Uber, the nemesis of New York’s yellow cab industry, has reached an unlikely deal to list all city taxis on its app. The partnership is a game changing move that could ease the rideshare giant’s shortage of drivers and offer some relief to the city’s struggling cabbies.
As of this spring, some New Yorkers will be able to start hailing roughly 14,000 yellow cabs through the Uber app before the feature more widely rolls out over the summer, according to taxi technology companies and Uber partners Creative Mobile Technology and Curb Mobility. The companies, which respectively run the ride-hailing apps Curb and Arro, said they will integrate their apps’ software with Uber.
How will the deal affect the price of rides?
Customers will pay roughly the same amount for taxi trips as Uber X passengers, and cabbies will be paid on the same scale as Uber drivers when they accept fares through the app, according to Uber. In New York City, Uber drivers are paid a time and distance rate set by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission.
First of its kind in the U.S.
The e-hail company has formed similar partnerships with taxi cab operators in other countries, including in Barcelona and Hong Kong. But the New York City alliance is the first of its kind for Uber in the U.S. and is a departure from its image as a disruptor in the yellow cab industry.
Uber’s arrival in New York a decade ago ushered in major upheaval for the city’s cabbies as taxi medallion values plummeted and drivers found themselves crushed by insurmountable debts.