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Comment by jpatokal | Hacker News Reader

Consider the single largest market for limousine services: businesspeople traveling to and from airports. These people absolutely will pay extra for a reliable, no-surprises ride from a person they know, plus they know in advance exactly when they will travel. Uber offers little to no advantage for this group.

Uber's advantage comes from catering really well to ad-hoc, short-hop travel, but this is a different market.

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Right. The person said "taxis". And the limo market is tiny compared to the Uber opportunity.

Works for taxis too. An acquaintance of mine has regularly (once or twice a week) had to travel from his home to the airport, about a $100 fare each way. He's used the same taxi driver for about 10 years - knowing that either this driver (or someone the driver vouches for) will be on time every time.

(taxi expenses are covered by his work but personal car travel is not, so he doesn't drive, go figure)

I also know a good number of people who have a "regular" taxi driver. Mostly in southern Europe specifically, though. Sometimes it's because they have some connection to the driver (relative / friend-of-a-friend / friend-of-a-relative) so they want to give that person their business rather than a random driver. Other times it's just someone they got a recommendation for and like. Even some tourists do, if they're the kind of tourist who goes to the same place every summer (e.g. the same town in Crete).

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