If you aren't a regular cabbie taker in NYC, then here are a few things the readers should know.

1. A yellow cab is driven into the ground. The car must operate 24 hours a day to be profitable in most cases. Most yellow cab drivers rent the cab for a 5 or 7 day period (weekend rates are much higher), which if i remember correctly, was anywhere from $200 to $300 a day after you calculate all expenses. Which means you have to take a weekday rate, and you bust, you can't make your money back because you have to return the car.

2. If you ever try to leave the borough of manhattan and you tell them you're going to brooklyn, they'll either speed off, or give you a bit of a run around, yes even though it is illegal, this still happens. With the ride share setup, they don't know where you are going until they confirm pickup. But the driver can set general zones that they are willing to drive to.

3. Taxi's perform a shift change at 5PM, extremely inconvenient since there is a surge of people trying to use them at that time. I don't know why they do this, but it sucks to get a cab at that time.

4. Atleast in NYC, all uber/lyft drivers are required to carry a TLC tag, hence carry the same insurance as any other professional driver service. This is uncommon in nearly everywhere else in the country though.

5. The price difference between lyft, uber and yellow cab really isn't as great as one would think in NYC. My typical commute home when I use a car service is $55 Uber $43 Lyft, and $50 yellow cab. In NYC we also have green cab service, which do not operate with a medallion, and cannot pick up passengers inside the borough of manhattan. They often cross their services with Uber or Lyft. The pricing has varied in the past few years, but generally speaking the price is the same.

6. Every cabbie i've spoken to have said that driving yellow cabs suck because the car is in terrible shape, and the rental fees are extremely high.

7. The most common money flow issue for uber/lyft is if they use the tolled roads, they dont get the money back immediately since they have to wait for their pay check to come in, otherwise, it comes out of their own pocket.

8. Generally speaking, if I had to put a number on it, my average cab ride is about 30 minutes, and over 90% of the drivers i've spoken to prefer driving for Lyft, then uber, and avoid yellow cab.

At the end of the day, unless you own your own medallion, it's a crap shot for the driver. For the consumer on the other hand, nothing has changed in terms of $ spent, but the service for ride share is significantly better.

My biggest gripe is that I don't get why Uber needs to earn so much money for literally nothing. All they do is connect the driver and passenger.

Again, this is for NYC, the overwhelming vast majority of the US operates without TLC licenses or insurance. The markets outside of NYC also have far less passengers eager to get home.