A company that uses a cell phone application to connect city dwellers looking for rides with drivers has its eyes on Guadalajara.
Uber, a transportation network based in San Francisco, recently grew popular in U.S. cities as an alternative to traditional taxis. The service puts those seeking rides in touch with drivers. When the service first started it focused on higher end vehicles such as Lincoln Town Cars, Cadillac Escalades or Mercedes or BMW sedans. To capture a broader market, the company has since begun offering rides from taxi drivers who have agreements with the company or drivers with more everyday cars.
It’s not yet clear which services might be available in Guadalajara, but the company says it already has begun seeing demand for the service here.
“For months residents across Guadalajara have been opening the Uber app and asking us to come to town,” said Lane Kasselman, an Uber spokesman, in an e-mail. “We’re excited about the Guadalajara market and look forward to exploring opportunities.”
The company has posted a marketing manager position for Guadalajara on the professional social networking site LinkedIn, and, as of Thursday morning, the website indicated it had already received more than 180 applications.“We’re going to give Guadalajara a reliable, classy, private-driver experience that they never knew existed,” the job description says.
Through Uber, riders use their smart phones to tell drivers where they are and where they need to go. The entire payment process is handled through the app, so there’s no need to negotiate with cab drivers or fuss with cash at the end of the ride. That could be a welcome change to a city like Guadalajara, where rate haggling often happens before passengers enter taxis even on busy streets where it holds up traffic. Restaurant owners also might be keen on such a service since nighttime drunk driving checkpoints recently began popping up around the city. Those checkpoints, restaurateurs say, have cut into their business. Access to more reliable taxi services, or improved public transportation, could relieve that stress, they say.
Since the company’s founding in 2009, it has now launched in cities in some 35 countries, according to its website. The company already has operations in Mexico City, where it offers its original UberEXEC higher-end service; UberSUV, which sends larger vehicles with room for more passengers; and UberX, the lowest cost option with cars such as Honda Accords, Nissan Tiidas and Volkswagen Jettas.
The company has been growing fast, but it faced criticism recently for adding an optional one-dollar “Safe Rides Fee” to its UberX service in U.S. cities. The fee goes toward helping pay for drivers’ background checks, prompting U.S. columnists to argue the company should absorb that fee on its own and should already have been carrying out the background checks.
Given concerns about security in Mexico, those who use the service here will likely be looking for some assurance the company’s drivers can take them where they need to go safely.