Taxi Driver Online

Smartphone app taxi service Uber is to expand its Newcastle service only a month after launching in the city.

The firm, which introduced its cheapest UberX offering in April, will on Friday introduce its “executive” strand, UberEXEC, in the hope of attracting more business customers.

“We like to say that Uber is everyone’s private driver, and in an UberEXEC it really feels like it,” said Tom Elvidge, Uber Newcastle’s general manager.

“In an EXEC you can expect our highest rated drivers, the most luxurious cars and a chauffeur-driven service.”


The company claims that with UberEXEC a five minute, 0.8 miles ride in an E Class Mercedes or equivalent car from Newcastle Station to St. James’ Park will cost around £7.15, or “about the same time as a daytime taxi.”

Users of the service - of which Uber claimed there were more than 30,000 people prior to its launch on Tyneside - will see the new option appear in the app on Friday.

The taxis will be bookable in exactly the same way as Uber X, with GPS enabled maps used to locate passengers, and nearby cars requestable with the press of a button.

The app then provides the taxi driver’s photo, name and car registration and users can watch the taxi approaching via a moving symbol on the map.

All Uber drivers in the UK have passed an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service - formerly known as a CRB - check, are licensed by Newcastle City Council and are fully insured as private hire drivers, the company said.

Passengers then travel to their destination, but do not have to pay the driver - the fare is taken automatically via a credit or debit card connected to a customer’s Uber account.


http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/nor ... rm-9260167

The company claims that with UberEXEC a five minute, 0.8 miles ride in an E Class Mercedes or equivalent car from Newcastle Station to St. James’ Park will cost around £7.15, or “about the same time as a daytime taxi.


I have no idea who is

1. Lazy enough.

2. Stupid enough

To want to get in a car from the Station to St James' s park.

Especially a journey rhat will take (pending traffic lights) less than three minutes.

If Had an E Class Merc the last thing I'd want in it for a £7.15 Fare is a load of half jaked Football fans......Good luck to the Merc owner if they've got a smart car and dont mind it being used for such....Think I'd be trying to find a more befitting type of clientele

till 6 months down the ine when the tell the exec drivers that theyre now on uber x rates and if they donnt like it they can feck off,just like they have done in loads of cities in the states,after drivers have signed up and bought from ubers preferred retailer at sky high rates,the greed never stops,corporate hunger for more and more profit is relentless,

to those who think uber are the bees knees,go here

http://uberpeople.net/

uber drivers forum,makes interesting reading

_________________
i started out with nothing and ive still got most of it left

All I saw at the station last week was doblos

Quite right. Minimum £4 is a joke. Especially as those who know how to play the free £20 ride game by setting up multiple new user accounts, are often undesirables.

Here's a thread on the Uberpeople.net forum, discussing the very issue...

http://uberpeople.net/threads/anyone-no ... ide.19836/

I believe, certain cities in the U.S, UberBlack (equivalent to UberExec) drivers are forced to accept UberX rides.

Not happening in London, yet. Though on average there is more UberX work than UberExec work, as the work is more evenly spread around London, rather than UberExec work concentrated on the more affluent areas. Hence UberExec drivers are subject to more dead mileage than UberX, if certain jobs take them out the way, and as a result, the average hourly rate of UberX drivers, can exceed UberExec ones.