Uber Adding New York City Yellow Taxis To Its App

Uber is adding the New York City Yellow Taxis to its app, a first of its kind in the US.

It is a partnership between the ride-hailing service and two taxi-hailing platforms, Curb and Creative Mobile Technologies.

As part of the deal, Uber will work with the long time rivals in the taxi industry, to provide customers more optional services.

Uber revealed this to newsmen in a statement.

According to the ride-hailing service, it hopes to integrate every taxi in the world on its app.

Speaking on the partnership, Uber’s SVP, mobility and business operations manager, Andrew Macdonald, said the partnership will provide drivers more ways to earn.

He said, “Uber has a long history of partnering with the taxi industry to provide drivers with more ways to earn.

He said the partnerships will also provide “riders with another transportation option.”

Macdonald, added saying, “Our partnerships with taxis look different around the world.

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He said “and we’re excited to team up with taxi software companies CMT and Curb, which will benefit taxi drivers and all New Yorkers.”

Benefits:

Uber will list the two companies, providing the over 14,000 NYC taxi drivers access to it app.

Also, this means that Uber customers may soon be able to hail a New York City yellow cab through Uber app.

Similarly, ride-hailing customers will be able to book trips in taxis connected to either Curb or Arro.

Curb and Arro are the two smartphone apps which Curb Mobility and CMT own and operate for ride-hailing.

Why the deal:

It is the first city-wide partnership that Uber would be entering in the US.

Following the pandemic, Uber has been experiencing driver shortages.

This shortage has caused Uber rides fares to rise.

Similarly, some New York City taxi drivers too are struggling to make more money following dwindling customers.

Ever since Uber launched into the ride-hailing sector in the US, the Yellow Taxis witnessed very low patronage.

Competition became very stiff and Uber took the upper hand.

This created a feud between the two industry players.

However, in what became a new turn of event, Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi hinted on the partnership in February.

He had said that the company had plans to roll out more taxi partnerships.

According to him, “I will tell you we wanna get every single taxi in the world onto our platform by 2025.”

Moreover, Uber has already partnered with taxi services abroad.

Countries where it has partnered with taxis include but not limited to Spain, Columbia, Turkey, Germany, Austria, South Korea, and Hong Kong.

Similarly, speaking on development, CEO of Curb, Amos Tamam said the partnership is a step towards expansion.

“Our partnership with Uber is a natural step forward in the expansion of ground mobility.

“And, as a driver-first company, we will remain committed to our taxi drivers and fleets.

He said the company will “work with Uber to generate enhanced stability and financial wellness for members of the taxi industry.”

What you need to know about the partnership:

First, all customers will the same fare for taxi rides as they would for an Uber X trip.

Also, both Uber  and Taxi drivers will get their pay under a payment formula that Uber calls Utilization Rate.

This rate allows Uber to only pay a driver according to the time spent with customer rather than according to time spent idle waiting for customers.

Meanwhile, taxi drivers have a better option than Uber drivers in that they get to see their earnings before a trip.

So, they can either hop on the trip if they like the earnings or decline the trip if it does not.

Uber drivers, however, don’t have this option.

Conversely, Uber drivers are eligible for a fuel surcharge, a development Uber adopted to help its drivers make more money.

The fuel surcharge helps to cushion the effect of the high cost of gas for drivers.

However, taxi drivers who will be on Uber app will not enjoy this benefit.

This development is so because taxi drivers already enjoy a 5.3 percent for-hire vehicle minimum cost as living increase.

Meanwhile, Uber will receive at least, a 20 percent cut of the fares that taxi drivers earn from its platform.

Implications:

This partnership will definitely provide more options to customers.

Also, it will ensure better services by the ride-hailing companies.

The partnership will help the parties grow further.

It will also tackle the need for more drivers.

Meanwhile, it will create more jobs even as drivers will now make more money.