Traveling from trade shows

Coming back from a trade show I took my Uber back to the airport, oddly enough I experience the value of real-time services.   As most, I leverage the Uber ride-share service.   My reasons are as others: connivence, price, quality, etc.   In the past, I have typically taken taxis — which are twice the cost.

As we are driving, the drivers phone beeped.   It told him that there was an accident up ahead and we needed to divert.  Interestingly, my phone beeped as he said this and I got the same message showing a red line up ahead.   The driver stated this was one of the reasons he switched to Uber, being a long time tax cab driver.   Because other Uber drivers are constantly, autonomously reporting traffic (way more than cab drivers do) he spends more time driving and less time in traffic.   He drives more customers and makes considerably more money.   The customers are happier, online bill pay provide less hassle – he drives, that is all he worries about.    The cost of Uber?   For him nothing, the passengers do that.   He drives and gets paid.   And is nice – offered me a paper (quaint) and free bottle of water before boarding.

The moral of the story…

Uber based in California, 6,000 miles and 9 hours time difference away.   Using AWS hosting, it allows real-time automatic cross matching of traffic to make lives a little easier a world away.   The mini to the macro at work here.   This 60+ year old driver, driving all his life, reaps the benefit.   I pay an extra 2e, 40% reduction in rates, smoother ride in a new car, and nicer driver — that is value for the customer.    What makes this miracle possible?   Realtime digital services.    Uber and others like them are winning the battle by pushing realtime digital services using LTE; competing against taxi cabs with CB radios.    As the newspaper industry realized already, the taxi cab industry will soon become… quaint…

My question to you?  What is your realtime service?   What does it mean to your business?  How do you assure it to continue to be realtime?

Drop me a message @Shawn_Ennis, I would love to talk about your real-time services.

PS.   Thanks T-Mobile for included international roaming.   Uber would not have been possible without you…