Taxi vs Uber: A Comparison of Conveyance Services

This report compares the advantages and disadvantages of using taxi and Uber services. It discusses the facilities offered by both services, their differences, and a comparison between them. The report also highlights the impact of taxi and Uber services on society and the environment. The report is from a passenger's perspective and provides insights into the taxi and Uber services. The report is relevant for anyone interested in the transportation industry and the impact of new technologies on it.

Taxi Cab Industry
Incubator Innovation and New Technologies
Innovation and New technologies
Name of the Author
University Name-

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Current report under study unveils the two conveyance sources that are widely used
by public nowadays. The whole research subject revolves around the taxi and uber services.
The initial part of report deals with the meaning of both the services in the introduction
section. The report is leaded by the facilities offered by both the facilities and their
advantages and disadvantages. Later in report a comparison is made between both the
services highlighting the advantages one offer over the other. However the whole topic is
taken from a single perspective and any reader may have a different one. These two
incubators are the key persons who take the strategic approach to implement the effective
business approach. However, with the changes in technologies, every incubators and
entrepreneurs needs to adapt with the economic changes by undertaking the new technologies
and strategic program.
INTRODUCTION
With the ramified economic changes, many incubator and entrepreneurs are tapping
the market with their business ideas and research plans. These incubators have object to
create value on the investment and create strong brand image in long run. As evident from
surveys and recent researches, taxi and uber are two most important transportation services
used by people nowadays. Basically, a taxi service works on a contractual basis by getting a
contract from the local government body to work in a particular area, town or city. In this
facility, the customer needs to make a call to the company that have got the contract to put a
request for a taxi. The pickup location and drop destination are the details that are required to
be mentioned. The company after getting the request call put forward the same to a driver
who is active at that moment to pick and drop the passenger. Usually, the payment is
collected by the driver at the end of ride on behalf of the company. Out of the whole payment
received, the driver is bound to receive certain fixed percentage (Cramer, & Krueger, (2016).
Uber on the other hand gets no contract from government. A company on its own end
work area wise and an application is used by the company as a portal from where the
passengers can book an uber service for themselves or someone else. The people who want to
work for the company offer voluntarily to work. When the company accepts them to work
for it, they present their availability or non-availability as and when required. The customer
who wants an uber uses the app to book a ride for him and enters the pickup and drop

location therein. As and when the ride is confirmed, the details of the driver are shared with
the passenger and vice versa. Later the cab arrives and the ride is undertaken. The payment
can be made by the passenger either electronically through online portal on app or can be
deducted from online wallets or could even be paid in cash to the driver. A certain
percentage of the payment is then transferred to the driver (Christensen, Raynor, &
McDonald, 2015).
ADVANTAGES OF USING A TAXI
The main advantage that a taxi has is that as the taxi is hired through a company
contracted by government it has to follow the rules and regulations that are more strict and
rigorous. This turns out to be a benefit to the customer as his trip is assured and chances of
cancellation or delay are less. The taxi is insured well and the customer is offered higher level
of flexibility in a manner that he or she is able to change the route or the destination or add
destinations for the duration the taxi is booked by him or her. Along with it, the passenger is
able to add more passengers along the route. Further if the passenger like the driving skills of
a particular driver, he can request to get the services from the same driver in future. The Taxi
business has been gaining momentum throughout the time which reflects that if new rivals
come up in the taxi business industry with their advance technologies then they might beat up
the market (Cannon, & Summers, 2014).
As the people hired by company are mostly local, they have more knowledge about
the local routes and short cuts. Further, the tests taken by the companies before hiring drivers
are more tough and vetting for the drivers. As a result the quality of drivers is far better than
other services. The cost of taxi is usually same at all times and no surge costs are there. Uber
and Ola are consistently giving the tough completion to each other in market and infusing the
advance technologies to strengthen the market share on international level (Wallsten, 2015).
ADVANTAGES OF USING AN UBER
As an app portal is used for booking rides, the customer is able to get full details of
the driver as soon as a ride is booked. Ratings are also visible. The ride status can be shared
by the passenger to be used as a safety tool if any emergency situation arises. Further, there is
a facility available with the passengers to review the drivers and if several complaints are
made regarding a particular driver, the company even block that particular person to be an
Uber driver (Cohen, & Kietzmann, 2014). An important advantage is getting a hassle free

payment option, as the facility to pay by debit or credit cards or online net banking is also
available apart from cash payment. This makes the passenger travel without any cash
handling. Sharing the cab facility is also available when an uber is booked, which makes it
cheaper for the passenger. Online tracking facility of uber is offered through the app from
where the passenger can witness whether the driver is using correct route or not (Scholz,
2016).
DISADVANTAGES OF USING A TAXI
Being an offline passenger conveyance service, there is no system of online tracking
of the ride status. At the same time, there is mostly cash payment facility and the online
payment methods are usually not available. The profile of driver is not known before the
same arrives to pick (Morgan, 2014). The time taken by taxis in arrival is sometimes high and
cannot be tracked. The passengers can review about the driver to the company only; new
passengers shall get no ratings or reviews regarding the driver they are provided with. Less
variety of cars is available to ride. There are high chances of passengers being robbed as the
ride is not tracked even on the company side. The main impact of Taxi business on society
would be high pollution and increased exploitation of the natural resources (Sarasini, &
Langeland, (2017). This has shown that if the proper eco system and systematic work process
is not taken then the taxi cab business not only impact the environment in negative manner
but also makes hard for the people to breath in environment.
DISADVANTAGES OF USING AN UBER
Option to add additional passengers in way is possible only when a non-sharing uber
is booked and passengers are in the same route or multiple destinations are added. Uber
charge surge pricing at the time of high demands during peak hours and at the time of high
demands. Sometimes the expected fare that is shown is far lower than what is charged and the
end payment made by the customer is way too high due to the surge. Many a times, it
happens that the uber drivers are not local ones and have no clue regarding the local areas and
its surroundings (Boesenkopf, 2017).They completely rely on GPS service for the routing and
for reaching their pickup location. Due to this, the passenger needs to wait more than
estimated time shown in the application. There is less proficiency when it comes to uber
drivers as they are not rigorously tested. In addition to this, in context with the society, many
entrepreneurs are tapping the cab business with their advance technologies. However, the

main negative impact of taxi industry business is related to the destruction of environment
due to high pollution (Timeus, Vinaixa, Pardo-Bosch, & Ysa, 2017).
WHY TO USE A TAXI OVER UBER?
Using a taxi service like owning a car for the time you have booked it or for the
number of kilometres it is booked for. The passenger is not bound for a single drop or for
being a single traveller. The passenger can add as much as locations as he wishes for and
bring other passengers too along or within his route if he desires so. Taxis being more
conventional than uber cabs offer more flexibility and ease. The maintenance of cars offered
by taxi companies is more frequent and regular. As earlier discussed, taxis are somewhere
cheaper than uber rides in case of high demands when the uber starts charging surges.
Comparatively, even in normal days taxis tend to be cheaper in case when the passenger
needs to book rides for shorter distance (Cassetta, Marra, Pozzi, & Antonelli, 2017).
When uber share is used, sometimes the passengers are taken longer times to be dropped off
due to non-opting of best and shorter routes by the uber drivers. They hassle up different drop
locations and end up messing the best route. As taxi services are in work from a generation
earlier than uber, their drivers are much more experienced than the uber drivers. The whole
uber service work on internet functionality, any breakdown in internet service can ruin the
whole system of bookings. Taxi booking being an offline affair is out of the internet trauma
and hence available always at a simple call (Dalaman, & Marsap, 2017).
Driver ratings and reviews are recorded on uber application; likewise the customer streaks are
also maintained. It means that a customer profile is also maintained that inculcates the ratings
given to the customer by the driver, the number of cancellations done by the customer after
booking, the number of times the customer has delayed the ride and etc. There is no log
maintained in the offline taxi booking mode. The customer is always treated as a new one and
is tried to serve as best as possible (Ganguly, Das, & Farr, 2017).
However, if we see from a driver’s perspective, taxi companies seems to provide regular and
full day employment to the drivers hired by them. They are employed not as a part time
worker but as permanent employees of the company. Whereas when an uber is considered,
the drivers flag their availability as per their convenience. It’s flexible on their part whether to
ride for a certain day, hour, and ride or not (Kushida, 2015).

CONCLUSION
The whole write up of report is mostly from the view point of a passenger and the public.
Different ideas can seem appropriate if the companies or the driver’s views are taken into
consideration. Although the report places more emphasis on taxi services, certain parameters
regarding uber services are also discussed. Now in the end, it could be inferred that various
incubators are tapping the economic with their business ideas and start-ups. However, these
all business ideas have positive and negative impact on the society. In case of taxi business,
many entrepreneurs are tapping the cab business with their advance technologies. The main
negative impact of taxi industry business is related to the destruction of environment due to
high pollution.

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