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Using Uber to get from/to airport

Has anyone used Uber (a ride sharing service) to get from/to an airport? It might be a good alternative for expensive taxi rides…

The service seem to have some advantages over traditional taxis.
Rates are way cheaper than official taxi services. Also, when you request a car, you will know details like name of the driver, type of the car, current location of ordered car, etc. beforehand. Payment is done automatically via a credit card charge, so no need to carry cash.

The quality might be variable, but so is the quality of “official” taxis.

Biggest problem might be the availability. In some countries the use of Uber is restricted, mostly because existing taxi companies are taking legal actions against it…

My worst experience with taxis was in Brussels earlier this year, where I had to get from the city center to Grimbergen EBGB (small airfield, 17km from city center, about 30 min drive).
Instead of driving the fastest route via secondary roads, the driver took the E40 Motorway, and since it was friday afternoon we were stuck in traffic for 40 minutes.
He didn’t have sat nav, and he had no clue how to get there. I had to give him directions, using Google Maps on my phone.
When the taxi meter reached 90 EUR I started to complain that I paid less then half of that on the way in. He then stopped the meter, but I still had to pay 90 EUR

I haven’t tried it yet (btw. Germany is of course of one the countries taking legal action against Uber).

Usually, when I travel for business, I either know a decent taxi company (the difference to just getting into a random taxi is huge) that I call and rely on, or I use car sharing services such as DriveNow or Car2Go, where available. These allow you, once registered, to pick up any of their cars within the designated business area (they can be opened via Smartphone now) and drop it anywhere within the designated business area, the charge is per minute. This works at the following airports in Germany now: Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Berlin, Munich. I’m not sure about Stuttgart. Within the city, you will usually find a car within 300-400 meters. This is generally cheaper than any service with a hired driver (makes some sense) and I prefer driving and flying myself, anyway.

Of course, this only works for big airports/larger cities and is not an option for getting away from the average GA airfield.

Hungriger Wolf (EDHF), Germany

No experience with Uber – but the Belgian authorities too have forbidden their operation.

As a Belgian I must say I am embarrassed by your bad experience – but not really surprised. I don’t know about other countries but round here, driving a cab is about the last resort for those who want to earn money yet cannot get a better job. So that many cab drivers are extremely low-qualified. In Brussels, the vast majority will speak French and nothing else, and though they will know the city quite well they’ll hardly know what is outside and that includes lovely EBGB. Also, the night shift brings better tips – and that is “unofficial” income! – so is preferred by those really desperate for money and/or with no regular family life (don’t ask me how I know this, no it is not from personal experience).

Indeed at the worst of times the ride should not take more than half an hour, along the canal is a nice straight road that is not over busy even at peak hour. Entering the Brussels ring at that time of day is sheer madness, you were lucky to have lost only 40 minutes. I guess the answer is to reserve your taxi well before, even if you can’t state an exact hour, with an operator located close to your destination. Cabs waiting in the queue will generally be driven by the least educated drivers, I reckon.

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

I’m a huge fan of Uber and use them frequently.

The real advantage is that you rate your driver from 0-5 stars after the journey (and he rates you, btw). If he get less than 4.5 in average rating, he is out!! That’s why the experience is SO much better than the average taxi driver who will never see you again and even if you get sufficiently angry to write a complain, he will never loose his licence. I bet you would have given your Belgian driver zero stars and he would be out of business very quickly. London cabbies are the only other taxi’s than seem to care about your experience and know their way around.

The tricky part about using them for GA is that there likely are no Uber cars out in the sticks where we normally land. But you can certainly use them to get back out from town.

I was really happy to see that Uber was prepared to meet Germany in court and didn’t bat an eye at the emergency injunction they tried to put down on the service (what emergency??).

EGTR

London cabbies are the only other taxi’s than seem to care about your experience and know their way around.

I don’t know of that’s currently true but they always needed to pass an extremely strict exam which involved memorising most of the street names in London. Obviously it is a license to print money – as is all taxi driving if you can get the duty cycle to a reasonable level and the entry barrier is very high.

How can a country stop Uber?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

How can a country stop Uber?

By blocking them out of DNS? Or even obliging www access providers to block their IP’s in the firewalls? Same as they do for other illegal activities, I should reckon?

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

I was really happy to see that Uber was prepared to meet Germany in court and didn’t bat an eye at the emergency injunction they tried to put down on the service (what emergency??).

What emergency? The very existence of an established taxi business nationwide is at stake. People whose financial plans by which they make the downpayments for their cars and appartments and the education of their children are about to go bust. People who had to pay thousands for their taxi license and special driving license, who pay several thousand per year for a special taxi insurance, who pay VAT and income tax on their fares, who have to pay health insurance and social security are facing their financial breakdown. And all this for some American Tycoon (isn’t J.P. Morgan behind Uber) who tries to establish pre-industrial exploitation schemes again.
It’s exactly the same situation as with AOC versus illegal commercial flying.

And regarding expensive taxis: In places where we know we will have large distances to cover between airport and hotel (e.g. Le Mans during the 24hr race or Geneva with the Salon de L’Automobilen on) we will take a rental car instead. For us (crew) it has the additional advantage that we can go touring a little instead of staying at some remote hotel all the time.

EDDS - Stuttgart

I was really happy to see that Uber was prepared to meet Germany in court and didn’t bat an eye at the emergency injunction they tried to put down on the service (what emergency??).

That was not a surprise. Emergency injunctions are rarely given when their effect can be devastating on the affected party because it is not a trial and no fact finding is performed. The formal reason it was put down is that these injunctions require emergency and Uber was already operating for months so it was too late.

For now Uber is still operating in Germany, only a few places though. I’m all for breaking the old taxi monopoly and let the market decide but it reminds me so much of Russia where “savage” taxis were ubiquitous. Thousands of people in Moscow and other places driving around in their private cars, trying to pick up paying guests. I used them all the time without a rating system.

they always needed to pass an extremely strict exam which involved memorising most of the street names in London

I rather have them know how to operate a tomtom or the like. More than once I was using my phone on roaming 3G telling the expensive driver where to go… Depending on the country, I always prepare the trip on my phone and tell them how to go there to stop fooling my by driving circles like they love doing in some countries.

What emergency? The very existence of an established taxi business nationwide is at stake. <…> And all this for some American Tycoon (isn’t J.P. Morgan behind Uber) who tries to establish pre-industrial exploitation schemes again.

Oh yes. Home taping is killing music. And home sex is killing prostitution.

LKBU (near Prague), Czech Republic

Oh yes. Home taping is killing music.

At least I do know a couple of musicians (conservatory educated) who have to drive taxis to make a living. And now Uber will take even that income away from them. If they then drive for Uber, the day they will get sick or their car breaks down they will have to live from social security alone – to which they will stop contributing the day they join Uber. I am among those Germans who are happy and proud that after many terrible mistakes in the past at least during the last 69 years we were able to install and maintain a working “Sozialstaat” and “Rechtsstaat” (social and law-driven state or however this is called in English). Our laws are still made through democratic mechanisms and not (at least not directly) by profit-oriented multinational corporations. As of now we do have laws that govern public road transport, social security contributions and taxation and Uber clearly violates all those. In other countries that may be different, but here right now there is no place for them.

Last Edited by what_next at 06 Oct 12:49
EDDS - Stuttgart
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