Uber

Sunday, August 9, 2015

3:52pm, Wilmington International Airport

 

What if there was a taxi service that wasn't really a "taxi service"? What if there was one that was clean? Punctual? Sleazy-free? Well, there is! Welcome to Uber.

 

I know I sound like some ridiculous TV advertisement, but I'm actually super impressed with this "taxi service". I almost want to call it a "cabbie service"--which is what it's called in London--just because it lived up, and even exceeded those standards.

 

Uber is an app that calls personal drivers to take you wherever you need to go. And yes, I know how that sounds. And I have no sympathy. I had never heard of Uber until this weekend, when I needed a way to get to the airport while everyone else was busy. I don't like taxis; I don't trust taxis, but Beca told me about Uber.

 

Now, when she introduced it to me, she said it was an app that called "strangers to come and drive you around". Like strangers right off the street. I could not understand why anyone would be stupid enough to try that. And over the course of the weekend, other people talked about Uber, too, like it was a god-send. I honestly thought, on multiple occasions, "Am I surrounded by idiots?"

 

But, earlier this morning, Nikki told me what it really was about. And it is like a high-end, personal driving service.

 

(Here's how it works:

• About twenty minutes before you have to leave, you set your destination into the app and a driver is called to pick you up.
• There is a map on the app that tracks your location, and you can physically watch the car on the map drive to meet you. (I think that's my favorite part.)
• The app gives you the license plate and type of car that is coming for you. (That is very handy. Especially when you're leaving from a convention center in the middle of One Tree Hill Con.)
• And then, of course, just to make sure you know, the driver calls you when he arrives.

 

I had some sort of black Kia, but it was super clean and spacious. The driver was very talkative, which I have to assume is unique to the person, but while I usually don't like talking in taxis, I rather enjoyed that ten-minute conversation.

 

Though I had a short trip, I have been completely turned-on to Uber. I am totally keeping that app (which is free, by the way). I swear to god, I am never using a taxi ever again.

 

                               -- KG