[ad_1]
When driving a taxi in a shrinking city, it's worth being laid back. It is perhaps for this reason that the owner of the Jeff Hill taxi company is not very stressed by the official arrival of Uber in Alabama this weekend. end.
"A little competition might not be so bad," said Hill. "Maybe I can also remove the meters from my cars and get cheaper insurance."
Hill is the owner of AAA City Taxi in Anniston. Every day, he says, he offers trips to 50 to 75 clients – many of whom are retired, unable to drive and en route to doctor's appointments. For years, he has heard of the potential coming of Uber, the smartphone-based carpool service that is supposed to make it obsolete.
Sunday is the big day, at least on paper. Uber, the best-known carpool service, says the service will go into service even in the smaller towns of the state on Sunday.
"Uber is proud to launch throughout Alabama, This allows more people to access convenient tricks by pressing a button and earn money at their own pace Kasra Moshkani, director of Uber Southeast, said in a statement prepared by the company last week.Uber, it's like hailing a traditional taxi, but instead of calling on the phone and to pay with money or a card, the driver finds a driver and pays via a smartphone app .. Drivers use their own cars, working as independent contractors.
In smaller towns like Anniston and Talladega – and rural counties without a big city – it is possible that runners open the Uber Sunday application and find no driver ready to pick them up. 19659003] "If you do the math, operate in these rural areas only works just not in. ur the driver, "said Caroline Rodier, a researcher at the Institute for Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis.
Rodier is one of the few researchers who have studied the use of carpool services in rural areas. Uber does not provide data on the number of drivers registered in a specific area, said company officials at The Star. Rodier said that much of his information on availability is collected from users.
Rodier did his research in the San Joaquin Valley, home to some considerable towns but known mainly for large tracts of vegetable farms. She found that the distances involved made drivers reluctant to travel to low population areas. The problem: the meter starts to operate when the passenger comes in, and drivers eat the cost they travel a long time to take a ticket. It's sometimes even a city problem in the suburbs.
"Once I was in Los Angeles, trying to take a ride, and I let myself down because I was heading for Costa Mesa," Rodier said. "They were not sure that they would be able to find a fare for the return trip."
Costa Mesa is a suburb about 40 miles from Los Angeles.
The company's leaders acknowledged last week that it could take "In the new service areas, drivers and drivers are likely to learn yet about Uber, so there may be long waiting times, "company spokeswoman Evangeline George wrote in an e-mail to the star. "As more and more people are learning about the opportunity to make money with Uber, we believe that the reliability of journeys in rural areas will increase in the coming weeks and months."
Uber was already operating in Birmingham and in other major cities of Alabama. the law took effect.
Anniston, with a population of about 22,000, has not always been so fortunate with application-based transportation options. Lime Bike, a bike sharing service, has signed agreements with Jacksonville, Oxford and Anniston in February and March to provide bike rental service in the area. The bikes have not arrived yet.
"If they came to small towns, I doubt they'll make any money," said Billy Humphrey, who ran BC Taxi in Talladega for the last time. 38 years old. Humphries picks up about 40 rates a day, averaging over the month. Business is better at the beginning of the month, when pay checks come in. Most trips are at the bank or at Walmart. At the end of the month, he said, the cases are usually dead.
BC Taxi's customers may not overlap much with the users of urban apps that have been established here in Ubers. Still, Humphrey has seen the competition from the company. In the past two years, he said, carpool drivers showed up in April and October to serve fans at Talladega Superspeedway races. Humphrey puts a point of honor in putting his business cards in hotels until Pell City before the race week, but that does not help anymore to compete with Uber and Lyft.
"I probably did not get 10 awards this year," he said.
Rodier said that there are non-profit organizations like Uber in some rural areas, such as the Volunteer Transportation Center in the state of New York, which recruit drivers to transport people to Appointment for a small fee. In recent years, according to news sources, a company called Liberty Mobility Now has attempted to provide ridesharing in rural areas of western Mississippi. Liberty seems to be bankrupt now; his website still exists, with no content or contact information.
Alabama runners have up to now the choice of only two ridesharing services. According to officials from the Public Service Commission, Uber and his rival Lyft were both approved for carpooling last week. No other agency has yet been authorized.
The Star's attempts to join Lyft for comment last week failed.
Capitol & State reporter Tim Lockette: 256-294-4193. On Twitter @TLockette_Star .
[ad_2]
Source link
