Uber Challenging the Taxi Industry

Uber is an online application operated and owned by Uber Technologies Inc. which is a US international online taxi dispatch company (“Uber | The Uber story,”). The application is operating in more than 380 cities worldwide. The main phenomenon behind the application is that smart phone users can download to their devices and search for a taxi nearest to them. The application incorporates location services via GPS to be its main ingredient. Taxi drivers who are registered with the application can display their location to those who need a taxi are in their vicinity by turning on their uber application on their mobile.

Uber was founded in 2009 and since then it has expanded to more than 60 countries of the world (“Uber’s Elaborate Tax Scheme Explained – Fortune,”). In my opinion, Uber can well take over the Taxi Industry. For decades there have been Taxi Dispatch Companies that require the taxi owners to register with them for some amount of time and they have to wait for their call to go and get a customer who needs a taxi. With the introduction of uber, this has dramatically changed. Taxi driver just need to register to the application for free and they can reach out to potential customers in their vicinity. It is time convenient as the drivers are not bound by working hour’s restrictions.

The purpose of my research is to investigate the extent to which uber has challenged the taxi industry and what are its impacts across different variables? These variables could be financial impacts across the board, ease of service and risks. The exact variables will come clear as the research continues. The research will study the quality of service offered by traditional taxi dispatch services vs uber. I will also investigate the different risks that the use of uber poses to the customer vs the traditional taxi dispatch services.

References

Uber | The Uber story. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.uber.com/our-story/

Uber’s Elaborate Tax Scheme Explained – Fortune. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2015/10/22/uber-tax-shell/