That was always the Uber VC fueled Unicorn end goal.
Destroy the regulated taxi business to the point where you form a monopoly.
As a bonus, they’re extracting X% of dollars of every fare for providing little to no additional service relative to the past (local govts could very well have created apps to allow for hailing cabs like some already have). Money which would earlier have gone to the local economy or remained in your pocket is now going to Uber’s investors.
I don’t understand why economists don’t talk about how this is contributing to inflation and/or destruction of businesses. If in the past I ordered delivery from my local Chinese restaurant, I gave them $100 and the entire $100 went to them. They would use that to employ 1-2 delivery guys who would probably at the end of the year cost them about 5-10% of their delivery food revenue.
But today, I pay the Chinese restaurant $100, Uber Eats/Doorsash/Grubhub an additional $5-$10 and the restaurant will pay them about 30-40% additionally for receiving the order and delivering it. The 5-10% delivery cost has ballooned to over 30-40% (some cities had capped the fee but even that was about 15-20% and I don’t know if those caps have persisted past the pandemic).
Until recently restaurants are the cost, but now they can’t anymore and we’re seeing significant inflation.
That’s a 30-40% jump in costs to the restaurant + customer almost immediately.
> If in the past I ordered delivery from my local Chinese restaurant, I gave them $100 and the entire $100 went to them
Well, back then there were very few restaurants that offered delivery at all and their employees would have to use their own car, worry about maintenance and made very little for deliveries and were dependent on tips.
Also almost none of the drivers got a commercial rider on their insurance for doing delivery.
DoorDash and Uber Eats are also economic disasters of incomprehensible proportions. They not only charge over double your total order, but many times they also have restaurants losing money on delivery orders too.
Just 5 years ago I used to be able to get lunch delivered by a Chinese food restaurant for under $10 in Brooklyn. Can't speak for today as I Escaped from New York, but good luck getting that very same order below $30 by DoorDash.
Destroy the regulated taxi business to the point where you form a monopoly.
As a bonus, they’re extracting X% of dollars of every fare for providing little to no additional service relative to the past (local govts could very well have created apps to allow for hailing cabs like some already have). Money which would earlier have gone to the local economy or remained in your pocket is now going to Uber’s investors.
I don’t understand why economists don’t talk about how this is contributing to inflation and/or destruction of businesses. If in the past I ordered delivery from my local Chinese restaurant, I gave them $100 and the entire $100 went to them. They would use that to employ 1-2 delivery guys who would probably at the end of the year cost them about 5-10% of their delivery food revenue.
But today, I pay the Chinese restaurant $100, Uber Eats/Doorsash/Grubhub an additional $5-$10 and the restaurant will pay them about 30-40% additionally for receiving the order and delivering it. The 5-10% delivery cost has ballooned to over 30-40% (some cities had capped the fee but even that was about 15-20% and I don’t know if those caps have persisted past the pandemic).
Until recently restaurants are the cost, but now they can’t anymore and we’re seeing significant inflation.
That’s a 30-40% jump in costs to the restaurant + customer almost immediately.