At a traffic light on North Superior Street, Tammy Fitzgerald looked out her window and hollered, “You waiting for me?”
She turned left onto Orange Street in downtown Toledo, unlocked her car doors, and greeted her fifth passenger of the day.
Ms. Fitzgerald, 48, of Toledo, has been working as an Uber ride-hailing driver for six months.
“I get bored,” she said. “I like people. I like to drive.”
Liking to drive and liking people are crucial to being an Uber, Lyft, or taxi driver. Most drivers who entertained Blade reporters during dozens of rides from the ride-hailing services categorized the work as a time killer that brings in some extra cash. Cab drivers, on 16 rides, seemed less enthused and said driving a taxi is their sole or primary income.
Lyft joined Toledo’s road scene in April, 2014, and was followed closely by Uber, which arrived that June.
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Lyft spokesman Mary Caroline Pruitt declined in an email to say how many drivers are registered in Toledo and did not provide the number of rides given by local drivers. She did say that in the year and a half since arriving in northwest Ohio, Lyft’s business has “grown rapidly.”
Uber spokesman Lauren Altmin also declined to release specific numbers but said there are “hundreds” of Uber drivers in the Toledo area who give “thousands” of rides every month.
Business for cab drivers has, anecdotally, declined, several drivers said. Scott Potter, owner of Black & White Cab Co., Toledo’s largest taxi company, said Uber and Lyft affect the company’s pickups, particularly on nights and weekends.
In all, there are 223 cabs affiliated with nearly 40 taxi companies registered in Toledo.
“We work hard to stay relevant,” Mr. Potter said by phone from the Taxicab, Limousine, and Paratransit Association convention in Las Vegas. Mr. Potter said Black & White will “transport over 600,000 people this year.”
For 18 months, Black & White has offered riders the option to book rides through an app, which will be updated soon to make rides transactionless, meaning riders can input credit card data into the app and have the amount charged automatically. The app also will allow riders to tip drivers. Both Uber and Lyft have similar payment platforms, although Uber makes it nearly impossible to tip a driver without having cash.
Rating drivers
Both Uber and Lyft have driver-rating systems that allow riders to score their drivers on a scale from one to five stars at the end of the ride. Riders are supposed to rate their rides based on interactions with the driver, safety, cleanliness, and other factors affecting their experience. Riders also can provide comments in the apps.
Black & White’s app also allows riders to rate their experiences using a five-star system. Riders can rate drivers on their safety, knowledge, and politeness.
Black & White taxi drivers are subcontractors, Mr. Potter said. The drivers own their vehicles, pay their own insurance, and set their own schedules. The company does have employees with set schedules, but they operate in different divisions, such as the paratransit and airport divisions.
In Toledo, taxi drivers are not subject to the “medallion system,” which is in play elsewhere, including New York City, and limits the number of companies. Toledo drivers pay the city an annual fee of $125 to have a permit.
One Black & White driver used by a Blade journalist said it’s unfair that Uber and Lyft drivers aren’t subjected to the same regulations cabbies are.
“Our problem isn’t competition,” said Karen Timmer. “They get to come in and do whatever they want as far as their pricing, but we don’t. The city of Toledo board of taxi review tells taxi cabs what we’re allowed to charge. And we have Uber and Lyft coming in and setting their own rates, and they’re not forced to follow the same rules.”
On the road
A Monday afternoon trip from The Blade to Toledo Express Airport with Ms. Fitzgerald took 32 minutes and covered 25.68 miles. The trip cost $34.69. For the return trip, Ms. Fitzgerald suggested an alternative route, which took 34 minutes and covered 15.42 miles. With a considerable difference in distance, the return trip cost $24.27.
Ms. Fitzgerald, who works full time at Lucas County Children Services as an intake receptionist, said she started driving to fill her time. Her children are grown, and her husband, John Fitzgerald, died of colon cancer in 2008. She picks up riders when she has a day off or sometimes after work. Weekends, she said, are busiest, sometimes earning her several hundred dollars.
What drivers make is determined by how many hours they’re willing to put in and the number of rides they pick up. Many drivers said they can make $400 to $600 a week. The take-home pay is reduced by out-of-pocket expenses, such as gasoline and car maintenance, and the percentages that Uber and Lyft take per ride from their drivers. Some of these drivers also hold their own commercial licenses.
Ride-hailing services have grown in popularity, perhaps, because of the mobile-based platform that allows users to book rides and pay for services without having to swipe a credit card every time. Drivers also said they’re encouraged by Uber and Lyft to be friendly and personable.
Many drivers keep gum, mints, candies, and snacks in their vehicles for riders. Some keep small bottles of water for riders; all of those are out-of-pocket expenses for drivers.
Cost considerations
The ride-hailing services also are popular because of the low cost relative to calling for a cab. Blade reporters found as much to be true when comparing Uber, Lyft, and taxis.
On a Tuesday afternoon, a Blade reporter looking for some lunchtime cardio requested a Lyft ride at about 1:15 p.m. from The Blade’s downtown office to the West Toledo YMCA. At 1:22 p.m., Mahmut Karatas, 38, of Perrysburg, arrived in a clean, spacious sport utility vehicle. Though quiet at first, Mr. Karatas, who keeps hand sanitizer and individually wrapped hard candies in each door and has been driving Lyft for seven months, quickly opened up.
The father of three, who works as a cook at American Table in Perrysburg, said he drives to relieve stress. Mr. Karatas said he works about 45 hours driving for Lyft and Uber; the money he makes driving during the week is enough to cover his expenses, and whatever he earns on the weekend is money in his pocket.
“You don’t save anything in this economy,” he said.
The trip from downtown to the Tremainsville Road gym covered 6.6 miles and took almost 15 minutes. The cost was $16.43, which included a $4 tip.
The return trip through Black & White was booked using an iPhone app at 2:50 p.m. The driver arrived 10 minutes later. The driver was friendly, playing a mix of Middle Eastern love songs compiled by his wife.
The driver said he’s worked for Black & White for seven years, a job he picked up after owning several carryout stores throughout Toledo, and works 70 to 80 hours a week.
“The first 40 hours you’re just paying off other people,” he said.
The trip cost $23 and included a $3.83 tip.
Side-by-side, the Uber and Lyft systems are not grossly different. Both are app-based services, and drivers are subcontractors. Riders are charged based on time and distance traveled. There are also fees charged per ride.
To use Uber, a rider will pay a $1 base fee, a $1.60 safe-ride fee, 16 cents per minute, and $1.05 per mile. There is a $4.60 minimum charge.
To use Lyft, a rider will pay a $1 pick-up fee, a $1.55 trust and safety fee, and pay 18 cents per minute and $1.10 per mile.
Black & White fares, as are all taxi fares in Toledo, are set by city code: a $2 base fare with charges of about $2.30 per mile and $0.40 per minute.
‘Surge’ pricing
Uber and Lyft’s prices increase if supply and demand are out of sync. If there are more ride requests than drivers, Uber will shift into “surge” pricing and Lyft starts “prime time.”
One Blade reporter wanted to use Uber to get from downtown Toledo to the Applebutter Festival in Grand Rapids, Ohio.
An in-app estimate showed the ride, at 9:45 a.m. on a Sunday, likely would cost $35 to $48. Ten minutes later, after the expense was approved, Uber warned that the fare had increased 1.5 times because of demand. By 10 a.m., the price was 2.1 times the normal rate; at 10:12 a.m., the rate had surged to 3.1 times the normal rate, or a $10.90 minimum fare with a $3.10 base and charges of 50 cents per minute and $3.26 per mile.
At that rate, if there were no traffic, the ride would have cost about $123. Black & White estimated the fare would be $60 and needed to be prepaid.
The reporter ended up riding shotgun with a Blade photojournalist until mayoral candidate Carty Finkbeiner scheduled a last-minute news conference, which trumped the reporter’s Applebutter Festival trip.
That wasn’t the only time reporters saw surge pricing.
Once was a Tuesday morning, and the reporter needed a ride home from Target on Alexis Road in West Toledo. The fare for the 3.98-mile drive cost $10.52. (The trip normally costs $6.86 and was billed at 1.3 times the normal rate.) Another surge trip was on a Tuesday afternoon, again for some afternoon cardio, with a trip from The Blade to the Toledo Police Academy at Owens Community College. That trip cost more than $25 (normally $10.37, billed at a surge rate of 2.3).
Bar business
Many Uber and Lyft drivers aren’t making most of their money by taking people to run errands; they’re picking up and dropping off bar patrons. Many drivers noted that weekends are their busiest times, and two drivers said they worked long hours picking up and dropping off “zombies” during the Adams Street Zombie Crawl.
“They were the nicest partiers,” Lyft driver Chantillie Frazier, 37, of Rossford, said.
Paul Decker, an Uber driver, said he’s talked to many riders who say they use the service because they’re lawfully barred from driving because of drunken-driving offenses.
Robin Rush, 66, of Perrysburg, who drives for Lyft and Uber, agreed. He estimated 10 percent of his riders are people who have been charged with driving under the influence.
Many, though, are people who are going to dinner or bars and don’t want to drink and drive.
“The whole smartphone thing is super-convenient,” said Courtney Hibbs, a bartender at Swig in Perrysburg, who typically hires Uber for one to three rides a week for herself.
Ashley Eby 23, of South Toledo, was driving with Lyft for the first time on Halloween night.
A caseload assistant with Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities, she turned on the Lyft app at 9:30 p.m., got her first assignment at 10 p.m., and had been busy nonstop ever since.
All of her customers were traveling to or from bars, although there were some side trips involved to pick up additional bar-goers or to stop for food on the way home. She transported two men who were quite intoxicated and kept asking her, “You want to come drink with us?”
‘The new thing’
How much of the prime-time bar market Uber and Lyft have claimed varies considerably between night spots.
At Glass City Cafe, server Sarah Justen said Uber has captured the market for all ages, including those beyond retirement age, from her vantage point at the near downtown eatery that is open after the bars close on weekends.
“Everyone around here is pretty much using Uber, probably the last six months,” she said. “Rather than trying to get a two-hour taxi — it can be that long.”
At Moe’s Place in Rossford, Cindy Hernandez, a bartender, said that when a patron requests her help to get a ride, she calls Black & White because the number is posted above the phone in the bar. Many of Moe’s patrons walk to and from the bar and almost every night the bar owner gives some regulars a ride home, she said.
But she said she sees someone using Uber about 10 times a week.
“Uber is like the new thing,” she said.
Conclusions
Uber and Lyft rides were usually — but not always — less expensive. Many times, the overall wait time for Uber or Lyft was similar, but during the busiest hours it was vastly different with Uber and Lyft rides showing up within about 10 minutes and taxi dispatchers saying they would need at least an hour to get a cab out. More than once, neither Uber nor Lyft drivers were available.
Taxi drivers, overall, seemed to be the safer ride. Several Uber and Lyft drivers missed turns or ignored road closure signs, needing to reroute around clearly posted detours.
In one instance, a ride-share driver pulled up photos of grandchildren to show a reporter while navigating traffic. The same driver then remarked that a nearby motorist was driving erratically because of texting while driving.
Staff writers Lauren Lindstrom, Matt Swan, and Jane Schmucker contributed to this report.
Contact Taylor Dungjen at tdungjen@theblade.com, or 419-724-6054, or on Twitter @taylordungjen.
First Published November 8, 2015, 5:00 a.m.
