<story><title>LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft</title><url>http://libretaxi.org/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>joeyspn</author><text>&amp;gt; without any income for the driver&lt;p&gt;What? It doesn&amp;#x27;t make sense... Then why would any driver want to provide services via the app?&lt;p&gt;Also, I&amp;#x27;m not talking about the specifics of the payment or reward systems, I&amp;#x27;m just pointing out that they&amp;#x27;re both considered to be &amp;quot;on the same level&amp;quot; and in the same &amp;quot;difficult to tax&amp;quot; tech service (carpooling, ride-sharing, etc)... just google &amp;quot;blablacar uber&amp;quot; and see the results...</text></item><item><author>paglia_s</author><text>Not sure about other EU countries but here in Italy Blablacar and Uber are completely different.&lt;p&gt;For example the price you&amp;#x27;re allowed to ask is calculated to ensure it&amp;#x27;s only a cost sharing without any income for the driver.</text></item><item><author>joeyspn</author><text>BlaBlaCar [0] operates&amp;#x2F;ed only with community reviews (for drivers and passengers) and is doing just fine in EU... It is in fact so successful, that govs and press always talk about &amp;quot;services like blablacar and uber&amp;quot; (they&amp;#x27;re classified as basically the same kind of service)&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.blablacar.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.blablacar.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>reubensutton</author><text>My concern with this is the problem of ensuring the safety of the person driving the cab and the real identity of the rider.&lt;p&gt;Lots of drivers will be reluctant because they can be stiffed on the bill. Lots of passengers will be reluctant to use it due to the inherent risk of riding with what is essentially a stranger.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>te_chris</author><text>Because it reduces their cost on a route they were already going to take. It&amp;#x27;s the actual sharing part of the so-called &amp;#x27;sharing economy&amp;#x27;.</text></comment>
<story><title>LibreTaxi – A free and open source alternative to Uber and Lyft</title><url>http://libretaxi.org/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>joeyspn</author><text>&amp;gt; without any income for the driver&lt;p&gt;What? It doesn&amp;#x27;t make sense... Then why would any driver want to provide services via the app?&lt;p&gt;Also, I&amp;#x27;m not talking about the specifics of the payment or reward systems, I&amp;#x27;m just pointing out that they&amp;#x27;re both considered to be &amp;quot;on the same level&amp;quot; and in the same &amp;quot;difficult to tax&amp;quot; tech service (carpooling, ride-sharing, etc)... just google &amp;quot;blablacar uber&amp;quot; and see the results...</text></item><item><author>paglia_s</author><text>Not sure about other EU countries but here in Italy Blablacar and Uber are completely different.&lt;p&gt;For example the price you&amp;#x27;re allowed to ask is calculated to ensure it&amp;#x27;s only a cost sharing without any income for the driver.</text></item><item><author>joeyspn</author><text>BlaBlaCar [0] operates&amp;#x2F;ed only with community reviews (for drivers and passengers) and is doing just fine in EU... It is in fact so successful, that govs and press always talk about &amp;quot;services like blablacar and uber&amp;quot; (they&amp;#x27;re classified as basically the same kind of service)&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.blablacar.com&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.blablacar.com&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>reubensutton</author><text>My concern with this is the problem of ensuring the safety of the person driving the cab and the real identity of the rider.&lt;p&gt;Lots of drivers will be reluctant because they can be stiffed on the bill. Lots of passengers will be reluctant to use it due to the inherent risk of riding with what is essentially a stranger.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ti32x</author><text>Because the cost of fuel in the EU is quite high, and a lot of people commute long(er) distances on a regular basis instead of flying.&lt;p&gt;It is considered an entirely acceptable system because the &amp;quot;cost reimbursement&amp;quot; will fully cover the cost of wear + tear + fuel, meaning that a drive across the country can be rendered effectively free for the driver.&lt;p&gt;Also, &amp;quot;without any income for the driver&amp;quot; isn&amp;#x27;t necessarily correct - if you have a full car you will make a tidy profit.&lt;p&gt;Edit: the cost of a blablacar trip to a passenger would be on the order of 13-16 euros for an hour&amp;#x27;s drive. Comparable or cheaper than a train, with more flexibility.</text></comment>