{"id":589,"date":"2018-12-05T16:07:34","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T16:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=589"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:51:12","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:51:12","slug":"how-a-durham-taxi-driver-survives-in-the-age-of-uber-and-lyft-personal-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2018\/12\/05\/how-a-durham-taxi-driver-survives-in-the-age-of-uber-and-lyft-personal-service\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Durham taxi driver survives in the age of Uber and Lyft: personal service"},"content":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s 9:13 a.m., and Ashraf Yousif, 43, is parked on Chapel Hill Road in Durham\u2019s Best Cab Co.\u2019s taxi #100. After an hour of waiting, he gets a request on his phone from an address he immediately recognizes. <\/span>A student at Jordan High School. \u201cHe probably missed the bus,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n Ash, as he prefers to go by, has been working as a taxi driver in Durham since 2005, after he immigrated from Sudan in 2004. He loves being part of people\u2019s lives, a member of their community.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou know everybody, find out everything. Who is pregnant, where people are traveling,\u201d he says with a smile as we pull up to the rider\u2019s address seven minutes later. A young man wearing a bright blue Duke hoodie and a backpack steps out\u2014sure enough, he is the high schooler late for class that Ash had expected. He knows the boy\u2019s parents, (\u201cThey\u2019re Yemeni.\u201d) and knows that they prefer their son take rides from a driver they trust, rather than, say, call an Uber.<\/span><\/p>\n This may be how the taxi business can survive in the age of Uber and Lyft. <\/span><\/p>\n Like other taxi companies, Durham\u2019s Best Cab Co. has <\/span>suffered<\/span><\/a> from the rising popularity of ride-share apps. In the last five years, the company has gone from having over 60 taxi cabs to 31, and had to create their own app for calling and scheduling rides in order to keep up with the technological culture shift. Cab companies like Durham\u2019s Best have found their niche by providing personal service to populations that desire special attention, such as immigrant families and young teens. <\/span><\/p>\n Today, prospects for the taxi industry across the country are bleak, but Ash\u2019s dedication to his local immigrant community have allowed him to maintain success as a driver in Durham even after a few difficult years. <\/span><\/p>\n In order to stay in business, the company also had to take more serious measures to cut costs and stay afloat. \u201cFor two weeks, we were about to close,\u201d Ash said, but then they outsourced their dispatcher system in 2015 and ended up saving thousands of dollars per month. Customers like the Jordan High student make survival possible.<\/span><\/p>\n A shift in customer demographics<\/b><\/p>\n Taxis still have unique appeal for families and seniors, largely because these groups tend to be more cautious about who they get into a car with.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you need to send your kids to school, or if you\u2019re traveling somewhere and leaving your house empty for two weeks, you want to be in the car with someone you know you can trust, because you never know what can happen,\u201d Ash says.<\/span><\/p>\n Since Uber launched its first smartphone <\/span>app<\/span><\/a> in 2010 (then named UberCab), there have been questions raised about how well the company can guarantee safety for its <\/span>drivers<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>riders<\/span><\/a>. The company\u2019s image has been hurt by incidents of sexual harassment, drunk customers, and even <\/span>scamming<\/span><\/a> by drivers abusing the system. Ash and Durham\u2019s Best say they offer a safe and friendly alternative for customers who might be particularly worried about their safety.<\/span><\/p>\n Uber has been a classic \u201cdisrupter\u201d to the taxi business. Its presence in cities around the U.S. <\/span>resulted<\/span><\/a> in a fall in income of around 10 percent among taxi drivers and chauffeurs, though it has had a worse impact in certain locations. Los Angeles saw Uber and its younger competitor Lyft \u201c<\/span>deal<\/span><\/a> a swift, brutal blow to the Los Angeles taxi industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Ash, by catering to late-snoozing high school students, immigrant families, and cautious seniors, seems to be a survivor. <\/span><\/p>\n He has a wife and two young boys, and just got an IT certification as a systems administrator from My Computer Career, a computer training school in Raleigh. He says he got the highest grade point average in his class, and also had perfect attendance. <\/span><\/p>\n Back in Sudan, he obtained a law degree, and though he misses the practice he knows he will never be able to work as a lawyer in America because of the language barrier and difference in legal systems. He likes being a taxi driver, especially because of the flexibility it gives him and his family, since he can adapt his schedule to ensure that someone is always home to care for the kids. <\/span><\/p>\n He works every day of the week, but he spends a lot of that time in parking lots, waiting. It\u2019s now 9:45 a.m., and he\u2019s in another lot after having dropped off the Jordan student. <\/span><\/p>\n Not just a company, but a community of immigrants<\/b><\/p>\n Durham\u2019s Best Cab Co. has its roots in Sudan. Most drivers and shareholders are also Sudanese, as the company was founded in 1999 by a group of immigrants from the North-African country who were working for ABC Cab Company and <\/span>decided<\/span><\/a> to start their own taxi service. <\/span><\/p>\n