But with this company, there's a catch: as Uber's employees will be the first to tell you, the basic

Uber's basic product, which it calls Uber Black, lets users book a nearby towncar using a smartphone, then electronically pay the driver and privately leave him or her a rating, without opening their wallets. In exchange, summer cruise ship jobs it costs about 30 percent more than a taxi, though fare-splitting is allowed .
But with this company, there's a catch: as Uber's employees will be the first to tell you, the basic service their company provides is currently illegal in Portland, due to the city's complicated body of codes that regulate for-hire transportation . Those laws require taxis to accept summer cruise ship jobs any ride, however unprofitable. In exchange for that requirement, the city limits the supply of taxis and protects them from competition by requiring limos and towncars to book all rides at least 60 minutes in advance.
As part of a one-day national campaign on Friday, Uber's iOS and Android mobile apps will be able to summon summer cruise ship jobs ice cream trucks instead of towncars. In Portland, ice cream deliveries will cost $20 for five servings .
Uber currently operates in 35 cities, including Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In most of its U.S. cities, it's faced entrenched opposition from the local taxi industry and if KATU's report on Tuesday is any indication, the story in Portland will be similar.
There's wide agreement among transportation policy experts that cities would be better off if they didn't artificially restrict the supply of taxis. Doing so tends to drive up their price, reduce the competitive pressure to offer good service and generally increase the pressure on everyone to own a personal summer cruise ship jobs car. In 2011, Seattle's Sightline Institute found that Portland had one of the country's smallest supplies of taxis per resident , despite being in the middle of the pack on taxi price.
"Taxi service in Portland is unreliable, difficult to order, and has insanely long wait times," wrote Lillian Karabaic, a BikePortland contributor and local bike activist who's used Uber in other cities, as she signed a petition the company's government affairs summer cruise ship jobs firm helped line up to show support for Uber. (There's summer cruise ship jobs also a local Twitter feed .) "I want Uber because summer cruise ship jobs I'll pay a little more to not wait an hour in the pouring rain for a 2 mile ride!"
Karabaic is right that Portland taxis can be unreliable. Uber has a real argument that its slick, upscale service could keep more drunk drivers off the road while also making it more pleasant to live in Portland without owning a car.
"The demand is there, but people just haven't had high-quality, reliable and quick solutions," Uber spokesman Andrew summer cruise ship jobs Noyes said Thursday. He added that Uber "would do everything in our power to accommodate bikes" and that the company has been talking about the subject locally.
On the other hand, taxi politics are complicated. Noyes is happy to attack local taxi companies such as Broadway Cab (whose president, Raye Miles, has been quick to criticize Uber) for "making millions" on the labor of low-paid cab drivers but it's not as if Uber isn't trying to do the same thing . And while state campaign finance records show Miles and his company contributed a total of $4,700 to the campaign of Mayor Charlie summer cruise ship jobs Hales (plus $2,000 more to his opponents, just in case), Uber's lobbying firm Gallatin Public Affairs and its local partner, Greg Peden, chipped Hales $2,125 themselves, plus $500 to future Transportation Commissioner Steve Novick.
However summer cruise ship jobs this political battle plays out, the best thing about this news may be that multiple companies are fiercely competing to provide services to Portlanders who are getting around without cars of their own.
Free ice cream! Join Ben Jerry s co-founder for a pedal (and some ice cream) tomorrow Free Cone Day Ride Reader photo of the week: Ice cream for bike lane builders Armed with video camera, man takes neighborhood traffic summer cruise ship jobs safety into his own hands
At first glance I scoffed and thought, what typical low-car user is going to summon a "luxury" town car with the other options summer cruise ship jobs already available, but I now see it could come in handy in some limited situations. And having multiple options (bike, transit, car rental by the minute or hour, normal taxis, fancy taxis, etc.) is key to making a low-car lifestyle nevertheless convenient and available to more people.
summer cruise ship jobs Agreed, the biggest need we have in Portland is for more real normal-priced taxis. But at least letting Uber at high prices might someday lead to them getting the City to allow them to offer normal-priced service. So, I signed the petition, sorry taxi cabal! (I support taxi drivers, but they generally don't get a share of the excess profits that the company owners get from the limited supply of taxis).
Or too long -- leading out to a neighborhood where a taxi is unlikely to pick up a fare in the other direction. That's summer cruise ship jobs what kills your revenue as a cab driver (or a transit agency, for that matter): driving empty.
I use to drive/own a cab about 15 years ago. The best rates I had was the $2 sit down fee +1 for each extra passenger. If I had my way, each ride would have been 4 people going 2 blocks with another party of 4 waiting where I dropped them off. (that'd come out to a gross of about $1.00 a minute if everything went smoothly). But that doesn't happen here.
This is partially the reason it can be hard to get a cab. At peek hours at night, most head downtown and cruise for bar hoppers. Some areas don't ask for cabs enough to make hanging summer cruise ship jobs out worth while (like St. Johns, Sellwood, Clack County, Washington County) remember your drivers aren't making hourly wages, all thier money is about getting trips. Noones gunna hang out in (pick any of the above mentioned areas for 3 hours for that 6 block grocery run.
Dispatch might have 6 cabs marked in a zone, but at say bar rush, all 6 have picked summer cruise ship jobs up "flags" (people waving from the sidewalk who suposedly didn't call), they don't mark out of the zone becasue they're busy, dispatch is busy, and they loose thier place in line for a called in order.
The flip side is that durring that same bar rush, if you wait for a call. Odds are you're chasing summer cruise ship jobs people that other cabs have picked up becasue after asking the bartender to call you a cab, you walk out of the bar and flag the first one down that passes. You learn quickly not to bother with dispatched calls anywhere at peek times from downtown to 82nd.
And should your fair need to go to Wilsonville durring this rush, you're really screwed. Sure it's a decent ride (when it's not busy) but now I've just lost an hour of bar rush, and chasing 1 hour old dispact calls at 1 am in the burbs is alwasy a losing proposition. Again remember the drivers don't get an hourly wage or a salery. If they are sitting, they're loosing money.
If you take alot of cabs, get the drivers phone number. After about a year I was getting enough "personals" that I seldom even checked in with dispatch (another reason there seems to be a lack of cabs).
It's easy to judge the drivers and the industry from the outside where it looks pretty simple, but as a whole it's alot more complicated than it looks. And no offense, but having driven cab (and for a short time Towncar as well) I was already giving out about 40-70% of each trip to the companies I worked for and gas (yes we had to buy our own gas as well). 30% is really too much for what basically amounts to a cel phone call/text message.
I'd guess that the companies are able to take such a large cut of the fares that drivers take in because the companies are the only ones that hold taxi licenses. If Portland liberalized taxi licensing like Washington, DC has and allowed as many taxicabs as can fulfill the requirements (I'd imagine these include safety, adhering to fare structure, limited complaints) then I'd suspect that the "cut" that companies take would go down. Drivers in Washington, DC can easily go out on their own if the cut gets too high!
I think that other than at a few peek times (mostly around the holidays summer cruise ship jobs and Fri Sat bar rushes) there are probably too many cabs/driver services in this town as is. Just look at the backlot at PDX, drivers sit there for many hours waiting in line for what should be one of the busiest places in the city. Go to the Amtrack station when a train arrives, a block or two of cabs waiting for it to unload, usually you're only going to get a fare if your in the first 5 or 6 to line up there and often you're lucky if there is even one person summer cruise ship jobs that wants one there. summer cruise ship jobs Sit around and look at the cab stands by the hotels, I bet you loose patience and walk away before the first cab gets a fare off the stand.
The real problem with driver services in this town is two fold. There just isn't that much demand for them most the time. And honestly, becasue they aren't used much people here don't know what service is more appoperate for what they want.
You want a ride at 2 am on a fri night. from your favorite bar. Don't call just walk outside and wave a bill at the cabs that drive by. One will stop. Unless your in the Burbs or in the less popular commercial districts.
You need to be at the airport at a certian time. Call a limo or towncar service (some towncars summer cruise ship jobs offer nice SUVs for big loads and big groups). They cost a bit more, but not that much more considering you have specific demands. And if you do this tell them you have 10 people or 2 bikes or what not. They'll make it work.
If your not in the city core get to know your local drivers and get thier cel phone numbers. There are drivers that specialize in some of the burbs or harder to navigate summer cruise ship jobs (west hills Multnomah neighborhoods) areas. summer cruise ship jobs Call them, they rely on a steady stream of personals for thier business.
When I had my business even on the nights I didn't work, my personals were taken care of when they called me. Because the better drivers knew the other better drivers and I simply had to call another trusted driver to pick them up, as I would for them when they couldn't take care of their personals (in a few cases I even called summer cruise ship jobs drivers I