Ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber are consistently presented in the media in terms of professional taxi services, with accusations of poor pay, management, etc. but the question is how else someone who wants to give a pedestrian a lift for monetary compensation as part of a regular drive can do so without becoming a professional taxi driver and competing with that industry.

Are we supposed to accept that only professional taxis are qualified to carry passengers besides personal friends and acquaintances and everyone else should just leave it to them? What if someone wants to supplement their automotive costs by giving a stranger a ride for a fee? Why do these ride-sharing companies have to be compared with professional taxi companies that provide jobs, not just ride-shares?

Also, when can we expect car-sharing and ride-sharing services to have connectivity so that we can simultaneously plan a car-share drive and receive a discount for carrying one or more passengers? It seems that this would be as simple as entering destination/route plans when reserving the car-share. Likewise, it would be nice to be able to go to one website and receive various options for either car-share or ride-share, depending on who else is driving/riding along a particular route at a particular time.

Survey Reveals Uber And Lyft Drivers Are Mostly Newbies Who Earn Very Little : LIFE : Tech Times