New York's iconic yellow taxi can now be booked via the Uber app

When Uber arrived in New York in 2011, yellow taxis appeared on the streets, and drivers paid $1 million for cherished medallions that gave them the right to pick up passengers. New York Times.

The taxi industry, in turn, blamed the company for driving their drivers to economic ruin.

Now, once-bitter rivals that have fought for years to control the city's streets are forming an alliance: Uber will team up with two taxi companies, Curb and CMT. From now on, New Yorkers can order a yellow taxi in the Uber app, the companies said.

The announcement — the first large-scale deal of its kind in the US — comes at a time when users are increasingly using apps to order both Uber and cabs. Companies are trying to recover from the pandemic that has devastated the taxi booking industry as people worked from home and tourists stayed away.

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Starting this spring, users will be able to open the Uber app and hail a cab. Uber will forward the request to two taxi technology companies, who will notify drivers to pick up passengers. Costs are subject to Uber's fares and rules, including peak fares, which can significantly increase the cost of a ride during peak hours.

New partnership will boost both industries

As with all Uber rides, the app displays an up-front cost. Passengers pay roughly the same price for a yellow cab as they would for a standard Uber private ride, known as UberX, the company says.

Yellow cab drivers who respond to requests on the Uber app will also see the fare in advance, and will have the option to accept or reject the ride as per the offer. According to city rules, ehail taxis - unlike street-hail taxis - have the right to waive fares.

Although Uber has competed with taxi groups for years trying to capture markets around the world, it has found that partnering with taxi companies, rather than fighting them, can boost its business, especially overseas. Collaborations with taxi fleets and technology companies in other countries allow Uber users to order taxis through the app, as they would in New York.

Uber says it has teamed up with over 2500 taxis in Spain, partnered with taxi service TaxExpress in Colombia, acquired the local HK Taxi app in Hong Kong last year, partnered with SK Telecom in South Korea, and partnered with taxis elsewhere. countries including Germany, Austria and Turkey.

Uber's new partnership with the New York taxi industry, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, will bring more revenue to the company as it gets paid for every ride booked through the app.

Andrew Macdonald, Uber's senior vice president of mobility and business operations, said the company wants to have all taxis in the world running on its platform by 2025.

Macdonald added that taxis are money: when Uber offers more modes of transportation, the company has found that customers often use more than one of these methods, "spend more and become loyal customers."

What do drivers think

Muhammad Rahman, 37, who has been a taxi driver in New York for eight years, hopes Uber will bring more fares to areas where street hails are rare. “Uber customers are everywhere,” he said.

But another taxi driver, Helmer Monroy, 67, was more skeptical. “I don't think Uber will help the yellow industry. taxi, - he said. They didn't destroy the industry, but they damaged it."

Antonio Cruz, a 50-year-old Brooklyn resident who drives Uber two days a week, is concerned that the new Uber-taxi partnership could mean more competition from yellow cabs, especially on the days he operates in Manhattan. “We could lose business,” he said.

Before the pandemic, taxi drivers in New York lost rides to the Uber and Lyft app and faced financial ruin by taking out loans to buy medallions at inflated prices.

During the pandemic, Uber has faced its own challenges. In the early hours of the morning, as travel demand plummeted and drivers feared contracting the coronavirus, many left the platform.

As the US economy recovered and cities eased restrictions, customers returned but found that not all drivers returned, leading to steep fare increases and long waiting times for rides.

Both companies admitted last year that they are struggling to attract enough drivers to keep up with demand and recently said the problem is easing. Uber announced that the number of partner drivers on its platform has reached an all-time high since February 2020.

Drivers dissatisfied with earnings

However, many drivers remain unhappy with how much money they are making, and some say they drive less or not at all as high fuel prices begin to eat into their earnings. The addition of thousands of taxi drivers could offset the loss of other drivers.

New York City's new Uber-taxi partnership does not require approval from the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission, which oversees taxis and rental cars, including Uber.

New Yorkers will be able to book yellow taxis on the street or use two taxi apps — Curb and Arro — that offer up-front rates, just like Uber rides.

The city's 13 yellow taxis are equipped with technology systems from Curb or Creative Mobile Technologies, which operates the Arro app.

Over the past year of the pandemic, demand for the Curb system, which has more than two million users in New York, has skyrocketed. According to Amos Tamam, CEO of Curb, average daily trips by individual users have grown to more than 15 trips across the city from 000 trips in 2000.

If a user booked a yellow taxi through the Uber app, Uber and the partner company will receive ride fees. Taxi drivers will continue to be paid through Curb and CMT.

It's hard to say how the discount will affect passengers and drivers, in part because the cost of the ride and driver payment are controlled by algorithms that vary depending on the app, the length and distance of the ride, the time of day when users order cars, and other factors.

In some cases, users may pay more for a taxi they order through the Uber app than for a taxi they order from the street, but not always. Also, sometimes, but not always, partner drivers get more than when ordering through the Uber app. Uber said it will provide more details on taxis in the coming months.