Multinational mobile taxi apps crush their vile enemies: classic dispatching. Taxi drivers are gradually leaving the dispatching centers, as the number of customers who request the taxi is rapidly decreasing.
None of the taxi dispatchers want to talk about it officially, but it is enough to take a ride through the evening Prague. “I am leaving the dispatching, I am just finishing my notice period,” says Mirek, 55, who has been a taxi driver for nearly ten years.
In a well-kept and clean Octavia, marked as a taxi, it still has a taxi dispatcher card on a dashboard but arrives on order through the Uber mobile app. He is on-site within two minutes of confirming the request on his mobile.
Uber has benefited from the protests
We are talking about recent protests by Prague taxi drivers against Uber and similar companies. “The protests just brought new customers to the company. Older people who were afraid of mobile apps have also learned to use them. Most people don’t like classic taxi drivers, so they came to taste with Uber and others. It drives for a clear price, the customer knows it in advance and I also know that I will get paid, ” summarizes Mirek. He says he is happy because he enjoys driving and being with people.
“The headquarters had distributed up to ten thousand rides a day, now it´s about three thousand. They would be screwed if it wasn’t for the airport, ” said Mirek. However, less work in dispatching is also a consequence of the fact that even classic taxis had to go with the trend and introduce mobile applications.
According to Mirek, “guys” are lamenting now, as the season has not yet begun. “Yeah, they’ll earn 150,000 a month during the summer, but they have to pay the car, they have to pay the dispatching, whether they have the business or not, and it’s 50,000 a month. In addition, there is so much of them, so they nibble their nails before the holidays. That’s not for me.”
Mirek has it all worked out. In the course of a week, Uber takes a quarter of the fare for the first fifty rides and only ten percent for each additional ride above that limit.
Every new week starts from scratch. It motivates taxi drivers to drive. “ Monday to Wednesday, I mainly go out in the morning when people need to get to work and to the authorities. These are short drives from street to street for a few crowns. And so Uber’s commission is not big. And on Thursday, Friday, Saturday I drive longer nights, which Uber does not take away so much.
“There are no problems with the law. “By confirming an order on your mobile phone, you are replacing the signature on an automatically created transportation contract. And prices change according to the situation, but the customer sees it in advance. If there are high demand and few cars, the price rises; if there are fewer customers, especially in the morning, the price falls, “says Mirek.
You can drive even for half the price
Ordering is quick and easy. The satellite will assign the car closest to the customer, and the person sees the taxi approaching on the app. In turn, the client can evaluate the driver and vice versa so you can find out who people value and trust. No arguing and no guessing.
We are testing about 20 km route from Smíchov railway station for Prague. The classic taxi driver parked in front of the station estimates it to be 650 crowns.” No thanks. Uber drives me for 330 crowns, “I say goodbye to the “yellow” taxi driver.
The offer of two other applications was similar. However, you can take a more expensive ride even in “uber”, in addition to the already mentioned peak pricing, it happens when you order an expensive black limousine. But the popular pop class is good enough.
Taxi applications are good news for the municipality. It would soon be unnecessary for taxi control officers to be needed, and satellite applications will be guarding them. And perhaps a tax office with an automatic withholding tax will join in once, so taxing taxi drivers will no longer be a problem and no questions will be raised whether or not they drive “legally”.
