I disagree. I flew out to a professional society meeting a few months ago (i.e. high triple digits number of people converging on the convention center) and the airport taxi stand was packed. The line was moving very quickly. I'd estimate probably ten passengers being picked up every minute, but well over 100 people in line, which meant there was still a decent wait. The ride share pickup area was almost completely empty, with maybe one car stopping every two to three minutes. People were willing to wait 20 minutes in the cold, squeeze into a cab with two to three strangers, and put up with the extra stops/dropoffs because the of the price difference (Uber was charging something like 2.5x the airport taxi flat rate that night).
If algorithmic pricing is a "feature" that incentivizes more drivers to get on the street, why were the airport taxis operating on a fixed pricing model moving so many more people in a surge situation?
Uber/Lyft want to call surge pricing a "feature" but the reality is that (like many other companies in this tech bubble) they have been so irresponsible with staff bloat and overhead that switching to a premium pricing model whenever the opportunity arises is the only way they can keep the balance sheet near even.
That seems to indicate that taxis can't compete with Uber/Lyft's dispatch and logistics system, so they just wait somewhere with guaranteed customers. That's great if you happen to be at a hub where taxis hang out, but it sounds like lots of other people in the area also wanted a ride and didn't have a convenient airport taxi stand, causing the surge pricing for the region. For those people taxis are unavailable (because they are all queueing at the airport) so it's better to have the option of a ride at 2.5x than nothing.
If algorithmic pricing is a "feature" that incentivizes more drivers to get on the street, why were the airport taxis operating on a fixed pricing model moving so many more people in a surge situation?
Uber/Lyft want to call surge pricing a "feature" but the reality is that (like many other companies in this tech bubble) they have been so irresponsible with staff bloat and overhead that switching to a premium pricing model whenever the opportunity arises is the only way they can keep the balance sheet near even.