Meet Travis Kalanick – the thirty-something Californian who is revolutionizing the transportation business. No longer is traveling by limo reserved for the super rich and famous. Now anyone with a smart phone can order an on-demand limo ride in the United States’ largest cities with a free app called Uber.
Cool and clad in a sports coat, jeans, and a crisp white shirt (no tie, of course), Kalanick spoke about the launch of Uber D.C. to new media gurus at the Heritage Foundation’s Blogger’s Briefing in December, where he stressed the difference between Uber and a traditional taxicab service. The District of Columbia is not the first city Uber has launched in, but it’s presence here has been the most controversial.
Kalanick first launched Uber in June of 2010 in San Francisco. Throughout the last several months Kalanick has expanded Uber’s service to New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Paris and Washington, D.C. Following Uber’s early winter launch, Kalanick traveled to D.C. for a series of interviews explained that while he created Uber to help address San Francisco’s cab shortage, Uber is not a taxicab service. Uber doesn’t own cars. It partners with local limo drivers to create a marketplace for limo drivers, who are usually idling.
Here’s how Uber works: After downloading the app to your iPhone or Android device, you push a button that sets a location for pickup, and you’re off. There’s no waiting around , wondering what time your cab will arrive because the app gives you an estimated arrival time. There’s no need to fumble around for wrinkled bills in your back pocket because Uber automatically charges your credit card. And you can’t possibly leave your phone in the car if you’re drunk, because you use it to pay the driver at the end of your trip.
So, what’s the catch? Of minor inconvenience is Uber’s requirement that you rate your limo driver after the trip, of potentially higher invonvenience is Uber’s steep prices. Unfortunately, the ability to have a personal limo at your beck and call like a baller is expensive. In Washington, D.C. there is a flat fee of $7.00. In addition to the flat fee, the Uber app tacks on an additional $3.25 for every mile and 75 cents for every minute you travel.
The extra fees have already caused a stir in the Nation’s Capital. On New Year’s Eve, many Uber D.C. customers complained about uber-high rates and prices that we’re levied due to competitive pricing and unprecedented demand across the city.
“The goal of our system is not to trick people.,” Uber’s D.C. General Manager Rachel Holt explained to Red Alert. “We sent two emails to all of our signups, sent tweets, and wrote several blog posts about the change. For us, it was a really good learning experience. The goal is to maintain a good customer experience for everybody and [become] more transparent than we were this past New Year’s.”
Fortunately, higher fares are not be a problem for most of D.C., which seemingly teems with establishment bureaucrats, lobbyists and spoiled college students. As TechCrunch writer Eric Eldon recently pointed out, “D.C. also has the highest concentration of people with secondary degrees. Between the better-paid government employees, contractors, law offices, lobbyists, universities, and the emerging tech scene” there exists a lot of room for success for Uber.]
Eldon is exactly right. According to data by the Avery index, D.C. has the most lawyers per capita in the country with more than 13 times as many lawyers as New York City.
Despite the premium prices, Uber is doing quite well in D.C. In an interview with Washingtonian Magazine in January, Kalanick noted that D.C.’s use of the app is already growing faster than San Francisco’s grew during it’s first nine months.
Hmm… one wonders what D.C. taxicabs will do to compete?
The Washington Examiner recently highlighted a new survey of 4,025 District residents that revealed that 69 percent of Washingtonians believe that D.C. cab services are the worst in the country.
Rather than improve service, the D.C. Taxicab Commission has decided to focus on putting Uber DC out of business instead. In January, union thug D.C. Taxicab Commissioner Ron Linton surprised Uber with a sting operation, slapped the driver with a $2,000 fine and confiscated the limo.
With D.C. cabbies calling for increased fares and a supportive Taxicab Commissioner behind them, Kalanick should expect to see more obstacles ahead. However, Holt said Uber wasn’t going to back down.
“The biggest thing for us is that we will be in D.C. for the long haul and this is a transportation alternative that people really want,” she said. “Everyday we’re collecting information on how people use our system and that makes us get better and better.”
