swill453 wrote:As indeed it is in many or even most countries, UK included. The solution to this issue begins with a "U".
Uber. And similar operators.
I know Uber tend to be a Marmite company, but I think they're brilliant. I arrived in Porto last week (very highly recommended for a city break) at about 9pm after a long, but enjoyable train journey. My hotel wasn't within walking distance, so on leaving the station I looked for a cab.
Although there was a taxi rank there were no actual taxis, which was somewhat confusing, as it was a midweek evening and not particularly busy.
I asked one of the locals where they all were, and he said they were on strike - because of Uber.
This was a major PITA, as I really didn't want to start trying to work out how to use Porto's public transport system at that time of night.
So the solution? Uber!
I booked one through the excellent app on my phone, and as usual got an instant response, the only odd aspect being a direction to pick me up in a local side street, rather than outside the station entrance.
The driver was there within a few minutes and spoke excellent English. He said they couldn't risk picking passengers up in a popular location, as they had been attacked by the local taxi drivers and their vehicles had been vandalised. He'd had to remove the Uber badging from his car to avoid their tender attentions.
And as usual he took me to my hotel at an incredibly reasonable price. I had quite a chat with him during the journey, and he clearly loved working for them and said he made a decent living.
Whilst I do have serious reservations about some aspects of the `gig economy' I think Uber are a brilliant service. I also suspect the reason conventional cab drivers don't like them is that the Uber drivers are willing to work fairly hard to earn their money, whereas conventional cabbies have got used to exploiting their monopoly status to charge through the nose for not much work. They remind me of the print unions of the 1980's.
I also think that Uber do a good job in that by making travel by taxi affordable for ordinary people - the sharing option is particularly good - they reduce private car use and thereby reduce congestion in cities.
But as they say in the DM bring on the red arrows!
