Supply and demand was implicit in that you were able to hail a cab.
If it's a rainy night and no cabs are available, the effective price of a cab is infinity dollars. Uber's surge pricing reduces infinity to a mere 1.5-5x.
I can appreciate your interest in the anonymity provided by cash, but study some economics :P.
5x the normal price is not what I call fair. It gives a huge advantage to folks who can afford that surge price. The regular client wo needs a ride and can't afford that, is missing out.
If that system would be used in regular cabs, all sorts of folks would have issues. Like the elderly, disabled or injured people who need a ride and don't have other means of transportation.
What it does is give a huge incentive to wait if it's possible to wait. On the busiest days of the year, Uber sends out a message to let people know when those busiest times will be, so people who care about the price can plan accordingly.
And is it fair that someone who has other means of transportation gets a cheap ride, while the elderly person who needs a cab urgently is forced to wait for his chance because there aren't enough cars on the street?
That would present you with a great business opportunity: transporting people at specific prescheduled times, since current options are failing. Hopefully you won't have regulations preventing you from doing so.
If it's a rainy night and no cabs are available, the effective price of a cab is infinity dollars. Uber's surge pricing reduces infinity to a mere 1.5-5x.
I can appreciate your interest in the anonymity provided by cash, but study some economics :P.
Try these two EconTalk episodes:
- http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2006/04/ticket_scalping.htm... - http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2007/01/munger_on_price_1.h...