Imagine taking a Uber fixed fare and this happens!

[silverbullet]

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025/12/16/m50-closed-in-both-directions-due-to-bin-lorry-fire/

Thick c**ts!

[Rat Catcher]

Mad stuff altogether. I know lads that'd be suicidal!

You need a fast finger to get anything off Uber anyway. I had it on all day yesterday and got nothing of it at all. Two 3 figure jobs came and went quicker than I could read where they were going FFS.

[silverbullet]

Mad stuff altogether. I know lads that'd be suicidal!

You need a fast finger to get anything off Uber anyway. I had it on all day yesterday and got nothing of it at all. Two 3 figure jobs came and went quicker than I could read where they were going FFS.

Two UFF bookings are on offer to me, Lucan to DAP €52, and Grangegorman to DAP @ €34, I don't do UFFs as I ignore them. i think the Iranian bloke is trying to tease me.

[Rat Catcher]

Mad. You can't be near Lucan and Grangegorman! The price they show on the offer screen is what they pay you after commission so you need to add about 1/8th if you're accustomed to thinking in terms of actual fares... and you've usually less than half a second to do the math and hit the button... often while driving a motor car!

[Dr. Martin Gooter Bling]

are the fixed fares all lower than metered fares or have you encounted fixed fares that are clearly over what a metered fare would be.

[Rat Catcher]

Of the 10 I covered the so-called fixed fare was higher than the meter on 5 and the meter was higher than the so-called fixed fare on the other 5. However, the rub is that you only get paid the lower amount regardless of whether that's the meter or the so-called fixed fare. Heads they win, tails you lose.

So, while on aggregate the so-called fixed fares were within 1% of the meter (i.e. as accurate as makes no difference) the bottom line is that I got paid 2.5% (€10.93) less than the meter on aggregate.

[Rat Catcher]

The other thing of note is that I only got a tip on one of those jobs. You'd think folk might be inclined to make up the difference where they can see the meter is higher but, for me anyway, that wasn't the case. The tip I got was from one of the fares that was lower than the meter but that's 1 out of 5 and 1 out of 10 in total i.e 10%.

My experience of Free Now Taxi Saver fares differs substantially in that regard with c.70% of those clients tipping and, in most of those cases, tipping more than the amount of the discount. What makes that more remarkable is the fact that the Taxi Saver clients aren't getting any more discount on top of that given by the driver whereas Uber clients typically get 30% discount off whatever fare the driver gets (before commission) be that calculated on the meter or not.

[Dr. Martin Gooter Bling]

wild west stuff.

[Rat Catcher]

It's all a bit mad alright but no doubt there's method in the madness. I was just looking at the Christmas Special NTA newsletter. They note how popular their grants have become with new entrants and men wanting to invest in a future in the trade. Obviously that suggests there's more money to be made than ever before so it seems logical to question how much of that money comes from Uber and Bolt paying us significantly more than they charge their riders.

[watty]

My heads spins when I start thinking about licences but pg 17 of the Dec newsletter says "Applications for new electric saloon licences are not permitted."

[Rat Catcher]

Yeah. There's currently a temporary moratorium on the issue of saloon taxi and hackney plates so, for a saloon EV grant, the applicant must already own a plate. The spin they put on "new entrants" availing of grants is specific to WAV and eWAV grants, I guess... but I'd imagine a lot of those grants go to existing WAV owners replacing their vehicles. Whether a new entrant would go straight out and buy a WAV or eWAV without trying his hand at the trade first is questionable. I suspect most would rent a plate or complete taxi for at least a short while before investing their hard earned in a converted cargo vehicle.

For an EWAV you have to apply for both grants separately. So you need to first win a WAV grant in a lottery and then apply for an EV grant when that scheme reopens in Feb.