New Flat Rates from DT and Pier-91
Beginning May 1st, the flat rate from P-91 to Sea-Tac will be $55.00.
From Downtown, beginning June 1st, the flat rate to Sea-Tac will be $45.00.
Taxi Brothers and Sisters, that is a lot of rides
I find this statistic astounding, that Uber and Lyft provides over 170 thousand rides daily in a city with a population of 808,000. That translates into almost one-fifth of everyone living in San Francisco daily taking a ride-share trip to where ever they might be going. From my personal experience driving taxi in similarly sized Seattle, we never came close to providing that many rides in a given day. Even if the demand was there, our overall number of cabs would have never been able to keep up.
Someone with a better mathematical mind than I have needs to tell me just how many TNC operators are needed to provide 170,000 rides. I do know that by 2015, one year after Uber and Lyft were allowed to operate legally in Seattle and King County, there were over 28,000 TNC drivers vs our more or less 1500 City and County cabs. In a 2016 CBS News report, it said there were 45,000 Uber drivers in San Francisco vs 1,800 local taxis. Compounding that reality for both Seattle and San Francisco was Uber's then much lower rate structures, underselling the price of a ride. Of course, once they had essentially killed off taxi, Uber substantially raised its rates.
As 170,000 rides figure illustrates, Uber and Lyft rules San Francisco's personal transportation industry. While it was just reported that Waymo robotaxis provided 530,000 rides from September 2023-February 2024 in San Francisco, it is nothing in comparison to Uber and Lyft's numbers. In a 31-day month, Uber and Lyft provides 5,270,000 rides. That is a crazy number of trips. Who can compete with that number of passenger-generated rides? Certainly not the cabbies in San Francisco. As I have said too many times, Uber won the transportation wars. Taxi is roadkill, run over and smashed into the asphalt.
New GoFundMe effort for the late Dennis Roberts
Many of you might remember that our famous taxi colleague, Dennis Roberts, succumbed to the COVID-19 virus in April 2020, an early victim to that terrible disease. A first GoFundMe effort assisted in paying for his cremation. Now, on this upcoming May 14th, I will be burying his ashes next to his mother at Woodlawn Cemetery in Columbia Falls, Montana. I am taking care of my own expenses and would like some help with the $600.00 for burial and headstone. Donate what you can.
https://www.gofundme.com/honoring-dennis-roberts-a-cabbies-final-journey
Or you can send a check to me: Joe Blondo, POB 20023, Seattle, WA 98102
Is This Really Gonna Happen?
I have been assured that the much anticipated dispatch merger between Farwest Taxi and Eastside-for-Hire will be complete by the end of April. More details when I know them. You might remember, I once reported a possible merger between Farwest and Yellow. It never happened.
Still Dreaming about Taxi
Yesterday morning, I dreamt that a person minus any taxi experience, was going to take over Seattle taxi. I grabbed him by one arm, my friend Chris taking the other, and we escorted him out of the door, roughing him up. This being a dream, he kind of evaporated in our arms. We took care of him! the a-hole!
Some TNC Drivers Don't Know Much about Passenger Liability
In late June, I am going to need a ride from Silver City, New Mexico to the local airport. It is located a number of miles outside of town in the middle of the countryside. Advanced Air, the only airline serving Silver City/Grant County, gave me the telephone number of the only Uber/Lyft driver in the area. Calling him, he said he also takes cash. When I asked him if he had commercial insurance, he got mad. I told him if an accident occurs, there would be no coverage. He didn't like hearing any of this. He is in denial. But reality is reality, and in this case reality could bite this guy in the butt. Same thing in Seattle. Too many times I watched passengers at King Street Station and Pier 66 climb into ride-share cars minus the app. When will the dumbbell drivers ever learn?
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