A few days ago, I talked about the Uber app. You can flag down a cab with your smartphone with this app. And some are in high resistance mode.
Take London cab drivers. About 12,000 of them literally took to the streets in protest of Uber yesterday. Starting in the afternoon, and through the height of rush hour, cabbies staged a go-slow demonstration, deliberately causing traffic nightmares in one of Europe’s busiest cities. London cabbies’ union says Uber will open the door for unlicensed taxi drivers. But Londoners aren’t buying it. In fact, since in the past couple of days, Uber’s usage has increased 850%. As one person put it, “Londoners are voting with their fingers…”.
There’s more to this story. Plus, Uber tallies about how much a cab fare is going to take before the trip even begins. This is why I’m cynical about the London cabbies’ motives. Now I’ve never been in a London cab. I’ve never been to London, except for layovers at Heathrow. But I’ve been in enough cities around the world to know the some drivers will milk you out of the meter if you let them. And I’m not throwing all cabbies under the bus; the vast majority of my experiences in cabs have been good ones. But Uber’s system will keep taxis honest about what they’re charging, and some don’t like it one bit. You may say, “London’s just one city”. I wonder what other major cities in the world think about Uber. Changing computer technology is everywhere now, even catching a cab.? Who do you side with in this debate: the cabbies or the customers?