Uber Schmuber

Or, why I will never use Uber again.

I'm currently without my car and so, a couple of days ago, I needed to organise getting from work to the local railway station just over two miles away. I also wanted to get home at a reasonable time, so tried to organise a taxi at 4:15 with an eye on getting a five past five train.

I'd already set up an Uber account using the app. You pay for your booking using the app.

4:15 book a taxi. You can;t tell them a pick up time, you put in a destination and a pick up point and that's it. There is a facility to text instructions, which I did, because where I work, if you put in a post code sat nav will put you down the M6.

App said my ride was one minute away. This stayed the same for ten minutes then up popped a message, Rashid cancelled.

TWAT.

I booked a second taxi, it was half four. App said 5 minutes away, then one minute then your driver is here, except he wasn't. According to the map showing the little car, he was about three parts of a mile away.

Booked a third. The same thing happened, he never turned up. I noticed the first one had tried to charge me for a no show on my part. TWAT.

A lot of people use taxis because they need to be somewhere by a certain time. This system is not geared for that.

By the time I'd got a conventional taxi which cost me a tenner for just over two fucking miles, I was at the station just in time to see my train depart. A 35 minute wait ensued and then standing room only on the train.

I've been given some platitudes by Uber on Twitter, but I doubt the "investigation" they say they are conducting is a real investigation at all.

Useless application of technology.