Thursday, May 7, 2015

Uber: Don’t Call it a Taxi

Raise your hand if you’ve had a negative experience with a cab driver. Okay, you can put your hands down now. We’ve all been there; erratic driving, streams of profanity directed at other drivers, incessant horn honking, and the cheerful interruptions from dispatch. Coupled with traffic, sleepiness from travel, and surly drivers, riding in a taxi can be a harrowing experience. However, relative newbie Uber, is here to change the negative connotation that accompanies cab service.

A cab driver’s job is to get their passengers from point a to point b, but rarely is doing so a pleasant experience. The cars are usually filthy and germ infested, the temperature of the car is never quite right, and the drivers are usually unpleasant. Paired with the idea that calling a cab is often shrouded in mystery, as to when the car will arrive and what your fare will be, Uber is a welcome addition to the car service family.

Uber, founded in 2009 with headquarters in San Francisco, allows passengers to use a cell phone app to call for a car service. The app, also allows passengers to not only request service, but to track their car, estimate their fare, and contact their driver if the need arises. The entire hassle of being involved in a cab system is reduced to the press of a couple buttons, as Uber allows passengers to store addresses, and can pinpoint locations using a mapping system.

Uber, unlike a cab, is billed by the minute. Typically taxi services bill by the mile, so a traffic jam doesn’t often cost extra money. However, with a system like Uber, an extended period of time spent sitting in traffic may incur additional expenses. In an Uber car, though, the ride is typically in a very nice, clean, and comfortable car, thus making the ride more pleasurable and to many customers, worth the extra money.

In a taxi, you’re at the mercy of the driver. The route to your destination is determined by your driver and the direction in which he wants to take to get there. An Uber driver is trained to take the least expensive route or the path of least resistance, trying to keep the costs low and your ride as short as possible. Due to this training, the driver will often ask if there is a shortcut or a way in which you wish to travel. The customer is definitely the key when using an Uber system.

If you’ve taken a cab from one location to another, no matter what the ride is like, there is no true way to rate the service. Even if your ride was terrible, at the end of it, the driver will expect a tip. This is not the case with an Uber driver, because there service rates are predetermined, there is no need for gratuity, and no cash ever exchanges hands. At the end of the ride, via the app, the passenger can rate the service that they’ve received.

The no cash policy happens as a result of Uber passengers signing up for an Uber account that links their credit card with the app, thus allowing for that card to be directly billed upon the conclusion of the ride. Your entire ride is able to be tracked via the app, and can even be shared with others. For instance, if a friend is waiting for you to arrive somewhere, they are able to look at your route on their phone is a passenger chooses to share their progress.

The app for Uber is super easy to use, even a cell phone novice can do it. It will show all of the Uber cars nearby your location, and when a car is requested, the driver will claim their passenger. As the driver travels to his passenger, the passenger is then able to track where the driver is en route to their location. The app also delivers helpful text messages to announce the confirmation of the request, predicted time of arrival, and then another text to tell the passenger when the car has actually arrived so there is no need to wait outside in inclement weather.

Uber users are in constant contact with their drivers and their superiors as well. A two star rating for your Uber driver will be answered swiftly with an email from the higher ups, asking the reason for the low rating. When a customer responds to the inquiry, the complaint is handled in an expeditious fashion, often in the form of a partial refund. For example, if your driver takes the longest route possible to your destination, and there are faster ways, the Uber higher-ups will then examine the route and refund the extraneous amount.

Now available in over 200 cities, Uber is revolutionizing the car service system. With nearly complete control in the hands of the customer, Uber allows for a much more pleasant ride than is available in cities that have previously only offered taxis. Uber also offers fantastic discounts for first time riders, recommendations, and certain high traffic holidays. Signing up for an account is free, so Uber today!

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