LAX to DLR travel.

[DisneyPilot]

Use Google and put in : shuttle service lax to anaheim. You will be presented with several options.

Many of which are often sketchy independent mini van drivers that make Uber and Taxis look like top notch professional executive transport drivers!

[Steven Fonzi Brown]

FYI Super Shuttle is going out of business too.

https://www.latimes.com/travel/story/2019-12-12/supershuttle-says-it-will-stop-service-to-lax

Uber/Lyft are really putting everyone out of business.

I wonder if this is also due to the new California law about independent contractors. I'd be willing to bet that Super Shuttle drivers are all independent contractors, and Super Shuttle can't afford to actually hire them as real employees. I fully expect this situation to get a lot uglier before it all gets sorted out.

Uber really screwed things up for everyone. Their business model totally undercut the pricing of taxis and other similar services, and they managed that by screwing over drivers. Drivers and customers simply didn't realize it at first. Long-term, the current independent contractor model Uber uses simply isn't sustainable for drivers. Sustainability would require Uber to start treating their drivers like taxi drivers, and charging riders accordingly. But that would destroy the cheap pricing that makes Uber an attractive option in the first place. If the pricing between Uber and a taxi is similar, than the taxi is probably the safer/better option.

It's going to be interesting to see if Uber can survive in California with this new law in place. If not, than the only thing they achieved was to screw over themselves and everybody else by completely destroying the car/van ride service industry.

I think one thing that will come out of all of this is the realization for most people that getting a ride like this simply isn't, and CAN'T be, an affordable option. The cheap rides from Uber were a blip in history that created a false reality, an illusion of affordability that was simply too good to last. The reality is that taxi prices are what we can really expect to be paying, because taxi companies have been around long enough to figure out how much to charge in order for everything to pencil out financially over the long-term.

[Mastersarge]

I wonder if this is also due to the new California law about independent contractors. I'd be willing to bet that Super Shuttle drivers are all independent contractors, and Super Shuttle can't afford to actually hire them as real employees. I fully expect this situation to get a lot uglier before it all gets sorted out.

Uber really screwed things up for everyone. Their business model totally undercut the pricing of taxis and other similar services, and they managed that by screwing over drivers. Drivers and customers simply didn't realize it at first. Long-term, the current independent contractor model Uber uses simply isn't sustainable for drivers. Sustainability would require Uber to start treating their drivers like taxi drivers, and charging riders accordingly. But that would destroy the cheap pricing that makes Uber an attractive option in the first place. If the pricing between Uber and a taxi is similar, than the taxi is probably the safer/better option.

It's going to be interesting to see if Uber can survive in California with this new law in place. If not, than the only thing they achieved was to screw over themselves and everybody else by completely destroying the car/van ride service industry.

I think one thing that will come out of all of this is the realization for most people that getting a ride like this simply isn't, and CAN'T be, an affordable option. The cheap rides from Uber were a blip in history that created a false reality, an illusion of affordability that was simply too good to last. The reality is that taxi prices are what we can really expect to be paying, because taxi companies have been around long enough to figure out how much to charge in order for everything to pencil out financially over the long-term.

I have to disagree here. The Uber model was a better business model and thus did better than taxis. But the socialism of California can’t handle the free market working like it is supposed to and had to destroy it to save the taxi union. The drivers signed up voluntarily. No one forced them to be Uber drivers, so it was a mutual transaction of labor for profit.

[Steven Fonzi Brown]

I have to disagree here. The Uber model was a better business model and thus did better than taxis. But the socialism of California can’t handle the free market working like it is supposed to and had to destroy it to save the taxi union. The drivers signed up voluntarily. No one forced them to be Uber drivers, so it was a mutual transaction of labor for profit.

Check out the various studies that crunch the numbers on driving for UBER, which clearly demonstrate that it is exploitative and a losing venture financially in the long-term when you factor everything in.

The "nobody forced them" is exactly the same argument exploitative employers have always made. For example, nobody forced people to work horrible, dangerous, low-paying factory jobs in the early days of factories, but we can all agree that those jobs were horrible, dangerous, and exploitative. Nobody is forcing people to work in the modern-day factory sweatshops in Asia, but I think we can all agree that those jobs are horrible, dangerous, exploitative, etc. But I'm sure you would argue that those sweatshops simply have a better business model and America socialism is destroying the job market to favor unions, right? You would prefer us to have sweatshops here in America right? You would prefer us to remove all the laws that protect workers from being exploited?