After forty plus years of cab rides, good, bad, and ugly, here at home and around the world of late I have had several rides with Uber in Sydney, Adelaide, Los Angeles, and Houston.
So far, I like the Uber experience and here is why.
The eight Uber drivers I have met do not want to talk to me. They have not told me jokes. They have not asserted opinions about passers-by, what is on the radio, or the newspaper, or life. They have not asked my opinion in order to tell me theirs.*
The cabin is silent. They do not inflict their taste in radio or CD music on me.
The cars have been clean and tidy. They are not strewn with ‘les choses de vie’ around the driver in a kind of nest.
Cash does not change hands for all is paid as a flat fee ahead of time. We all know that matter is settled.
The car comes and I can see it coming. Not the ‘first available cab’ which may mean none at all. Tricky that when going to the airport for an early flight.
No Uber driver has by word, mien, or deed, shown displeasure at a short ride. They know the ride before I get in the car.
No Uber driver has yet pitched for a tip with a certain edge. And, yes, that has happened in Sydney. See above about short rides.
None has failed the hygiene test by a nose, mine.
No Uber driver has failed to help with luggage.
Nor has an Uber driver taken the long way around for no reason.
Never has the horn been used to announce arrival.
It has been easy to get an Uber during the sacred change-over period.
My experiences are not a sample nor are they numerous, but they are authentic.
As Uber continues I expect it to converge with taxis in the same way Optus has converged on the Telecom level of service after a few years, i.e., between zero and none. So I enjoy it while it lasts.
*Despite the recurrent journalistic trope that cab drivers are in touch with the public pulse, say at election time, I have never believed it, since the ones I encounter do all the talking.
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