[richthegeek]

In Manchester, UK they absolutely are. Especially at night: what would be a £20 ride in a hackney and a £15 fare for a pre-booked company is about £10 with Uber. That's for 5 miles in 20 minutes.

Add onto that the ease-of-use and some level of assurance that if your cabbie takes you round the houses you can get a refund and it's a no brainer round here.

[GotAnyMegadeth]

Wow, that's a lot. In Bristol UK I can get a taxi from a taxi rank to home, which is just over 5 miles and takes about 20 mins, at 4am, for £10 max. Not tried Uber

[robgough]

While the plural of anecdote is not data, I've seen pretty much these exact same figures. The Uber's here look identical to our normal private hire taxi's though, so I'm assuming their drivers are in fact legally compliant?

For the record, all the drivers I've spoken to have worked for a local company beforehand and, while earning about the same amount, are far happier now.