think it's reasonable if you consider the opportunity cost of waiting in the queue for airport customers, instead of searching elsewhere.

Maybe if they didn't have a queue and instead used an on demand app...

...then what?

I'm not sure what problem you think you're solving here: the existence of a queue suggests that they're slightly over capacity in cars, and thus something like Uber would still have to rotate the fares between the drivers.

Of course, there are perfectly sensible reasons that you need to have extra capacity available at an airport as a metro area, and thus we have the question of how best to provide surge capacity to the airport.

All the answers I can think of, including an "on demand app", involve waiting in some kind of queue managed by someone.

So could you please finish your sentence?

... then they could take fares around the airport and get matched for an actual ride at the airport without having to wait in line idly. The difference here is that they can make better use of their time while still possibly getting an airport fare, if that's what they desire for some reason.

Was that so difficult?

That's what airport cabbies near where i live in India now do. The queue is really long (such that they may only get 1 or 2 rides the whole day), but now they take Uber/Olacab rides while waiting for their slot.

Often the airport is in the middle of nowhere that really doesn't need frequent local cab service.

..then when they make their drop off, they'll have another fare request waiting for them and their downtime will be absolutely minimal.

If increased demand exists at the airport, pricing increases until capacity is met. This is a much more natural governor than simply creating a queue at projected in demand areas.

It's $15 minimum fare from SJC. Strange that the meter would read $9. Check the posted fare card.

This was many years ago. Also I was looking before we stopped. It's possible that it ticked up when he hit the "finish" button.

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