Uber Pickups

Uber, one of the most popular ridesharing applications, is on the rise and for good reason. With Uber, you can simply and effortlessly order cars, taxis, and other driving services for pickup to your location, safely and securely. Expecially in bustling cities like New York, San Francisco, and here in Hoboken, services like Uber, Lyft, and others are growing. However, not everyone is happy with their steady growth.

Some local and state governments are trying to ban and stop Uber drivers, due to UberX (ridesharing with the driver's personal car) drivers not needing State/City Taxi certification, but rather, Uber's own certification process. While this is a reasonable worry, for the safety of citizens both in the car and on the street, services like Uber have completely disrupted the taxi service industry.

With my person experience using Uber many times over this past summer, I have found that it is more convenient, with better service, and at typically lower cost than traditional taxi services. Having tried to order a taxi in Hoboken for pickup, I haven't even been able to successfully do it because the process is strenuous, with long waits and unknown arrival times. The only time taxis in Hoboken are convenient is outside the Hoboken Terminal where there are typically huge lines of people waiting for cabs as well.

The way apps like Uber have disrupted the industry, and the response of the city/state governments to shut them down, I am in the corner that rather than trying to stop the usage of ridesharing, we should be making it safer and more secure by standardizing the process. In particular, the area I have found is lacking is in pickup.

While it is more convenient than traditional taxis, and you know when they arrive, I found that since the cars used in UberX are standard consumer cars (as apposed to yellow cabs or luxury black car services), it can sometimes feel confusing if a car stopping is your Uber car or just a random driver. Through the Uber app, you know the name of the driver, a small picture of them, and a description of the car including the license plate number. While this is useful and can easily verify the car is legitimate, it is difficult sometimes to see the license plate, or properly confirm the driver is the right person.

A simple solution to standardize this, would be to put the license plate number with the Uber logo on the back windows of all Uber cars. This way, you can immediately recognize and confirm that it is the right car. In addition, I find that when I get into an Uber car, I should be expecting then to ask my first name. This does two things, allows them to confirm with me that they have the right person, while also ensuring me that I have the right car. This process cannot be the other way, because there needs to be more trust put in the passenger than the driver. I should not be expected to confirm the driver's name, as a random stranger could just say yes. Ideally this process could be standardized by a confirmation in app, even if it is a code or passphrase.

Although it might make the Uber experience slightly more cumbersome, a more streamlined and standardized pickup system would help legitimize the service even more, with safer and secure precautions.