Cubans Comment on <b>Car Prices</b> - Havana Times.org |
- Cubans Comment on <b>Car Prices</b> - Havana Times.org
- Days before City Hall considers regulating <b>car</b> services, UberX cuts <b>...</b>
- <b>Car</b> Service Uber Slashing Baltimore <b>Prices</b> - Business - Towson <b>...</b>
| Cubans Comment on <b>Car Prices</b> - Havana Times.org Posted: 10 Jan 2014 04:24 AM PST  The announced automobile prices have done away with the aspirations of Cubans who dreamed of owning a car. HAVANA TIMES — "Car prices have brought about what Yoani Sanchez, Guillermo Fariñas, the Ladies in White, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Regan and the Bushes were unable to accomplish," Cuban journalist Javier Ortiz wrote in his blog. He added that "the price of the Peugeot 508 has led to a unanimous consensus" that could prove useful to those who "seek ways to bring the revolution down." No doubt, as Ortiz points out, never before had a reform met with so much condemnation. It is the one case in which having maintained a restriction would have spelled a less significant political cost. With all its shortcomings, the "letter" system at least offered tens of thousands of Cuban professionals who worked in brigades abroad the hope of purchasing a vehicle at affordable prices. "They apply market prices, but only when it's convenient for them. If we're going to follow the market for cars, we should also do it for salaries, and later multiply them by the same factor of 8," a renowned Cuban economist said to me. Art curator Abelardo Mena suggests we work towards a society "where solidarity and social justice prevail, but where consumption is permitted – the kind of consumption we've been denied over decades of a messianic monasticism." He insists that "underdevelopment and scarcity, not abundance, are responsible for vulgar consumerism and the phenomenon of the nouveaux riches." The Cubans Who Lost Their Letters While it is true that the bulk of the population doesn't care whether cars cost ten thousand or a million dollars (because they wouldn't be able to afford them either way), the measure does affect tens of thousands of Cuban medical doctors, intellectuals, diplomats, artists and journalists.  Not even the Soviet Union's vast economic aid and French consultancy led to a good public transportation system in Cuba. On Facebook, Lourdes Llera asks herself what will become of "all Cubans who, with integrity and through great personal sacrifices, managed to obtain a letter authorizing them to purchase a car", cars which, in their majority, "didn't cost more than 5,000 CUC (US $ 5,500)." Duviesky Turiño Gomez left a comment in Cubadebate, saying that, now, "those of us who are working in an internationalist mission will need 4 or 5 continuous missions to be able to buy a second-hand car." On various social networks, a State journalist published calculations that estimate that, to purchase a car, a person would need to save 5,790 full salaries in the course of 482 years, concluding that "they went off the deep end with these prices – we're going to be the world's laughing stock." Those who passed this new law could well have made an exception for these Cubans, assigning the automobiles retired by rental agencies to them at the prices they had before January 3, 2014. The Cubans Who Hand Out the Letters A few months ago, art critic Jorge Gomez pointed out that those who make it difficult for Cubans to buy cars are "bureaucrats" that already own a vehicle. He's wrong. Many a time, they actually have two cars – their work car and personal vehicles. A doctor, angered over these developments, tells me that those who deny him the possibility of buying a car use State vehicles to go to the beach, take their kids to school or go shopping – practices that, in countries like El Salvador, citizens can denounce and the law punishes.  Public transportation shortages turn interprovincial trips into veritable adventures The main argument in defense of the measure is that the government will promote public transportation. A Cuban intellectual replies that the argument would be valid "if those who approved those prices were willing to give up their cars and to start catching the bus like the rest of us." To avoid speculation, the government could publish the number of State vehicles used by politicians and officials, the amount of fuel they consume and how much money is spent in spare because, for, when all is said and done, those bills are paid by the work of Cuban citizens. Cuban Alchemists It comes as no surprise that reader comments left on Cuba's official web-site, Cubadebate, are almost all critical of car prices. What's curious is that the site's administrators published comments such as "long live the black market!" or "not even my great grandchildren will be able to own a car." There's even a comment by an Internet user which reads: "I'm interested in buying the horse that kicked the guy who set the car prices in the head." Another user mocks the new measures, saying that "with those prices, they'll be able to build the Havana Subway in less than a year!"  "If we're going to follow the market for cars, we should also do it for salaries." The fact of the matter is that many Cubans doubt the creation of the public transportation fund will fix things, not after the country was unable to put together a minimally efficient bus system with millions in Soviet aid and French consultancy. In any event, they still have an opportunity to demonstrate that things will be different this time around. On Friday, a 2010 Hyundai (which costs roughly US $15,000 in the United States) was sold at the equivalent of US $120,000. With that money, they could, in theory, import a brand new bus. It remains to be seen if they'll let us know when it arrives and where it will operate. Now, the main challenge facing Cuba's Ministry of Transportation is akin to a work of alchemy: purchasing vehicles abroad using Cuban Convertible Pesos, a currency which, despite its name, is not convertible outside of Cuba.  |
| Days before City Hall considers regulating <b>car</b> services, UberX cuts <b>...</b> Posted: 09 Jan 2014 12:09 PM PST
Just four days before the Dallas City Council is scheduled to finally crash into Uber, Lyft and all the other ride-sharing options now available to folks who won't hail a cab, Uber announced it's cutting prices in more than a dozen markets for UberX users. The company's ride-sharing alternative to its higher-priced limo service has only been available in Dallas since November, when, much like the Edgar Winter Group, it rolled out free rides for a few days. But, says CEO Travis Kalanick's announcement posted to the Uber blog Thursday, "what if Uber was actually the cheapest ride in every Uber city? What if we lowered rates in 16 of our 24 uberX cities? And what if some of those cuts pushed the envelope of what we even think is possible? That's exactly what we're doing."  Travis Kalanick, chief executive officer of Uber Technology Inc. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg) Some of the markets, especially on the West Coast, will see enormous plunges in prices — from 20 to 30 percent. Dallas riders will see their receipts shrink by around 12 percent, according to TechCrunch. Uber's not being shy about its intentions: It's going directly after Lyft, Sidecar and all its other app-ordered competitors, as well as cities' mass-transit options. UberX, says the company, is "cheaper than the bus (with fare splitting!)." But this is really about sticking it to the taxi companies — like, say, Yellow Cab — that claim Uber's targeting them by unfairly circumventing city regulations. "On average across all Uber cities, uberX is 26% cheaper than a taxi," says Thursday's posting. "In the end, tens of millions of city residents have a better, faster, and cheaper option to get around their city. FAR more reliable than TAXIs in every city we're in. FAR more economically accessible to FAR more people. FAR higher quality and FAR more accountability than any other ride." Keep in mind, though, Uber and UberX are far from the same thing. The former uses city-licensed limo drivers who shuttle riders in black sedans and SUVs. UberX, on the other hand, is a network of folks with their own cars who pick up passengers needing a lift. It's often compared to hitchhiking via smartphone at a price. Drivers are vetted with background checks and interviews, but unlike their Uber counterparts, UberX'ers don't have permits issued by city hall. But, perhaps, that's all about to change: On Monday the council's Transportation and Trinity River Project Committee plans to spend the entirety of an extended two-hour meeting discussing transportation-for-hire regulations. Jimmy Martin, the director of Code Compliance, will make the presentation, and we'll post his prepared briefing as soon as it becomes publicly available. Monday's meeting will be the first of three discussions scheduled this month. Also on the to-do list: a public forum from 5-7 p.m. January 21 in council chambers at 1500 Marilla, followed by a January 27 committee meeting during which the council will consider "whether to revise and/or amend current ordinance," according to a November memo from committee chair Vonciel Jones Hill. Coincidentally, Slate today has a piece addressing that very subject, which says regulating Uber is a necessity and not necessarily an evil one. Matter of fact, the piece suggests, perhaps Uber can drive the debate. Siona Listokin, an assistant professor at George Mason University School of Public Policy, says most cities' taxi regulations are antiquated and so firmly entrenched they seem to exist solely to help the legacy cab companies (especially, in Dallas' case, the cab company that actually wrote them). But Uber has something the cab companies don't: data, compiled by the very smartphones passengers and drivers use to communicate and calculate. "The company's business model depends on technology that matches driver and passenger locations, controls payments electronically, and evaluates driver conscientiousness," writes Listokin. "The company has used its data to compute which city neighborhoods host the most casual sex and how the federal government shutdown impacted rides to and from the U.S. Capitol. It can certainly track data of more obvious use to public officials, such as pickup times in low-income neighborhoods and price surges. Uber can accurately and seamlessly measure safety, pricing, and equity of service—the goals at the heart of taxi regulation. This means that the company is right that it shouldn't be subject to the chokehold of the taxi commissions." . Bookmark the . |
| <b>Car</b> Service Uber Slashing Baltimore <b>Prices</b> - Business - Towson <b>...</b> Posted: 09 Jan 2014 12:56 PM PST Customers may use the service to request a ride using an app on their smartphones. Uber, a popular car service that allows users to arrange for a ride using an app on their smartphones, announced Thursday it's lowering prices for rides in Baltimore. The company announced on its blog that it was cutting prices for rides in its uberX service in 16 cities including Baltimore. The company said that it would be slashing the cost of a ride 15 to 34 percent in cities such as Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle, but did not say how much it was reducing the cost of a ride in Charm City. "For the last two years, we have been laser-focused on introducing low-priced alternatives to cities worldwide. We've rolled out uberX in dozens of cities and, over time, we have cut those prices further to help more people experience the Uber magic," the company's blog reads. The service works by allowing users to download an app to arrange for a car to pick a user up, and take them to their desired destination. The ride is paid for via credit card eliminating the dangers of carrying cash, and the cost of the ride, which includes the driver's tip, is directly billed to the customers account. Uber offers different levels of service. The company also allows customers to pick from three levels of rides including the cheapest service uberX, a "black car" pickup and an SUV. |
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