Testimonial: UberX

[corktownyuppie]

Hey all...especially for those of you living in Greater Downtown...I cannot tell you how much you need to try out UberX.

I am not getting paid to say this.

I've been living in Detroit for 5 years now [[excepting the 18 years before college.) When I was in Ann Arbor, cab service was reliable, courteous, and affordable. You could call a cab company, set a reservation, they would call your cellphone when they arrived, and then happily take credit card to close out the tab.

When I moved to Detroit I was absolutely shocked at how incompetent and piss-poor the cab service is.

I would call dispatch, and the people answering the phone couldn't pass even the most basic of modern customer service standards. I would ask how long the wait would be, and they would tell me things like, "well between 20 minutes to an hour". I'd reply saying, "that's kind of a large window of time...are you sure you can't narrow that down a bit?"

"NO. Do you want the cab or not?"
"Ok, I'll take it. Just have them call me when they get here so we know to come down."
"Um, no, we don't do that. They'll beep the horn, and if you aren't there in a few minutes, then they'll leave."

What the hell??

Then if I take the cab, they've pulled sh** like not turning on the meter and then throwing out arbitrary fares, like, "that'll be $10" to go from Corktown to Campus Martius.

"Um, that's BS. I'll give you $5 plus tip. Here's my credit card."
"We don't take credit card."

At every stage in the experience, it's a disaster. I've had friends from out of town come in and say the same thing. It's a total embarrassment, IMHO.

==========

So enter this company called, "Uber".

You download an app for your phone, and you link it to a credit card. You order a cab from your phone, the company uses GPS to help you name your location, and it sends the data to the nearest driver -- whom you can follow in real time on a moving map -- to see how far they are.

Then when they arrive, you get a text message to let you know. They already have your phone number, so if there's a problem, they call you.

Then since they already have your credit card, you don't need to waste time paying, and all the fares are automatically calculated.

The only problem has historically been that Uber is f-ing expensive. $20 minimums...and at that price, it's tough for me to make it worth it.

===================

Enter: UberX.

It's the exact same service, except instead of taking a Lincoln Towncar or a Black Navigator, the cars might be smaller sedans. My last two trips were in a Ford Taurus.

And the fares are much cheaper to get around Greater Downtown. Like $5-7.

The last two weekends I've decided to see if I could avoid driving all weekend, and the experience has been phenomenal. When you're factoring in the price of paid parking, plus the pain in the ass of just trying to find parking, deal with traffic, and then the walk from your parking spot to your destination, the $5 starts to look really cheap.

On Friday, for the tree lighting, I got picked up right at my door, taken right to Campus Martius. I hung out there through much of the night, then walked over to Greektown and did some partying. Then I took a ride home at 1 a.m., again with door-to-door service.

On Saturday, I took a trip to the Detroit Opera House for a show, then partied at Detroit Beer Company and closed the bar out. Then UberX'd it home.

Total spent for the weekend was $23.

And when you factor parking costs, plus driving while buzzed, plus dealing with traffic...it was totally worth it.

I'm curious about how others' experience of it and cab companies as well.

[Joseph C. Krause]

I second all of that. Cabs are a horror show and not worth the effort. Regular Uber is a great service but too expensive to use regularly.

UberX is price-competetive with regular cabs, and the quality of the service is in another class. I've complained in here about feeling pressure to move out of Michigan as a visually impaired person longing for better transit, and this service means that I'm likely to stay and fight for it rather than give up and leave.

[canuck]

Sounds pretty damn good.

[sumas]

I hear you about visually impaired. My folks were and so now am I, own a car but have others drive me. Sounds like a good service.

[JBMcB]

Know how you can tell something is really awesome? The competition and/or the government tries to shut them down:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_%2...n_and_approval

Making it easier for customers to shop for and get services? Can't have that!

[eliboyer]

I second the recommendation of UberX. A group of 12 of us employed them on Saturday night and couldn't have been happier. So many advantages to a regular Detroit Taxi...Cleaner, safer, quicker, easier, friendlier. The iPhone app is great - you see your driver's name, face and current location as you're waiting. It gives you a very accurate ETA based on GPS, and allows you to process payment.

[rb336]

I have received emails to sign up as an UberX driver. Don't know why. I thought it was some kind of scam

[WaCoTS]

as a former cabbie, i find this concept interesting, from both sides. i'd be more interested tho to hear testimonials from drivers, on how good it works out for them. yunno, in terms of getting paid correctly, etc.

idk if i like the idea of using my personal car tho. it would have definite upsides, because there is nothing that sucks worse than paying $75 to get your junky cab for the night, only to have it break down and fuck you out of any hope of turning a profit that night. at least i know my personal vehicle isnt ticking like a bomb. but the downside is, my personal vehicle is a small pickup truck, not suited for cab service. even if i had a sedan, i wouldnt feel right without some kind of barrier installed...

[WaCoTS]

Sample Fares:

Downtown to Midtown: $6-7
Royal Oak to Birmingham: $14-16
Royal Oak to Downtown Detroit: $28-31
Downtown Detroit to Detroit Metro Airport: $42-46

wow, thats like double what we were charging when i drove [[a mere 2yrs ago)

err, i mean--awesome! heheh


plus a minimum fare / cancellation fee of $5? hell yeah! i might have to get back into cab driving, haha. nothing pissed me off more than getting nothing but $3 fares to the corner store all night...you'd waste more than that in gas just getting to the pickup point from wherever you were when you took the call. and if nobody was there when you arrived, you were shit out of luck. that happened a LOT. sometimes, you would arrive only to see them getting into another company's cab, who arrived seconds before you. real fuckin nice.

[corktownyuppie]

wow, thats like double what we were charging when i drove [[a mere 2yrs ago)

You were charging $3 to go from downtown to midtown? Wow, that's a steal.

I'll tell you what, though, I'd rather pay the $6 and know the fare in advance rather than have some cabbie try to gouge us for $10 just because we look we might have some money.

Plus, the $6 includes tip. On a $3 cab ride, I'd still tip you $2. So for the extra dollar I get top notch service, a GPS tracker for the cab I ordered, and no bullshit from the driver about using a credit card?

Totally worth it.

[DetroitPlanner]

You were charging $3 to go from downtown to midtown? Wow, that's a steal.

I'll tell you what, though, I'd rather pay the $6 and know the fare in advance rather than have some cabbie try to gouge us for $10 just because we look we might have some money.

Plus, the $6 includes tip. On a $3 cab ride, I'd still tip you $2. So for the extra dollar I get top notch service, a GPS tracker for the cab I ordered, and no bullshit from the driver about using a credit card?

Totally worth it.

You could pay half that and ride the DDOT.

Technically this is a jitney service which is against the law due to them being unregulated.

[Single Malt]

I've used Uber and recently as this weekend UberX for the first time. I do not mind leaving my car in a secure place to take Uber or UberX home. It works great to maneuver around Detroit, especially from Midtown to Corktown and anywhere in between.

I've cabbed it a few times in and around Detroit. Only one bad experience though. But when you need a cab, they are rarely there. And yes, the customer service sucked. With Uber you know when they will arrive, a picture of the driver, their cell number, and how much your fare will be. You are able to split fares and use PayPal. It's a win-win for me.

[Spartan]

Didn't see it mentioned anywhere, so it should be noted also that your first 3 rides on uberX in November are free [[up to $30).

http://blog.uber.com/detuberx

[motz]

I am going to abuse this for my company's holiday party, which is at Motor City Casino. I wasn't looking forward to having to use say, Checker, but now that UberX has rolled out, I will definitely be looking into this for transportation downtown for nights out with the buds.

[corktownyuppie]

You could pay half that and ride the DDOT.

If you get the DDOT to pick me up from the bar at 1 am and take me to my doorstep, I'll be the first person to sign up.

[WaCoTS]

Technically this is a jitney service which is against the law due to them being unregulated.

i was wondering about that...but apparently they don't seem to be worried?

You were charging $3 to go from downtown to midtown? Wow, that's a steal.

I'll tell you what, though, I'd rather pay the $6 and know the fare in advance rather than have some cabbie try to gouge us for $10 just because we look we might have some money.

Plus, the $6 includes tip. On a $3 cab ride, I'd still tip you $2. So for the extra dollar I get top notch service, a GPS tracker for the cab I ordered, and no bullshit from the driver about using a credit card?

Totally worth it.

yeah my meter started at $2.50 if i recall. so short trips often were in the $3.50-$6 range. and most of the time you did not get a tip from the cheap-asses / broke-asses who ride in cabs. or if you did, it was a chinsy "keep the change" type of tip. then again i rarely had to drive downtown/midtown; i was on the west side mostly.

so to sum up, i like the fact that these guys have rolled a tip into their fares. they probably did that knowing how poorly most people tip cabbies in general.

[downtownguy]

I downloaded the app a while ago. I guess that was when all they offered was the black car service and I didn't find it very appealing. But with UberX and the lower fares, it seems hard to pass up. I'll definitely have to try this soon!

[michimoby]

Having been a loyal Uber user in nearly every city I visit, including moments when the ole' MTA is shut down en route to Brooklyn -- it's a fantastic service that is sprouting up other similar offerings. Lyft, Sidecar, Hailo etc. are all disrupting a poorly constructed market, and I've always sensed that places like Detroit [[or Pittsburgh, Cleveland, etc.) with poor taxi coverage will benefit most from the service.

I wouldn't be surprised if you see one of the ride sharing services trying to establish a presence in the metro area in the near future.

[Huggybear]

What kind of background checks do Uber and UberX run? I can't think of any greater source of people to roll than people who drunk hail an unregulated cab service. And what's your recourse?

- These services basically take the position that they their drivers "use their technology" and that they are not responsible for robberies and assaults. California is the one place that so far has required these companies to carry their own liability insurance - but it has also through regulation essentially converted these companies into conventional cab companies.

- In Michigan, these run on someone's personal insurance - which may deny coverage based on commercial operation of a personal vehicle.

- And in a town where people routinely commit insurance fraud and cancel policies right after they show the proof to someone, you're taking some huge chances.

Whatever you think of these services as a consumer, the social statement it makes is that people are so broke that they would use their free time [[and incur risks - assaults, puking in your car, robberies) to supply rides for these prices. Calculate the trip times and then tell me this is a job that pays more than $10-12 an hour.

I'm no fan of conventional taxis, which around here are pretty poor. But then again, I'm not really into binge drinking.

HB

[downtownguy]

^^Those who have used it may chime in and offer more than I know, but when I registered for Uber, they got my name, address and credit card info. No money changes hands. I think that's one reason it appeals to their drivers. I'm pretty sure you can't "hail" one either. That's probably one thing that keeps them [[just barely) this side of the law.

[DetroitPlanner]

Here are just three guys using Lyft. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNM7Z7hir_I

Whats up with the pink 'stache?

[motz]

I definitely used UberX all weekend, both for a date and for when my cousin was in town, and I cannot express how great it was to pay under $30 cab fare to be carted from Midtown/Woodbridge to downtown and back. The drivers were a blast and honestly could not have asked for more. Seriously, if you ever want to get silly and be safe, UberX will help you do that while rolling on a budget.

[BillyBBrew]

I could be wrong, but having been recruited as an UberX driver, I was told the minimum fare is $10. Also, tip, if desired, is NOT included in the fare. The benefit for Uber, the passenger and the driver is that it's a cashless transaction and you know it's somewhat secure. The disadvantage for the driver is that it's a cashless transaction, Uber takes 20%, and with no cash, there are not many tips. Tip money comes in handy when you are washing your vehicle, supplying your own GPS, etc. Regarding puking in car, damage to car. Uber does have a policy that if there's a problem with a fare damaging the vehicle, you report it and I assume they contact the customer and if they don't agree to arrangements, tack the cost of repair/cleaning onto the credit card used for the fare. Interesting reading about this.

[corktownyuppie]

I could be wrong, but having been recruited as an UberX driver, I was told the minimum fare is $10. Also, tip, if desired, is NOT included in the fare. The benefit for Uber, the passenger and the driver is that it's a cashless transaction and you know it's somewhat secure. The disadvantage for the driver is that it's a cashless transaction, Uber takes 20%, and with no cash, there are not many tips. Tip money comes in handy when you are washing your vehicle, supplying your own GPS, etc. Regarding puking in car, damage to car. Uber does have a policy that if there's a problem with a fare damaging the vehicle, you report it and I assume they contact the customer and if they don't agree to arrangements, tack the cost of repair/cleaning onto the credit card used for the fare. Interesting reading about this.

Uber is $10 minimum. UberX is $5.

Tips are not expected....not because it's a cashless transaction...but because the driver keeps 80% of the fare, which is very competitive compared to most taxi companies.

I don't know if Uber will survive in its current form 5 years from now. But I can definitely see a scenario where Uber either rents or sells the technology to other cab companies.

Honestly, I don't really care which cab company drives me around. If I can hire them with a phone app, track the driver en route to my house, and then pay the driver with the credit card already on file? I'll hire them.

[downtownguy]

I have a few trips with UberX under my belt now, and all I can say is that it's miles ahead [[pun) of a regular cab. I love the certainty of knowing just how far away in distance and time your ride is and not having to exchange cash. If the driver is unsure of exactly where you are [[one pickup was in the RenCen), they call you. No more having to wait outside a restaurant for your cab to show up, not knowing if they were even coming.

One downside is last Sunday morning no cars were available. But getting regular cabs on Sundays is not easy either, especially when its snowing. I called Checker and was on hold for several minutes. Eventually, I tried Uber again, and a car was available. Other downside is that they don't take reservations for a ride ahead of time. But again, the alternative is a regular cab, and having a reservation with them is no guarantee that they'll show up.