In alt.home.repair, on Sat, 17 Nov 2018 15:16:53 -0500, Clare Snyder
wrote:


Also, the drivers don't know anything about my button pushing until I
tap Confirm, right? No one thinks he's about to get a fare just because
I give a destination and he's the closest to my house, right? I'd be
really surprised if it didn't work this way.

I need this for early Wednesday morning. I wish I'd done more testing on
weeknights.
Pre-book a cab to pick you up at a pre-dertermined time and forget
Goober and his Uber

I would do that -- in fact I already said I really dont' like what uber
has done to regular cab drivers -- but in the past, especially when it's
early morning and I have a deadline, I've not known if the cab is really
coming. I've taken very few cabs in my life, but last time to be sure
I'd make my plane, I called the cab company and of course they said he
was on is way. But if he were not on his way and if they didn't even
have me on the schedule or they hadn't found someone or the guy they
found backed out (sick or whatever), they would still say, "He's on his
way." Unless all the drivers quit, they're not going to say, "We're
screwed up, make other arrangements. "

Tonight I can see on the smartphone where the car is. I know how long
it takes to get here, and if there are no uber cars running in 3 hours,
I'll take my car.

I wish they would have Gett in Baltimore, which iiuc are real taxis with
real licenseed drivers who just happen to use an app like Uber, even if
they were fewer of them and farther away, but afaict Gett in the USA is
only in NYC. Gett seems to me to have the advantags of both systems.

BTW, I was a Yellow cab driver in Chicago for about a year. Worked
around 4PM to midnight or later, really liked it. I got stiffed a
couple times and I had to pull away from an intersection while someone
reached for the door handle a couple times (when I had my off-duty sign
on or I already had a passenger in the car) but no other trouble.