Threat to ride-sharing at Sky Harbor (Phoenix: gated, law, move)

[DetroitN8V]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

You continue to change the narrative to fit your argument. I said $24. For the 4th time, $24. Heck, I even capitalized the word "IF". IF Lyft follows through to prove a point, I'll pay my game to save $24 totaling once sentence. Not for $4 but $24 (now the 5th time). I'll pay myself more than the driver that is taking me to the airport airport earning less than my savings excluding his overhead. Now if you are in upper management at Lyft, I stand corrected.

This is wild. It’s not $24. It’s the surcharge. It’s actually only $1.34 because there’s already a $2.66 surcharge, but that’s beside the point. Wouldn’t you still save the same $20 by taking Lyft over to Uber directly to the airport? I don’t see how their fare being cheaper has anything to do with the surcharge.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

This is wild. It’s not $24. It’s the surcharge. It’s actually only $1.34 because there’s already a $2.66 surcharge, but that’s beside the point. Wouldn’t you still save the same $20 by taking Lyft over to Uber directly to the airport? I don’t see how their fare being cheaper has anything to do with the surcharge.

For whatever reason, Lyft is always much cheaper. And IF they play hardball for x amount of time and IF I am traveling directly to the airport, our Uber buddies are going to hammer people even more. So yea, it's $24 so long as Lyft sits on the side lines. I am also betting it won't be forever. But I kind of like the idea of disrupting the additional fees.

Now according to the insiders, the fee is REALLY about a loss of parking revenue. You know, guys like me who usually parked their car and hassled with having to arrive early to the airport are no longer parking. So their "improvement" fee seems to be really about them wanting some more $$'s because ride share is changing their income stream. Not sure if that's true as I have not parked at the airport in years.

That said, it was explained to me that the Lyft drivers are all prepared to play this game. It's their livelihood at stake. It's also why Lyft might push back knowing that their drivers are willing to dodge the fees thereby impacting their revenue less that you assume. Of course, they will loose you as a customer. So when Uber surges big time, go ahead and take my free one liner and go save some money with Lyft. You are welcome.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

I should add that I have no idea why Lyft is always so much cheaper. The longer the ride the bigger the savings. I'm assuming they are still trying to buy their way into the market. When we have guests, I refuse to drive people to the airport or pick them up. It's bad math for me to drive them when it costs $35 for an airport run (nearly always the case even when I schedule the night before). How they do it is beyond me. The drivers get something like only 1/2 of the fee. I don't get it...????

[veritased]

I have checked that lately and Lyft was sometimes more than Uber. I think both outfits are playing with their algo's constantly... seeing what happens with A/B experiments. We are just monkeys in their labs.

[DatBoiLavoi]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

As already established, it's simple to enforce and track and no one is going to put the thought into taking the "seconds to get around the fee". Do you travel a lot? Would you bother playing silly games within the app to skirt a nominal fee? No one will except for maybe a few fringe cheapskates.

I don't think this is established. While other airports may have implemented a rideshare fee, if they rely upon Uber/Lyft for enforcement, the fee may not be added 100% of the time, even if end users are not purposely attempting to get around the fee. I'm guessing these airports don't even realize this.

If users are purposely attempting to get around the fee then forget it.

Simply put, geofences are not a fool proof way of tracking whether an end user went to a specific location. Starting with Android 8.0, the OS is very aggressive with putting background and even foreground services to sleep. It also greatly limits location updates when an app is in the background or when the phone screen is turned off. Only Google apps have unrestricted access to the location listener, all other apps rely upon the OS to send them location updates. This may not have been the case when some airports decided on going down this path but I think it is a trend that is likely to continue in an effort to increase battery life.

What I mean by this is if a passenger has their phone screen turned off, there is a chance that a rideshare app's geofence entrance transition may NOT be tripped, meaning no fee will be added.

You can read the Google documentation or even try searching "geofence did not trigger when app is in background". You will find many developers discussing these limitations.

There are better ways to get funding for the airport besides trying to charge a fee to rideshare companies AND have them police themselves. What will airports do if rideshare becomes decentralized? Why jump through hoops to get a few dollars per ride, when a much easier and more fool proof approach is to add the fee onto purchases within the airport or even the tickets themselves?

[exit2lef]

It may have been overshadowed by the impeachment news, but the Phoenix City Council passed the revised fee schedule yesterday by a 7-2 vote. Uber and Lyft continue to say they'll leave the airport but have not set a date. Their allies and advocates like the Goldwater Institute and dissenting city council member Sal DiCiccio promise this will be challenged in the courts or maybe overridden by legislation at the state level, so this debate may not be over.

[DatBoiLavoi]

Originally Posted by exit2lef

It may have been overshadowed by the impeachment news, but the Phoenix City Council passed the revised fee schedule yesterday by a 7-2 vote. Uber and Lyft continue to say they'll leave the airport but have not set a date. Their allies and advocates like the Goldwater Institute and dissenting city council member Sal DiCiccio promise this will be challenged in the courts or maybe overridden by legislation at the state level, so this debate may not be over.

This is a loss for travelers. I'm hoping that Uber and Lyft return at some point or fee schedule is changed.

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by DatBoiLavoi

This is a loss for travelers. I'm hoping that Uber and Lyft return at some point or fee schedule is changed.

They can't return until they actually leave. So far, they haven't left -- just threatened to leave.

[DatBoiLavoi]

This occurred a few years ago at Fresno's airport and Uber pulled out for our a couple of years until the agreement was changed.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by DatBoiLavoi

This occurred a few years ago at Fresno's airport and Uber pulled out for our a couple of years until the agreement was changed.

Are you sure? People on this forum are convinced it can never happen. https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local...147974814.html