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Portland is now an Uber town—whether city officials like it or not.
The San Francisco-based ride-sharing company launched a surprise invasion of Portland on Friday, bringing its service to the only city on the West Coast where it wasn't operating. City officials like Commissioner Steve Novick, who had so far barred Uber's cars, vow to retaliate with stings and fines. Uber says it will fight the city's crackdown in court.
What does Uber's controversial debut mean for your transportation options? And what happens next? WW has the answers.
How do I hail an Uber car?
Download the app to your smartphone, enter your credit card information, then tap a button to summon the nearest driver. When your ride ends, your card is charged for the fare.
How fancy will my ride be?
Don't expect one of the sleek, black, Uber-owned town cars seen in New York City and San Francisco. Portland's getting the discount-store version of Uber, called UberX, which enlists drivers to take their own cars and turn them into DIY taxis. (Our reporters have been picked up by a Ford Five Hundred SEL and a Toyota Camry. The company won't allow cars built before 2005.) That's one of the advantages of Uber: It increases the transportation options in Portland without increasing the number of cars on the road.
What if I don't have a smartphone?
No Uber for you. That's one of the criticisms levied against Uber: that it only serves the tech-savvy and financially secure. "The only people they target are people with a smartphone and a credit card," Steve Entler, general manager of Radio Cab, told WW in July. "Who's taking care of your mother?"
Does Uber work better than calling Radio Cab?
We had a chance to test that question after Uber launched in Vancouver, Wash. this summer. When WW comparison-shopped the two services by riding to Vancouver and back in August, Uber was marginally faster and cheaper—by less than $5 and five minutes. That may no longer be the case this weekend, however, as the company appears overburdened by demand during its Portland debut. An attempt to use the Uber app on Saturday evening resulted in a wait of over an hour—at which point we cancelled the reservation.
Do Uber drivers like their jobs?
The more than 30 drivers our staff has interviewed—mostly in other cities—say they love the flexibility of being able to decide when and where they want to work. Many use Uber as a second job. Uber drivers have their paychecks go straight into their bank accounts every week. They report making $10 to $20 an hour.
So what's the down side?
The drawback for drivers and customers is the same: risk. Uber treats its drivers as contractors, not employees. The company has claimed it's not liable when things go wrong— like the most notorious case, when a driver waiting for a fare hit and killed a six-year-old girl in San Francisco last New Year's Eve. Oregon state officials have warned that commercial insurance my not apply to passengers. Uber also doesn't have a great track record of making sure its cars can accommodate disabled passengers. And it's upending the established taxi industry, meaning that local cab drivers are seeing the value and security of their jobs plummet.
What protections does Uber provide customers?
"Uber carries a combined single-limit insurance policy of $1 million to cover the rider and driver," says general manager Brooke Steger. The company conducts background checks on drivers. Its phone app requires all riders to rate their drivers on a scale of 1 to 5 stars at the end of a ride—and drivers rank their riders the same way. Most Uber drivers won't pick up a passenger whose rating is lower than 4 stars, and the company won't let drivers keep contracting if they dip below a certain rating.
What are local cab companies doing to compete?
Radio Cab and Broadway Cab have invested in a phone app of their own, called Curb. It roughly approximates the Uber service—click a button, get a cab. But the companies are also depending on the Portland Private For-Hire Board of Transportation, which sets the rules for taxis, limos and town cars, and has so far barred Uber. As of this weekend, however, Uber has decided to defy those rules.
Why is Steve Novick fighting Uber so fiercely?
You mean telling The New York Times that "Uber seems like a bunch of thugs"? The city commissioner is certainly outraged that the company abandoned rule negotiations and decided to stage what's essentially a hostile takeover of the cab market. But Novick also may be playing operatic notes to impress organized labor, including Oregon AFL-CIO, which opposes Uber as a threat to unionized drivers. Unions are Novick's political base, and a much-needed ally in the ongoing war over his proposed $46 million Portland street fee.
How could Portland City Hall stop Uber?
The city has sent out undercover enforcement officers to try to order Uber cabs and issue $2,750 fines to drivers—but that's a lot of overtime hours for a small deterrent. Portland's transportation officials can also start impounding the cars of Uber's drivers. But the most meaningful next step is that Uber and the city could go to court. Novick told Oregon Public Broadcasting on Saturday that he's considering filing a court injunction to keep Uber from operating in Portland. That's the tactic Las Vegas officials took when Uber came to town—and it's worked, forcing Uber out of Nevada for now. So order your Uber car while you can. Most likely, your latest transportation option is headed for a judge.
WWeek 2015