Cab drivers complain Uber is causing major traffic jams at O'Hare

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) - It’s been two weeks since ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft began picking up passengers at the city's airports, and already the service is a hit with passengers who want to pay less and don't mind waiting for a driver to arrive.

However, cab drivers say it might be the final nail in the coffin for their business.

"It's been very easy, just kind of click it in my phone and they're coming to get me,” said Anthea Perkerson.

Once a ridesharing service is called to either O'Hare or Midway, instructions on where to meet the driver pop up on your smartphone.

For domestic flights, ridesharing Pickup is on the upper level near departures.

"It's done in an orderly fashion and haven't had any problems,” said Robert McCollum.

Drivers like McCollum wait in O'Hare's cell phone lot until they are summoned by a passenger.

Ask the airport taxi drivers and they say the addition of the ridesharing service is a nightmare.

"You see all the traffic right here, this is all actually Uber slowing down, cause usually it's like speed through,” said cabbie Mohammed Moshini.

Moshini says with the extra rideshare traffic, leaving the airport takes 30 minutes, wasting his time and passengers.

"Usually in a day I can do about 10 trips with this car, now I'm down to about six or seven so it's a couple hundred dollar loss a day,” Moshini said.

The union representing Chicago cab drivers says a cab driver's income has decreased 40 percent over the last year.

"If the rideshare keeps going, the taxi business is going to die,” Moshini said.

Not so fast, though, because FOX 32 did find one unhappy rideshare customer who took a cab home on Friday.

When the Uber driver discovered Tim McDonnell wasn't going very far, Uber cancelled his trip.

"I just got a notification from Uber that he cancelled the trip,” Tim McDonnell said. "I might just go down to the taxi stand pick up a cab there, it will cost me another extra dollar but I just got off a 4 hour plane ride, I just want to get home."