What's your Uber experience?

[trippin_the_rift]

And because uberX drivers generally own their cars it's always very well taken care of and they genuinely want to help you if you lose something. You also have the drivers phone#.

If the taxi biz wants to equal the plying field I want to see taxi standards brought up to the higher safety level that uber offers....for less$

 

[24601]

I've never used Uber and, given I don't use a smart phone probably won't. But so far I have never had a bad experience with a taxi driver in Australia. A relative did once (taxi at rank stank of smoke so she got out and went to the next one back in the line which lead to the two drivers starting a fist fight). The guys outside CGK were really boring and unpleasant - not that I used them, but even overseas they've tended to be pretty well ok too.

Hopefully posting this won't cause my luck to end..

 

[TheRealTMA]

But so far I have never had a bad experience with a taxi driver in Australia.

Remarkable. Colleague of mine put overseas visitors in a taxi in Ashgrove and said to taxi driver, 'to to the airport please'. And diver said 'Sorry, where's that?'. Sigh. The numbers of times in Brisbane we get taxi drivers who do not know the city, have no idea where they are going, and spend the trip on the their phone is becoming very unacceptable.

The taxi industry have no one to blame but themselves. They (taxi companies) have let standards fall dramatically in recent years, just to make a quick buck, and now I'm really not happy to book a standard taxi.

Sorry. YMMV.

 

[Pushka]

Remarkable. Colleague of mine put overseas visitors in a taxi in Ashgrove and said to taxi driver, 'to to the airport please'. And diver said 'Sorry, where's that?'. Sigh. The numbers of times in Brisbane we get taxi drivers who do not know the city, have no idea where they are going, and spend the trip on the their phone is becoming very unacceptable.

The taxi industry have no one to blame but themselves. They (taxi companies) have let standards fall dramatically in recent years, just to make a quick buck, and now I'm really not happy to book a standard taxi.

Sorry. YMMV.

I was collected from my house and asked to go to the airport. For anyone who knows Adelaide I live off Greenhill Road. Which is a straight line to the airport with just a right then left turn about 1 k from the airport.

 

[Buzzard]

I was collected from my house and asked to go to the airport. For anyone who knows Adelaide I live off Greenhill Road. Which is a straight line to the airport with just a right then left turn about 1 k from the airport.

What happened Pushka, your story seems unfinished?
As you know I live up the road from you. Friends who caught a taxi to our place from the airport ended up being driven down the freeway towards Hahndorf which then resulted in a big argument with the driver re the fare.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Uber Black
Downtown LA- LAX
S Class Merc $95

Couldn't fault the service, immaculate car and good driver.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Used Uber in San Francisco last year. Got the train out to Mountain View and then a standard Taxi to Google. Driver was very pleasant but cab was pretty shabby (verging on dirty). Taxi driver was unable to find the building ( couldn't totally blame him as it is a pretty sprawling campus). We ended up getting out and walking around until we found it. After our visit, Master FM suggested we Uber back and he used his app to get a car for us. It arrived very promptly, newish car in excellent condition took us straight to the station and price was about 1/2 that of the taxi. Used Uber again the next day in downtown San Francisco. Once again quite impressed. Since coming back to Australia we have used Uber Black in Melbourne - once again very prompt and courteous driver - not expensive for what it was, although more than a standard taxi.

i don't drive and have used taxis for many years and I don't feel all that comfortable in taxis anymore. Often the photo doesn't match the photo of the person driving, I have been told that I am at my destination when I know I am not. in Melbourne last year I saw the driver turn off the meter and then tell me it wan't working - I just paid I was so relieved to get out of the cab (which wasn't at my hotel, but apparently it was too hard to get to it (the Westin) - happy to walk - felt safer on the street than in the cab!). So yes I am sure there will be problems with Uber drivers, but there are already problems with Taxi drivers.

 

[eric2011]

There are many stories of taxi drivers and there meters.

If you are from Brisbane you will know where I am talking about, I got into my taxi at Eagle street Pier on a dark and rainy night and wanted to go to the Novotel Hotel. Driver looked at me and said thats only a short trip, I said Yes I know. Got to the hotel and the driver told me to make the fare $20. I said I will pay whats on the meter, he said no just make it the $20. Once again I said I will pay whats on the meter and by this stage mrsEric and I were standing outside the cab talking through the open door. He replied that he hadn't turned the meter on.....I said, thats what I will pay, and walked away. I can still here the language (Indian) as I walked through the hotel foyer.

I do that trip quite often and the most I have ever paid, on the meter is $7. I guess the moral of the story is....don't try to rip of a local

 

[Pushka]

What happened Pushka, your story seems unfinished?
As you know I live up the road from you. Friends who caught a taxi to our place from the airport ended up being driven down the freeway towards Hahndorf which then resulted in a big argument with the driver re the fare.

I told him where to go

 

[trippin_the_rift]

There are many stories of taxi drivers and there meters.

If you are from Brisbane you will know where I am talking about, I got into my taxi at Eagle street Pier on a dark and rainy night and wanted to go to the Novotel Hotel. Driver looked at me and said thats only a short trip, I said Yes I know. Got to the hotel and the driver told me to make the fare $20. I said I will pay whats on the meter, he said no just make it the $20. Once again I said I will pay whats on the meter and by this stage mrsEric and I were standing outside the cab talking through the open door. He replied that he hadn't turned the meter on.....I said, thats what I will pay, and walked away. I can still here the language (Indian) as I walked through the hotel foyer.

I do that trip quite often and the most I have ever paid, on the meter is $7. I guess the moral of the story is....don't try to rip of a local

Ive had very similar experiences in cities all over the world with taxis.

I took 11 uberx trips in Singapore this week and all were perfect and exactly what one wants from a driver service.

Was forced to take 2 taxis one wanted $20 from Hilton to Clarke quay and the other had no idea where Hilton was..

The plus side for taxi in Singapore is that they r generally clean and fares can often be under $5

 

[dajop]

IWas forced to take 2 taxis one wanted $20 from Hilton to Clarke quay and the other had no idea where Hilton was..

Wow re number 1. In hundreds of journeys I've never had one that hasn't just turned on the meter. If that happened I would insist on meter or suggest I would report to the company.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Wow re number 1. In hundreds of journeys I've never had one that hasn't just turned on the meter. If that happened I would insist on meter or suggest I would report to the company.

Tried that but it was 4am. The taxi behind him was happy to do meter.

 

[Isochronous]

There are many stories of taxi drivers and there meters.

If you are from Brisbane you will know where I am talking about, I got into my taxi at Eagle street Pier on a dark and rainy night and wanted to go to the Novotel Hotel. Driver looked at me and said thats only a short trip, I said Yes I know. Got to the hotel and the driver told me to make the fare $20. I said I will pay whats on the meter, he said no just make it the $20. Once again I said I will pay whats on the meter and by this stage mrsEric and I were standing outside the cab talking through the open door. He replied that he hadn't turned the meter on.....I said, thats what I will pay, and walked away. I can still here the language (Indian) as I walked through the hotel foyer.

I do that trip quite often and the most I have ever paid, on the meter is $7. I guess the moral of the story is....don't try to rip of a local

Reminds me of a trip to Tianjin once. Westin to the railway station is RMB15-20. Saw my foreign face and in broken English tried to ask me for RMB100. Argued back in Mandarin and told him I did the trip yesterday and I knew it was only 15. Still didn't turn on the meter. Then he tried to tell me that he just heard on the radio that all the train tickets to Beijing had sold out for the day, and wanted me to hire him to drive me all the way back from Tianjin to Beijing. I declined and got to the train station, got out, took my luggage from the boot, handed him a RMB 10 note and walked away.

He probably would have made an extra RMB10 if he turned on the meter and hadn't tried to rip me off.

 

[opusman]

Used UberX for the first time in Melbourne. The car was a Toyota Prado, in good condition. Driver friendly and professional. He was literally 100 metres away when I requested it through the app so did a u-turn and was with us in about 30 seconds.

The fare ended up being $17.39 (Balaclava to CBD at 9pm on a Saturday). Taxi fare estimator shows $25 for the same journey.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

I agree with the sentiment about the taxi industry bringing this on themselves. If you ignore your customers long enough and give them bad service out of poorly maintained, dirty vehicles delivered with the stench of aged body odour, eventually someone will come along and do it better.
Add to this the absolute rort that is Cabcharge 10% for processing a card (in modern times, how the hell else do you pay?) and it's a case of "you've made your bed, now lie in it".
I've only used Uber standard taxi and Uber black (preferred) and Uber Lux, but overall it's been excellent.
Only on one occasion our Uber taxi picked up someone else (100m up the road) but I was comforted to know Uber charge the driver $10 or something when they do that, discouraging the behaviour.

 

[justcallmeryan]

I agree with the sentiment about the taxi industry bringing this on themselves. If you ignore your customers long enough and give them bad service out of poorly maintained, dirty vehicles delivered with the stench of aged body odour, eventually someone will come along and do it better.
Add to this the absolute rort that is Cabcharge 10% for processing a card (in modern times, how the hell else do you pay?) and it's a case of "you've made your bed, now lie in it".

+1 to this comment, and this is exactly why I have no problem using UBER, in all shape or forms. The taxi industry is broken, and has delivered a sub-standard service for so long that something like this was bound to happen. Times have changed and if they want to survive, then they need to change as well.

 

[blackcat20]

Used UberX from SFO to the city tonight. $30 for a new BMW and a very friendly driver; would've cost more for the two of us to catch a shuttle and we'd have had to make stops.

 

[Mrmaxwell]

Does anyone know the background as to why you cannot request UberX for pickup at Sydney Airport?

Also where are the loopholes? Besides walking outside the SAC perimeter...

 

[Milefest]

Also where are the loopholes? Besides walking outside the SAC perimeter...

What you can do is select o'riordan st for pick up and call the driver to let them know where you are within the airport. I find a good place for them to pick me up is on ninth st which is a 5 minute walk out of the terminal. The public pick up is usually too busy when I'm there

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

Used UberPool in SF, Uber in Chicago and Santa Barbara.

Chicago Uber driver is getting burned out, lots of shorts trip causing a big of wear and tear on his car, he is getting a new job.
UberPool was introduced by a mate in the VC business.

Cheers
BF