I disagree withe the "merciless" assessment of the Uber situation. With some hands on experience in the NYC taxi industry and son of a life long cabbie, I'd argue Uber/Lyft has made things better for both drivers and customers.
The standard cut for traditional car service in NYC has been 33%. Not to mention any promotional coupons were also deducted from drivers sub-total. This was standard before Green Taxi, Uber and Lyft etc. This is on top of soul killing idle hours for car service drivers because they had to stay in the city to be eligible for the next job.
A NYC yellow cab driver pays in $700+ gas weekly thanks to mafia like tactics of cab medallion owning ventures. That's a whole set of debate that I won't divulge.
The standard cut for traditional car service in NYC has been 33%. Not to mention any promotional coupons were also deducted from drivers sub-total. This was standard before Green Taxi, Uber and Lyft etc. This is on top of soul killing idle hours for car service drivers because they had to stay in the city to be eligible for the next job.
A NYC yellow cab driver pays in $700+ gas weekly thanks to mafia like tactics of cab medallion owning ventures. That's a whole set of debate that I won't divulge.