When there is more demand for my services than I feel like handling, I can raise my rates. If a customer doesn't like it, they can find someone else. They don't need me.
However, when your business sells a necessity (like public transportation or runs a hospital) don't expect your customers to understand that your decision to charge them much higher prices during an emergency is simply done "to better allocate a scarce resource". Keeping poor people from using all the scarce resources is probably not the best thing to do if you want repeat business.
Maybe Uber is different in Toronto, but in SF it's basically making use of unallocated livery, i.e., Town Cars, etc. (with a useless taxi hailing service) I'm not sure riding in a "luxury" vehicle with a private driver is a public necessity.
Poor people don't use Uber. Poor people very rarely use taxis. Poor people ride the bus or walk.
Comments
When there is more demand for my services than I feel like handling, I can raise my rates. If a customer doesn't like it, they can find someone else. They don't need me.
However, when your business sells a necessity (like public transportation or runs a hospital) don't expect your customers to understand that your decision to charge them much higher prices during an emergency is simply done "to better allocate a scarce resource". Keeping poor people from using all the scarce resources is probably not the best thing to do if you want repeat business.
Maybe Uber is different in Toronto, but in SF it's basically making use of unallocated livery, i.e., Town Cars, etc. (with a useless taxi hailing service) I'm not sure riding in a "luxury" vehicle with a private driver is a public necessity.
Poor people don't use Uber. Poor people very rarely use taxis. Poor people ride the bus or walk.
And yes, it sucks to be poor.