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Keeping 95% of the fare- What if Uber leaves Houston - Updated

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#1 ·
Food for thoughts:
There still a level of uncertainty about the future of Uber in Houston. I keep hearing Uber is not going anywhere, while the city keep saying they will be enforcing new ordinance to force everyone to go through the background checks. Somehow and somewhere one side will have to compromise or give up.

If Uber leaves Houston, there will be a parade of companies claiming to fill the void, but their model will continues to be the same, "get the most of every single driver".

Is time to think differently, we the drivers need to do something, take the wheel and change the game.

What if there was a way for the driver to get the most of each fare? what if there a system that works the other way? the more drivers, the most each of us would take home?

(Don't jump into conclusions yet, bare with me)

One way to accomplish this is by orgazing ourselves and collaboraring. Working together to come up with a new business model that would allow us to operate independently and freely, regardless if Uber leaves or stay, or if any other company comes along.

How would you do that you ask? Well here it is one suggestion: everybody knows technology is what connect pax to the driver. What if take advatage of a community effort designing and building an open source technology platform for drivers? Is very likely there are bright minds in our community of driver that would be interested in playing with this.

The overall idea is to work for ourselves, not to make others rich at our expense. The only contribution we'll make is to pay our own expenses, the good thing here, the more drivers come onboard, the less each of us will pay to keep the lights on. This will be non-profit organization, ran by us, with leadership appointed by all us, so there is 100% transparency.

This may be a crazy idea for some of you, and that's fine. For those who think this is worth exploring share your comment or send me a private messages.

Abraham Lincoln once said, the best way to predict the future is to create it...

JMM
 
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#3 ·
Food for thoughts:
There still a level of uncertainty about the future of Uber in Houston. I keep hearing Uber is not going anywhere, while the city keep saying they will be enforcing new ordinance to force everyone to go through the background checks. Somehow and somewhere one side will have to compromise or give up.

If Uber leaves Houston, there will be a parade of companies claiming to fill the void, but their model will continues to be the same, "get the most of every single driver".

Is time to think differently, we the drivers need to do something, take the wheel and change the game.

What if there was a way for the driver to get the most of each fare? what if there a system that works the other way? the more drivers, the most each of us would take home?

(Don't jump into conclusions yet, bare with me)

One way to accomplish this is by orgazing ourselves and collaboraring. Working together to come up with a new business model that would allow us to operate independently and freely, regardless if Uber leaves or stay, or if any other company comes along.

How would you do that you ask? Well here it is one suggestion: everybody knows technology is what connect pax to the driver. What if take advatage of a community effort designing and building an open source technology platform for drivers? Is very likely there are bright minds in our community of driver that would be interested in playing with this.

The overall idea is to work for ourselves, not to make others rich at our expense. The only contribution we'll make is to pay our own expenses, the good thing here, the more drivers come onboard, the less each of us will pay to keep the lights on. This will be non-profit organization, ran by us, with leadership appointed by all us, so there is 100% transparency.

This may be a crazy idea for some of you, and that's fine. For those who think this is worth exploring share your comment or send me a private messages.

Abraham Lincoln once said, the best way to predict the future is to create it...

JMM
I think is a good idea if there is anyone that would suport it. I would.
 
#4 ·
I still believe the idea of creating a "driver community app" is worth exploring.I have been doing some research and found out that Google recently released an updated API for geolocation, Lyft is currently using the same technology. http://googleforwork.blogspot.com/2...ers-and-riders-with-Google-Maps-APIs.html?m=1

Google offers a paid geolocation service for logistics and transportation companies, this can help put drivers on the map, that's pretty much half of work https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/tutorials/geolocation

The other half will consist on developing the GUI for the public. I'm aware this sound simple and I'm not an dev, but have some knowledge in this area. The fact is, someone has already done it, it won't be easy, but if successful, it has the potential to go "viral" and change this industry. Some marketing to the heart can make PAX see the human side of us.

The most difficult part that I see is getting organized as a group, but once enough people is on board, a committee can be created, a vetting process can be put in place to validate credentials, expertise; and make sure only people with vested interests is part of this.

Everything starts with believing folks. Better to try and fail, than to let others (like UBR-AV and CoH App) try to make us dissapear.

Sorry for the long posting

IMHO

JMM
 
#5 ·
Here's the thing-these ordinances under debate are not anything "new". They were written for Uber with Uber's help in 2014. It's unofficially called the "uber ordinance". The city has proposed NO change to the existing requirements. My hunch is Uber has a bunch of drivers with expiring TNC's and the Super Bowl is in February. If the same ordinance gets adopted again it would go into effect Feb 1. Uber is likely looking at the numbers expiring before February and speculating that with current rates, crap driver treatment and the cost to get another TNC, it will lose a boatload of drivers just days before a huge cash cow-The Game & peripheral events therein. It doesn't care about driver or rider safety, we know this. But point is that the ordinance is nothing new at all. Uber is being a dyck. The dyck that it is daily.
 
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