A History of the Taxi, Car Service and Uber Story

For generations, taxis have been the primary means of on demand transportation for New Yorkers. More importantly, it was a means for workers, especially immigrants or those without formal education, to earn a living wage (mostly cash). However, taxis were mostly limited to the inner city of Manhattan as that was where most of the passenger volume and demands were located. Given the amount of passenger demand and limited taxis that were available at the time, this meant passengers looking for rides were subject to long wait times. This also meant that passengers located in the outer city fringes were oftentimes neglected. 

Then along in 1992, the rise of black car service took over as the popularization of radio meant drivers working for a livery base could provide on-demand transportation via dispatching versus street hails. This changed the transportation industry in NYC as passengers could now book their rides in advance by phoning a car service agency or brokerage, who would then pass along the information to one of its affiliated drivers (known as a dispatch). 

In the early 2000, the landscape was changed drastically once again as Uber redefined what it meant to be on-demand. With the Uber application in hand, passengers could skip the phone call and connect with driver directly (thereby cutting out the middleman entirely) simply by using their cellphones. This is known as Ridesharing and remains as the most popular and common way for passengers and drivers to connect on demand. 

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