[Juggy]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Secondly go to any airport in the US. Almost a mile away from the airport they have a free parking or a cheap $1 waiting area. Why can't the government do something like this to ensure cars don't wait outside a high security airport.

Apparently it is a big issue even in SFO according to the latest lawsuit 'Specifically they take issue with the quality of the background checks Uber claims it uses on drivers and its $1 "Safe Rides" fee, a failure to have authorization to work at airports, and a practice of collecting but not passing on a $4 "airport fee toll" at SFO.*For a company which raised more money last year than any other, this is not done. Imagine Amazon in India offering just a courier service, and claiming the experience was the same as buying online in the US.

LA and San Francisco sue Uber, but settle with Lyft for $500k http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/09/u...ft-settlement/

[RYP]

Entirely a new perspective - "Is it a Conspiracy against Uber?"

Quoting for the bottomline
"“It is very popular among cab owners for its fair dealings and its business is growing at a great pace. While the other companies seek high commissions and delay payments for two to three months, Uber makes weekly payments. The cab owners attached to some cab services with call centres need to bribe the management to seek work, but the technology used by Uber is such that all cab owners are treated equally.”"

http://inc42.com/features/banning-ub...e/?hvid=1ZRFC3

[YaeJay]

Moving on from Uber and blubber, I think we should be more worried about how to survive a taxi ride.

best option is to get a known taxi operator ( known to you or someone from your destination). Will cost usually double. worth every paisa.
and once you are about to board that taxi, make a call in front of the driver and pass on the registration no, drivers name, his mobile no, type of car etc, in front of the driver. IF you have someone who can talk to to him ( till then, it was assuming its a pretense), give the phone to him and ask him to talk to your contact.

Trust your instincts. If at all you get any bad vibes, listen to that.

There is nothing safe for women or men in this place. If you are a woman, single, attractive, stay inside the airport until 2 past sun rise. ( airports do have some sort of handicapped shoppin malls). I would advice that as a time pass.

If you are a male, look like arnie, no issues.

There is also a very thoughtful thread on how one should employ their personal drivers, that should be the basic requirement to hire a cab operator.

If at all you folks find this post useful I will give more info on the do's donts and how most clowns operate in different part of this place!

[Hayek]

Uber is not a pure point to point service. It charges a fixed charge (Rs. 200) which is similar to what it costs to hire a low end tourist cab for 2 hours / 20 km or an airport drop. Just as you can call Orix or Avis or Fab Cars to hire a tourist cab, you can use Uber to connect to XYZ Travels and hire the cab from them. Uber is no different from the phone network used to call a tourist taxi. The Delhi / TS / MH governments have no legal basis to ban Uber anymore than they can prevent you from calling a tourist taxi to pick you up. Just look at the number of registered tourist taxis in India compared to the number of registered city taxis. Most Indians who hire cars hire tourist taxis, not taxis. Indian law is very clear - what Uber is doing is legal, and the governments need to amend the law to stop it. The executive has no power to stop Uber. Parliament can stop it, but it surely has more important bills to pass.

[YaeJay]

Originally Posted by Hayek

just as you can call Orix or Avis Cars to hire a tourist cab, you can use Uber to connect to XYZ Travels .

Avis and Orix have a different policy. All cabs that run under Avis or Orix have to have a contract with them and they know their drivers ( mostly owner driven). As far as I know they don't book with some xyz travels.In other words, those cars are not allowed to take other bookings. And off duty time they will have to be parked at their yard. 3 months to pay the bills. This is how they used to work, I guess they haven't changed. A call taxi works differently these days. Pay the monthly subscription, but they are allowed to take their own customers, the commitment ends at the subscription. In most cases they don't even know who drives the cab.

[mustang 99]

When Arjun went to battle, he choose Lord Krishna to steer his chariot. Even today top politicians, big businessmen down to petty gangsters have only the most trusted of their men drive their cars. Cab companies are investing a lot on car fleets, creature comforts in their cars but are compromising on the human resource. With increasing business they just pick up rural youth who have recently learned how to drive and employ them as cab drivers. No doubt increasing number these cabs are getting involved in mishaps. We have all encountered those erratic drivers on road. The need of the hour is to have more professionally trained, competent drivers. These cab companies need to invest much more on human resource development. They also need to monitor these drivers. Transport department is also to be blamed for the mess. It is too easy to get a license by bribing officials, virtually no checks on any thing at all. Hope at least some cab companies realize this and make the necessary effort.

[JoseVijay]

Uber defies Govt. ban

Source link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/i...w/45457633.cms

NEW DELHI: Failing to enforce a ban on Uber cab service three days after announcing it, an embarrassed Delhi government on Wednesday put the onus on traffic police to execute the order and ensure the US-based company ceases to operate in the city.

The Delhi government had on Monday announced banning Uber with immediate effect following outrage over rape of a woman executive by one of the drivers of the company.

But despite the ban, Uber refused to stop operations and was continuing with its app-based taxi booking service.

[Mcroadster]

Originally Posted by JoseVijay

Uber defies Govt. ban

Source link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/i...w/45457633.cms

That is extreme disrespect they are showing is not only towards the government of india but rather the parliament and through them the people of India. Had they realised their mistake and come out with a representation to the government with proposed changes in their hiring policy, that would have been a responsible step.
I hope Government would take some harsh measures here!

[i10]

It isn't even like enforcement is difficult. All the traffic police needs to do is hire a few cabs, and fine them. The rest will take care of itself. If the circular issued by the transport department is being ignored, it shows how lightly we hold the law of land.

[bblost]

I am just curious but how was Uber banned and by whom?

[Turbo_Charger]

Let me reiterate again that Uber has not been banned in India or for that matter anywhere else in the world, for either being a technological company or for being an app. They have been banned in all the places like Netherlands, Germany etc for not following the local laws of the country/state/city. Now I don't know how can you even argue in favor of Uber ? In Delhi, if you want to provide Intra-City Cab Services, you have to register with the Transport Department, get a police verification of the driver done, install GPS in your cars, have a call center, have some kind of emergency response team and then some more. Now all this will not completely eradicate crime from the streets of Delhi but to argue that we should not take preventive steps because these things will any way happen is just like telling a soldier that he should not wear a Bullet Proof Vest in war because he will eventually die.

Now coming to Uber, they can appeal all they want against the Government but if they have been found to be flouting the Rules of the Land, their appeal will be dismissed without even considering it. Uber Pop was banned in Amsterdam because Uber Pop lets a private individual register to be an Uber driver, using his/her private car. No Licensing, No Registration, No Rules. Guess what Uber replied after the Ban was upheld ?

“This is merely the first step in a long lasting legal battle. We will appeal,” a spokesperson noted in a written statement. “Today’s decision of the judge does not say anything about the legality of uberPOP, it only says something about the fines. Moreover, the judge based today’s decision on an outdated law from the year 2000. Back then there were no smartphones or any other innovative ways to safeguard quality. We will continue to offer uberPOP to make sure that the innovation that we initiated continues to spread. Now it is up to the government to speed up modernising the law and not wait until the end of 2015. We will provide all the help that we can give to support this process.”

They will continue with the services and they don't care. I can't understand how smartphone use will help in ensuring quality of the driver when he is not even trained, licensed or will follow any rule ? Uber won't do any background check and if tomorrow a driver kidnaps a rider, will wash it's hands off the matter faster than you can say Lifebuoy. Just being a Technology company doesn't give you the excuse to circumvent the law. If Uber is just a marketplace, so are Ebay, Snapdeal, Amazon & Flipkart but do they say you are buying product from their site at your own risk ? Each one has a buyer protection program to ensure that the customer does not suffer unlike Uber, who did not take action against the erring driver even after a formal complaint by an earlier rider. Uber can't take all the money, appreciation and applause of their Cab Services but ignore all the criticism, brickbats or refuse to take any responsibility of their riders or drivers.

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by JoseVijay

Uber defies Govt. ban

Source link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/i...w/45457633.cms

How difficult it is to get court order to block the IPs at mobile operator/ISP level ?
Indian state and central governments routinely do that all the time whenever there are so called offensive comment / cartoon posted against any politico-social-religious icon deemed "likely" to cause law and order issue.

Another perspective from my side this is just PR machinery of a company flush with VC money at work. What is so great about Uber if TaxiForSure and Ola and similar other operators can run same business model with less fluff with in operating parameters of local laws what is Uber's big problem ?

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-e...cle6676888.ece

EDIT : As I wrote before in another post the problem in this particular case for failure of judicial system as well , Why and how exactly he got acquitted / bailed in previous rape cases is a big question

However this does not condone Uber in any way for flouting the set norms both are mutually orthogonal occurrences which simultaneously resulted in a tragedy.

Originally Posted by RYP

Entirely a new perspective - "Is it a Conspiracy against Uber?"

Quoting for the bottomline
"“It is very popular among cab owners for its fair dealings and its business is growing at a great pace. While the other companies seek high commissions and delay payments for two to three months, Uber makes weekly payments. The cab owners attached to some cab services with call centres need to bribe the management to seek work, but the technology used by Uber is such that all cab owners are treated equally.”"

http://inc42.com/features/banning-ub...e/?hvid=1ZRFC3

[balajisv]

Originally Posted by JoseVijay

Uber defies Govt. ban

Source link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/i...w/45457633.cms

Uber stops its services in Delhi.

http://m.timesofindia.com/india/Uber...w/45459073.cms

[Soumyajit9]

Now Govt in soup over its own Web based app - Pooch-O for Autos, just like Uber !
And the icing on the cake is, it is not licensed with the transport department.
This is becoming really funny. Playing ban-ban !!

All the circus that is happenning over the past few days is nothing but a knee-jerk reaction by everyone, from common man to politician.

Cool-headed planning and execution is the need of the hour. Thoughtful evaluation needs to be done by the transport authorities on what they want.
Nobody ever thought that what if a Meru or an Easy Cabbie does such a crime ? Since it is approved by Transport authority, what action will be taken ? Has anyone thought ? Why not bring Uber under the purview of transport authority ?
50 questions, and only 1 answer - Ban.

Here is the article from Times of India.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/45463149.cms

While Pooch-O acts as an aggregator for auto rickshaws, Uber, Ola and TaxiFor Sure are aggregators for taxis. In the future, Pooch-O promises to bring an app-based taxi service as well.

Pooch-O claims no responsibility beyond connecting you with the nearest available auto rickshaw. It will send you the auto's registration number, the driver's mobile number and the distance of the auto from you. And it will inform the driver about the waiting passenger. Very much like Uber, TaxiForSure or Ola.

[srishiva]

Even Karnataka is stopping the services based on information from Centre to stop services if they are not registered locally.