It is a fact that the majority of tourist and Orlando residents would like to have the service that Uber provides available to them all over Orlando. The Uber service is being used all over the world and has a customer satisfaction rating that has never been seen before in the transportation industry. But Uber says, it isn’t in the transportation business, it is a communications Company. We know that Uber is a transportation company, so that is one lie so far. Uber is going against taxi companies all over Orlando, both are telling lies, here are some facts that neither side dispute:

About Uber

• Uber does background checks of every driver
• Uber makes the driver provide proof of insurance
• Uber provides additional insurance for riders.
• Uber requires cars to be clean and in good condition.
• Uber has a rating system that is used on every rider trip and ratings are given by driver and rider so that riders or drivers have knowledge for future experiences.
• Uber provides an app for the rider that summons the closest Uber driver and gives the location and eta of pickup in less than one minute.
• Uber provides updates of the drivers location all the way up to the pick up.
• Uber charges the rider from a prepaid account, no money is exchanged and no tips are necessary.
• Amount of the fare is given to the rider and that amount is taken from the rider’s account, no digging in the purse or wallet to pay, making drop off much faster.

About Orlando Taxi’s

• Each driver undergoes a background check from the City of Orlando.
• Insurance is provided by the taxi company.
• Summons a taxi by waiting in a taxi line or making a phone call to a taxi company.
• wait for Your taxi while reading a book, checking your email, texting your friends. Call taxi company to ask the location of Your driver.
• Pay by cash and tips are expected. Most taxi’s also accept credit cards

Once Uber entered the Orlando market, the taxi companies got very upset and that put Mayor Buddy Dryer on the hot seat because the taxi industry pays a lot of fees to the City of Orlando. In order to push that aside, the Mayor said that the number one focus is the safety of the passengers. Here We go! We all know that MONEY is the number one issue here, not safety. The City of Orlando collects approximately 400 dollars for a driver’s permit from each taxi driver, something they are not getting from Uber drivers. The City of Orlando also gets a fee for each vehicle that is used as hired transportation. The background check is no better than Uber’s background check and the permit of the vehicle is no better than Uber’s vehicle check but the City is not getting that money. It would not matter if Uber was just as safe or safer to the passenger, The City isn’t making money so they do not like it.

Fact is most People that know about Uber would much rather use them than a typical taxi company. Summons a car at the push of a button, know where that car is almost instantly. Know what the ratings are for that driver, know who the driver is and what car to look for.

If the City of Orlando wants to make this fair, they should charge Uber drivers the same permit price as taxi drivers for the background check and the vehicle permit. Once that is established let the Uber drivers compete with the taxi drivers on the same playing field. Then let the People decide who to use. The taxi companies will be forced to update their operations to today’s technology.

The City of Orlando needs to admit that this is only about MONEY and just make it fair for all drivers and let the best company win.