Uber
Nemesis of taxi Drivers everywhere.
The Ultimate Disruptor in transport.
*except for Self driving electric vehicles of course. 😉
We recently began using Uber in earnest. Mostly for business related trips, up to the airport, the train station or to see a client where I don’t have my car for the day. For those times when it’s just not useful to drive and park your car at the airport for a gajillion dollars.
I loathe taxi’s. Mostly I have had some really sh^&*y experiences, here in Melbourne, in Singapore and in the good old US of A. I cannot say that I remember anything that is pleasant, even in the most uneventful of taxi rides. And it’s not the drivers necessarily that are the problem (although I have met some real special ones along the way).
I hate the fact that I have to have local currency on me, just in case the taxi can’t process credit cards. Or, as happened to me in Singapore, they didn’t take Visa cards, and my Master Card (from South Africa) is a Debit Card, which is blocked for international use anyway ( because the Saffer Government is hell-bent on not joining the global economy, and thinks that my money is their money… but that’s another post)
Oh yes, back to my story about loathing taxi’s and my Singapore experience.
In Singapore, the taxi stops, I ask them if they take credit cards, they say yes. I double check, “It’s a VISA card ? ”
Yes, yes says the driver impatiently. I climb in.
Upon arrival at Fuji Building, and lo and behold, the card won’t process. His machine doesn’t take VISA cards. And now I am stuck, because well you know, in between the international long-haul flight, landing, showering and coming down to the meeting, I haven’t actually had any time to draw actual cash at an actual ATM.
*note to self – make a habit of drawing cash at the airport before exiting*
So, there I was stuck on the side of the road with an irate driver in Singapore, and rapidly approaching the point of being late for my meeting. I was saved, but again, that’s a story for another post.
That has never happened to me with Uber. Never. This app payment story is priceless.I don’t need cash or special open for banking cards. And the driver knows he’s going to get paid, because Uber handles all of that already. No risk to me, and no risk to them.
Also – as a side benefit, I have met the most interesting people using UberX to go to and from my various networking events and meetings.
Here are some highlights ;
– The Civil Engineer who works flexible hours for his main employer, and drives for Uber for a couple of hours in the evening.
– The Brickie who drives for UberX on rainy days and any other day when inclement weather won’t allow him to ply his trade.
– The semi-retired Writer, who also has a room he rents out with AirBnB, and does 2 toastmasters meetings a week to boot. Talk about embracing the digital age!
– The IT Student, who quite frankly drives better than any taxi driver I have come across and told me all about his plans to uplift his coountry once he goes back and starts his offshore IT development business in Pakistan. Ambitious youth, aah I remember it so fondly !
So I say, Uber me baby, Uber me.
At least until something freaky happens, and then I’m out.
Then I’ll be saying : Bring on those self-driving cars.