It's Time to Welcome Uber to Jacksonville

[Tacachale]

I'm sorry, but other than the large size of Uber I don't see how it differs much from other cab companies.

[Josh]

I'm sorry, but other than the large size of Uber I don't see how it differs much from other cab companies.

Have you ever used Uber?

[Tacachale]

^Yes, many times. I meant I don't see how these downsides are different for Uber than for any other cab company. In most cases drivers either have to own and maintain their own cars (like with Uber) or pay someone to use them. And I'm pretty sure that any cab company will be taking a big cut of the fair.

[Ajax]

Uber got some really bad publicity during the hostage crisis in Sydney the other day, but I don't have a problem with the way they handled it. 

http://www.cato.org/blog/economics-uber-surge-pricing?utm_source=Cato+Institute+Emails&utm_campaign=9ddcdeb102-Cato_Today&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_395878584c-9ddcdeb102-141340473&mc_cid=9ddcdeb102&mc_eid=094e06e7c6

[Noone]

2014-665 active legislation before the city council that will be voted on before the next election cycle. Does anyone else feel sorry for the Baltimore guys 2014-412? Now let's crush Uber and Lyft.
I say support Uber and Lyft in Jacksonville.
What is the position of the Mayor and city council candidates in the March election?
Does anyone know of anyone's position? Seriously.

[urbanlibertarian]

I don't know what's in this legislation but I'll bet it props up the status quo at the expense of consumer choice and innovation.

[finehoe]

Interesting article from Philly on being an Uber driver:  http://citypaper.net/uberdriver/

[jaxjaguar]

Florida legislature continues to put this off. Here's a chance to show them there are plenty of people who use this service and want it's legality addressed.

http://petition.uber.org/florida/

[urbanlibertarian]

Montana decides to embrace Uber and Lyft.

http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/new-legislation-paves-the-way-for-uber-and-lyft-to/article_2b48046e-6b96-5207-8607-ffcfebf22c7f.html

Whole article here: http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/new-legislation-paves-the-way-for-uber-and-lyft-to/article_2b48046e-6b96-5207-8607-ffcfebf22c7f.html

[David]

Are there any drivers for Uber on here? Thought about doing it for some extra cash in the evening to supplement my full time job. But anytime you have to use your own car for work it can quickly offset the money you make. 

[ProjectMaximus]

I don't think there's much room for profit. I briefly considered doing this if I was able to only select the rides I wanted (based on what I was doing and where I was going) but I quickly found that this was not possible. (As a driver you don't get to know the passenger's destination til you get to them and you can't reject more than about 10% of the requests you receive)

[CCMjax]

Are there any drivers for Uber on here? Thought about doing it for some extra cash in the evening to supplement my full time job. But anytime you have to use your own car for work it can quickly offset the money you make.

I have a buddy who does it here in town for some extra money on the side.  He said it's worked out pretty well so far.

[simms3]

Note that a huge chunk of the drivers in San Francisco for all of the ridesharing apps are from Sacramento.  They come into SF at night/weekends and they don't do it back in Sacramento because there is no margin for them there.  Sacramento is a considerably larger/denser city than Jacksonville.  I would guess that means that there is little to no profit in there for Jax.

[David]

I would do it very part time, Uber would make job # 3 haha. (I rate websites/google search results for leapforce.com for job # 2 but it's very repetitive) I hear the rides around Riverside & downtown can be very short, you're only earning 4-5 bucks a pop. There's long drives out to the airport but you're not allowed to pick up from there, at least not for uber x.

Looks like there's tons of uber drivers on the road right now. Good for the rider, probably bad for making money as a driver.

[simms3]

I want to say that you really only make money during surge pricing.  What is max surge and how often is there at least 2x pricing?  I rarely pay below 1.5x and at night during bar shuffles or during rush hour I easily pay 3x.  During special events or huge concerts it can rise to a ridiculous 6-9x.  These are when drivers earn money.  Otherwise they are floating costs.  $4-5 a trip?  That gets me 5 blocks at best even without surge. Even in Jax that's not making anybody any money.