The ways to get to where you are going are numerous, subways, taxis, bus, streetcar. Now you can share your ride with a friend to make it easier and quicker, but that might not be a good thing for everybody.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s largest taxi company, Yellow Cab Co-Op, said that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy\u00a0in a December letter to shareholders obtained by the San Francisco Examiner. While regular taxi\u00a0operations\u00a0will continue, the company needs to restructure due to \u201cserious financial setbacks\u201d\u00a0caused by mounting debt and competition from ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft.<\/p>\n
The major problem? People just aren\u2019t taking as many regular cab rides any more now that Uber and company present a solution that\u2019s often cheaper and more convenient. \u201cOn an annual basis over 5 million passengers are transported in Yellow cabs,\u201d Yellow Cab President\u00a0Pamela Martinez\u00a0wrote in the letter. \u201cWe used to have more and our goal is to get them back and even more.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Uber and Lyft recruit drivers with\u00a0significant bonuses, as well as more flexibility in hours, the old taxi companies also aren\u2019t able to retain the best drivers. \u201cWe need to have not just more drivers but drivers who are happy to be behind the wheel of a Yellow cab because we offer the best opportunity to make a living in a taxi,\u201d Martinez continued.<\/p>\n
Yellow Cab might be just the first domino to fall in ride-hailing\u2019s global assault on the taxi business. Many local taxi companies have lobbied for legislation to protect themselves against Uber, but the startup\u00a0worth more than $60 billion\u00a0is hard to defeat. It is striking that Uber and Lyft together\u00a0raised\u00a0more than $3 billion in December alone, in the same month\u00a0Yellow Cab admitted it would have to file for bankruptcy.<\/p>\n