I'm not sure how successful the weekend's protest was but, for me, it was a costly exercise. Compared to the previous 3 Saturday nights takings my average per hour dropped by €12, that's over 25%.
The only other rideshare platform that I currently have is Free Now. That was incredibly quiet, presumably with more drivers available more of the time as they were also boycotting Uber. At the start of my shift my progress towards becoming a Priority Driver was at 45%, by the end of the shift it was down to 15% so, for me, there's little or no light at the end of that particular tunnel. In fact, I spent most of my shift rejecting Taxi Saver jobs priced below €20... I lowered my threshold to €20 on account of the Uber dispute. The one Taxi Save job I covered was Northside SC rank (the mind boggles) to Swords for €21 plus, wait for it.... €4 tip... the mind can't stop boggling!
Having spent the guts of 8 hours watching other drivers snap up Taxi Saver jobs with estimates as low as €6 one must question where this protest is going and seriously reconsider any future participation. The biggest discount I've given on an Uber "Fixed Fare" ride is €3 on a €47 (€44 after discount) job that took 19 mins 18 secs. That's c.6% yet I elected to spend 8 hours earning a pittance while protesting in solidarity with drivers who are happily promoting discounts of up to 50%. It's a bit mad, Ted!
I understand that the spokesman for the protest group is, in fact, a Limousine driver from the real capital who has no difficulty offering fixed fare Taxis to clients of his own firm. Obviously, Uber is putting a lot of money into reducing it's Limousine fares as well as it's taxi fares for clients so I certainly understand the potential impact that may have on his business and I genuinely sympathise with him. There are many examples of multinationals muscling the small man out of business - look at how Screwfix gave stuff away when it came to Ireland and count the number of hardware stores gone as a result - but, at the end of the day, we all have our own interests to consider.
The biggest source of harm to my business at present is Free Now's Taxi Saver jobs. One has to question why tackling that isn't on Taxi Driver Ireland's agenda... In fact, as far as I can see, Taxi Drivers Ireland is actively encouraging our clients to choose Free Now (Taxi Saver). Does Free Now still offer a limousine service in Cork?
