Uber Technologies on Thursday said it will list New York City’s iconic yellow cabs on its app, a move that marks the company’s latest expansion into the taxi market and could help the ride-hailing giant overcome a driver shortage in its biggest US market.
Uber during its recent investor day in February outlined taxis as a major growth opportunity, calling it a highly fragmented $120 billion industry with 20 million active vehicles – more than five times the number of Uber’s own pre-pandemic vehicle base.
The company said it planned to include every taxi on its Uber app by 2025 and last year added 122,000 new taxis to its platform. That represented 3% of its total driver base at a time when it was struggling to retain its usual gig worker drivers amid the pandemic.
The New York City collaboration could add as many as some 13,600 cabs to Uber’s app if all of the city’s registered cab drivers participate.
The deal, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, would see Uber work with taxi software companies Creative Mobile Technologies and Curb, which said its goal was to expand the collaboration U.S.-wide.
Passengers will pay roughly the same fare for taxi trips as for Uber X rides, but taxi drivers will be paid according to New York’s ride-hail wage standards, which on average are higher than the metered rates, Curb said.
Uber, which started as a strictly individual ride-sharing app over a decade ago, has steadily evolved into wider areas related to personal transportation, from partnering with taxi services in Russia, to entering the electric vehicle leasing market in Mexico.
Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.
