Rave: Uber

[Swirls]

I would have loved for it to have only been 30-50% above normal.

I had surge rates of 2.9x on Friday afternoon leaving the beach, 4.7x early Saturday morning when we were leaving the bar, and 3.9x on Saturday afternoon leaving the beach. Both days at the beach we drove around for literally an hour without finding a parking spot before giving up and driving back to the hotel to call an Uber to take us to the beach.

[st.lewis11]

Pardon my ignorance on this, but what do you guys mean, or what is "surge rate" or "surge pricing"?

[redbirdjazzz]

Pardon my ignorance on this, but what do you guys mean, or what is "surge rate" or "surge pricing"?

When demand goes up, the price goes up by a certain percent, ostensibly (and maybe actually) to get more Uber drivers out on the road.

[lukethedrifter]

Dynamic pricing

[MrSaigon]

http://www.theverge.com/transportation/ ... on-poached

Apparently they have since donated a nice sum to CMU. Still, Uber scares me because if successful, Uber is going to make a few people rich while killing a lot of jobs. But I suppose that lament is as old as technological advancement. But I'm sure they pay taxes, right?

[tlombard]

And it seems that Uber decided that they would just start doing business in St. Louis no matter what while filing a Federal Anti-trust lawsuit against the MTC.

Their main guy here then had the balls to claim that the MTC is anti-technology. Really? Then how in the frick does Laclede get away with using their app (which does almost everything that Uber's does and has for years)? I don't have a problem with the concept of Uber but I can't stand the people running the company and how they do business. They are so full of garbage that it isn't even funny.

[tlombard]

Also, I still can't believe that people are arguing on Uber's behalf that the MTC is evil because they were fighting to have driver's drug tested (which they gave in on) and wanting Uber to follow state law that says the driver needs a one time finger print check. I'm not saying that the MTC is a benevolent organization by any means but it absolutely astounds me that people say they don't feel safe in a cab where they have actual background and drug tests but feel safer in an Uber who doesn't want to do any of that.

I guess it really should be pretty obvious what the deal is though. They think that a nice young white person is going to pick them up in an Uber instead of a dirty immigrant.

I hate people.

Hatred for the people running Uber aside, I will probably use it at some point before too long if I end up in an area where Laclede Cab isn't convenient for me. In South City I never wait more than 2 minutes for someone to be on the way and 10 minutes for them to get to me though.

[Schlich]

thanks for that info, i didn't know laclede had an app.

[pioneer98]

We have Uber here now and I know one of the drivers. I try to find out how business is going but I don't get much of an answer. People just don't use cabs here. They didn't before Uber and I doubt it has changed. People probably *should* use cabs more here. About the only clue I got from my friend was how stupid he thought it was that so few people took cabs home from big concerts at the fair, which are notorious for drunks.

Anyway, I think the local chamber and other "powers that be" lobbied for Uber to come here because it might make taking cabs seem cool, and maybe increase use of cabs. I doubt it has made much of a difference.

[Schlich]

We have Uber here now and I know one of the drivers. I try to find out how business is going but I don't get much of an answer. People just don't use cabs here. They didn't before Uber and I doubt it has changed. People probably *should* use cabs more here. About the only clue I got from my friend was how stupid he thought it was that so few people took cabs home from big concerts at the fair, which are notorious for drunks.

Anyway, I think the local chamber and other "powers that be" lobbied for Uber to come here because it might make taking cabs seem cool, and maybe increase use of cabs. I doubt it has made much of a difference.

me and my friends went out on saturday, and took Uber there and took the cabs back. I don't see why it can't be a symbiotic relationship. We waited more than an hour for a cab to come get us at a residential address and got fed up and tried Uber. they were there in three minutes. but we had to take two separate cars. then after the concert there were cabs lined up in the area, including a van that could fit all of us, so we just took one of those.