[nothrabannosir]

The problem is that I now have to know, for every country I visit, what their taxi regulation laws are and how they enforce them. With Uber, I know the brand, and I can just expect not to get scammed.

For international travelers it's the franchising aspect that is most appealing.

[exDM69]

Uber operates in countries where their services are not in compliance with the local legislation (or operate in a gray area), and are operating until they get to a court case that will decide whether it is legal or not.

So if you don't know the local taxi regulation, your Uber might get pulled over by the cops who take the driver and you're left in the middle of nowhere. This has happened in Helsinki, for example (where the local taxi service is very reliable, albeit somewhat expensive and may be busy at certain hours).

In general, when visiting a country, you are expected to roughly know what the local legislation is.

[SilasX]

So getting pulled over for using a trusted brand with a reputation at stake instead of the local tourist-preying cabs is supposed to be proof of the value of taxi regulation?

[exDM69]

There are no tourist predator cabs in Helsinki because the cops stop anyone suspected of running an illegal cab service, including Uber rides. Many of the horror stories of getting ripped off in this thread have indeed been pirate cabs with no regulation behind them.

There might be some reasonable middle ground but I'm quite happy paying for a reliable, regulated service despite it's flaws rather than a wild west situation.

[SilasX]

But the problem is that you can be taken advantage if even with a regulated cab, and indeed people report that this is a typical experience.

Legal != no rip-off

And I know there is a regulated dispute resolution procedure. But so far Uber/Lyft seem to be a much better process for that too.