Taxi Owners Sue NYC Over Uber, While Court Overrules Class-Action Appeal (thestack.com) 210
An anonymous reader writes: Taxi owners in New York have filed a lawsuit against cab-hailing app giant Uber, citing damaged revenues and a hefty fall in value of NYC's 'medallion' business. The case against the city and its Taxi and Limousine Commission claims that the regulators have unfairly permitted Uber to steal away business from the regulated cab industry. Getting away without regulation has enabled Uber drivers to compete directly, and drown out official taxi companies. A further lawsuit case hovering over Uber this week, is its request to immediately appeal an order approving class certification filed by its own drivers. The appeal was denied by a U.S. court yesterday.
NYC taxi system could DESTROY uber (Score:3, Insightful)
The taxi system already has good infrastructure in place and could destroy Uber if they wanted to, simply by competing fairly and adopting the "choose where you want to go before the cab gets to you" model.
But instead of doing this, they try to take the easy way out and sue.
Think of how optimized the cab system could be if they used Uber's model? But no, it's still based on the old "hail a cab and tell them where you're going" system.
Re:NYC taxi system could DESTROY uber (Score:4)
You know things have degenerated when suing is the *easy* option.
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Re:NYC taxi system could DESTROY uber (Score:5, Insightful)
The "hard" option is to compete, and taxis can't do that. That'd be hard.
It would be easy to compete if they didn't have to obey the law. If the city would reimburse all of their sunk costs on Taxi medallions, remove the regulations which regulate the prices that taxis can charge and remove the insurance and inspection requirements, then taxis could easily compete with uber and due to their economies of scale, they could crush Uber. But unfortunately, Uber chooses to continue to operate without paying any attention to the rules which other companies in the same sector have to obey.
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I don't use taxis nor Uber (I've been in a taxi once in my life).
It does seem somewhat unfair to me that the existing taxis have a government mandated "monopoly", but then anybody else can come in and undercut them. That is, taxis are being held to more strict (and thus expensive) regulations than Uber and the other companies are.
Either get rid of some of the regulations for the taxis or make these other taxi-like services ("if it quacks like a duck") meet the same requirements.
I do think the line can get
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It does seem somewhat unfair to me that the existing taxis have a government mandated "monopoly",
Yes. It's *impossible* for a new entrant to become a taxi, without buying government permission from a private party (at a profit to that private party). That's quite unfair, and a horrible monopoly model. That's why people applaud Uber. It's not that they like Uber, but that it's breaking the broken regulations.
Either get rid of some of the regulations for the taxis or make these other taxi-like services ("if it quacks like a duck") meet the same requirements.
In NYC, "private car" service is explicitly not a taxi. They don't have medallions, and don't follow the same rules. Uber, being a dispatch-only service, is explicitly not a taxi in NYC. Uber
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Well, that's what I mean though. I understand that the laws obviously are not written from a layman's perspective. From a regular person's perspective, a taxi, Uber, and a "private car" service are all some way to get them from p
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I don't use taxis nor Uber (I've been in a taxi once in my life).
So, obviously, that qualifies you to comment knowledgeably about a taxi/Uber issue. SMH.... The level of discourse here has seriously eroded.
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It's less about the regulation and more about the cost of the medallion that allows them to have a car on the street.
The main idea of the medallion is to keep the number of cars on the street to a reasonable number so it will have to be applied to uber sooner or later.
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Uber - bringing all the joys of third-world piecework home. If they were not blatant liars pushing the "ride-sharing" fiction I'd give them a bit more of the benefit of the doubt.
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I don't see what they're complaining about. In a few years, the drivers for both taxis and Uber will be replaced by computers too.
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In some places, some Uber services are completely legal. In others, Uber drivers do not have sufficient licensing or insurance, and can be breaking more laws than that.
Re:NYC taxi system could DESTROY uber (Score:5, Informative)
They are all god awful. People use uber partly because it is cheaper (is it even cheaper in NYC? I thought it cost more than a yellow cab there)...but they also use it because it is seamless, the cars are clean, and the drivers aren't smelly dudes yammering away on their phone. See the use of the more expensive "Uber Select" and "Uber Black" as proof that it is not just about undercutting the taxis.
Most NYC rides aren't dispatched anyways...they are flagged down on the street.
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That only works in the center of certain large cities (eg: NYC)
As this article and discussion is about NYC, I'll take your post to be in agreement, since you say it works in NYC, but not elsewhere, when I said nothing about elsewhere, you haven't disagreed with anything I said just disagreed with the idea of agreeing with Uber. We get it, you hate Uber, and Uber is 100% legal in NYC and works well in NYC as a competitor of taxis.
Whether you agree with the current law or not, the authorities should not have allowed Uber to continue to profit by ignoring it.
Uber is compliant with NYC law. That's why the taxis are suing NYC. They know Uber is legal, and don't want to lose that argument again. So
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With regard to calling Uber parasitic rent seekers... Isn't that exactly what this medallion system created? A bunch of rent seeking?
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No they couldn't. The dispatcher job was replaced with software allowing Uber to charge less money even if they did follow all the rules. Unless the taxi companies are prepared to fire all their dispatchers they will never be able to compete.
If their dispatchers are what's holding them back from competing and providing a service that customers want (while reducing labor costs too!), then why wouldn't they fire all of their dispatchers?
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If their dispatchers are what's holding them back from competing and providing a service that customers want (while reducing labor costs too!), then why wouldn't they fire all of their dispatchers?
Because the dispatchers ARE the "taxi company". If you get rid of the dispatchers, there is nothing left except the medallions, which are just an expensive sunk cost. Taxis are quickly becoming obsolete, and in a decade they will be as common as pay phones.
Re:NYC taxi system could DESTROY uber (Score:4, Funny)
Taxis are quickly becoming obsolete, and in a decade they will be as common as pay phones.
That would be great! Right now, pay phones outnumber taxis in Los Angeles by several orders of magnitude.
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Right now, pay phones outnumber taxis in Los Angeles by several orders of magnitude.
I think that says more about Los Angeles than the pay phones...
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Not in NYC. In NYC undispatched rides are regulated an dispatched rides are unregulated(ish).
The regulation is mainly about keeping the streets from becoming overcrowded and reducing throughput. It would probably make the most sense to just tax time in the street for all cars equally. Then you could even do peak taxing and improve efficiency.
Re: NYC taxi system could DESTROY uber (Score:4, Insightful)
I was in NYC for a taxi strike in the 90s. For a person who walked and took the subway, it was heaven. Half the cars disappeared from the streets. So much quieter.
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That does sound nice.
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They're both regulated. The regulations are not the same, nor should they be. Dispatched rides are also rationed, and for some reason the ration books (i.e. medallions) are transferrable between private parties, raising barriers to entry for newcomers and allowing a cartel of entrenched speculator/investors to control the industry, to the detriment of both drivers and riders.
Re:NYC taxi system could DESTROY uber (Score:5, Insightful)
Since there are thousands of taxi owners paying for a few drones in a call center it is an insignificant part of the cost of running a taxi. By far the biggest cost of running a cab is maintenance, fuel, insurance, and the interest you pay on the loan you took out for the "medallion".
If hipsters want to change the law into a race to the bottom for owner-operators, then the first thing they must do is buy back those medallions at a fair price. People have worked their entire lives to pay for a single medallion, a bunch of parasites who believe the law doesn't apply to them are rapidly making them worthless.
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By far the biggest cost of running a cab is maintenance, fuel, insurance, and the interest you pay on the loan you took out for the "medallion".
Uber drivers have all of these costs too, with the exception of the Medallion, and probably cost more for the one-off Uber driver as the cab companies are able to pool their costs across their fleet. Also, what would prevent a cab company from converting cabs to Uber cars and flying under the radar without medallions?
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Exactly, Uber is the Walmart of transportation.
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The main difference in the business models is that Taxi companies have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a taxi license/plate/medallion, the supply of which has been artificially restricted by government regulation. This forces costs up for them and prices up for customers.
There is no such regulation on Uber and so they are competing on unequal terms.
I'm not a big fan of taxi companies but they have a point. In order to be fair, the Government may need to start handing out some refunds on taxi li
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I'm not a big fan of taxi companies but they have a point. In order to be fair, the Government may need to start handing out some refunds on taxi licenses / medallions.
It's more reasonable to assume they'll simply require Uber drivers to carry medallions.
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Re:NYC taxi system could DESTROY uber (Score:5, Informative)
The main difference in the business models is that Taxi companies have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a taxi license/plate/medallion, the supply of which has been artificially restricted by government regulation. This forces costs up for them and prices up for customers.
Given that this is specifically about NYC, which I've done a bit of study on, it's actually worse than you say. NYC taxis are some of the most highly controlled in the world. London's Black Taxis are up there too, but at least they require quality drivers. NYC, from my understanding, is much more concerned with the vehicle, medallion, and operating methods.
Peak price for the medallion was over $1M, and the loan using one as collateral ran roughly 10%. So the 'permit' to operate a taxi in NYC ran, as an opportunity cost, roughly $100k/year. Before the costs of the car, insurance, fuel, and driver. If you figure on 3 rides an hour, 24 hours day, 365 days a year(they hand off the permit to successive drivers in the company), that's 26k rides. Or the permit being $4 for every ride.
2014 factbook [nyc.gov]: 13,437 medallions, 485k per day. That's 36 rides per medallion(I was figuring 72, double theirs), which increases that to $8/ride. Though I think the value of medallions have dropped from their high, and interest rates are lower. $740k@7% is only $142 per day, or still around $4/ride. ;)
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The permit is to run "plenty of taxis".
Not just a single one.
I doubt any "single" taxi driver in NYC has a medallion. The company they are driving for has one.
Re:NYC taxi system could DESTROY uber (Score:4, Informative)
The permit is to run "plenty of taxis".
The permit is to run ONE taxi at any given time. As I mentioned, they hand the permit off to successive drivers, so nominally speaking the permit is in operation as close to 24/7 as they can manage. Though maybe I should have been more explicit that they'll trade off cars as well.
There are single taxi drivers with their own medallion, there's restricted medallions where the owner can only own 1, and must drive something like 210 'shifts' a year with it, it's an owner-operator medallion, and is somewhat cheaper than an unrestricted one.
The company they are driving for has one.
Actually, the company they're driving for probably has 'numerous' medallions. As I said, they need 1 for each taxi on the road collecting fares.
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Given that this is specifically about NYC, which I've done a bit of study on, it's actually worse than you say.
Similar story here. The Taxi plate was up to about $400k prior to Uber, but this was driven by a corrupt industry that invested huge dollars in lobbying to keep the plate pool deliberately small.
Technology has made the whole concept of taxi plates obsolete. It was a form of regulation to try and keep some sanity in an era where there zero surveillance or tracking. These days with electronic driving records, insurance histories, GPS, and camera in everyone's hand, there is simply no need for such outdated m
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Given that this is specifically about NYC, which I've done a bit of study on, it's actually worse than you say.
Similar story here. The Taxi plate was up to about $400k prior to Uber, but this was driven by a corrupt industry that invested huge dollars in lobbying to keep the plate pool deliberately small. Technology has made the whole concept of taxi plates obsolete. It was a form of regulation to try and keep some sanity in an era where there zero surveillance or tracking. These days with electronic driving records, insurance histories, GPS, and camera in everyone's hand, there is simply no need for such outdated monopolies.
Clearly you have never been to a place with too many taxis. Having too many taxis is a drag on society as empty taxis occupy valuable space on the roads, take up parking spaces on the sides of streets, and add unnecessary pollution and noise.
The medallion system is a market-based system that tried to solve that problem. Do you have an idea that might work better? The problem of "too many taxis" may not exist for your city now, but if the market was completely opened up it could become a major problem
Re:It's a tax (Score:5, Informative)
The city is not getting $1m for each medallion. That's the artificial market created by middlemen trading in medallions.
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Except that the cost of the medallion is a function of how useful it is, so the service quality is basically all there is.
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there is this thing called economic costs that you may want to look into.
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The main difference in the business models is that Taxi companies have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a taxi license/plate/medallion, the supply of which has been artificially restricted by government regulation. This forces costs up for them and prices up for customers. There is no such regulation on Uber and so they are competing on unequal terms.
The supply of the taxi medallions has been restricted by regulation... regulations specifically lobbied for by the taxi companies. This is their own mess that they created, and a disrupting technology is ruining the business model they turned into law.
Re:NYC taxi system could DESTROY uber (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know much about Uber, I don't see how their model is different from a regular taxi. They both need to pick you up at your current location and then you need to tell them where to go.
I don't see how Uber knowing in advance where you want to go could change the outcome.
No, in fact it's the taxi drivers that usually have more information about rides than Uber drivers.
Once booked, an Uber car can not be flagged someone else, it can not hear about other people needing rides to other locations, and it can not make itself available for other tentative bookings. First in, first out. That's how it works. There is no inventory sitting in queues waiting midway to be processed (if you don't mind me using the metaphors of lean manufacturing).
In the case of a taxi however, even if they're using a taxi app, there is no guarantee that they're coming to pick you up, because someone else could flag them on the way, they may get a more attractive offer of someone needing a ride to the airport (instead of a five minutes ride), they may not like the color of your skin or the way you're dressed or the way you speak, and they're always trying to book their next ride before they're finished with their existing one.
In the case of Uber also, the inability to do double-booking is important, but it's not the only thing that makes the service better. Since the transaction goes through whether you're picked up or not, you better be there when the Uber driver shows up. And the Uber driver better pick you up, because otherwise he'll get a charge back on his account and he'll get a very bad customer rating on his profile (assuming the gps data from both phones do not contradict the story of the customer).
Not only that, but as a user using the Uber app, you're instantly reassured after ordering the Uber car, since you're seeing its dot immediately moving towards you. In the case of a taxi however, even if you were to pinpoint its real-time location on a map, you would probably see the dot moving away from you as it is trying to finish its last ride.
Combine that with the fact that the medaillon system is archaic and highly inflexible, it's no wonder medaillon holders are not happy. During peak hours, Uber drivers can come out of nowhere. Their marginal costs for Uber are constant. In the case of a medaillon holder however, during peak hours, he can't split his medaillon(s) in two. The most he can do is to force a rotation of drivers to use his medaillon 24 hours a day 7 days a week even during low peak hours, to make sure he squeezes out every penny that he can out of that medaillon (or medaillons) so he can try to recoup his investment. And that doesn't solve the problem, that in places like New York or San Francisco, there are not enough taxis during peak hours, so it's not even worth trying to get one during those times. So before services like Uber came along, people opted for public transportation if they could during peak hours, or they opted to bring in their own car, and paid outrageous amounts for parking.
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In the case of a taxi however, even if they're using a taxi app, there is no guarantee that they're coming to pick you up, because someone else could flag them on the way, they may get a more attractive offer of someone needing a ride to the airport
That is nonsense. Legally questionable, and what taxi business would allow that?
The rest of your post shows you never really dug into the matter.
Re:NYC taxi system could DESTROY uber (Score:4)
That you think it shouldn't happen isn't proof that it doesn't.
Uber doesn't steal from taxis. People hail taxis. People dispatch Uber. Dispatched cars in NYC don't need medallions. They are private cars.
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I live about three miles from my local airport, and I have learned that while taxi drivers will take me home from there, they outright refuse (using silent neglect) to pick me up. I called not one but two different taxi services, the first one with over an hour's notice, and neither one could get a taxi to me. The dispatcher apologized, but that was all they could do. I ended up driving to the airport myself in a rush and paying for multiple-day airport parking instead. Subsequent occas
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I've been stranded waiting for a taxi. The taxi that was sent never made it. This happens about 50% of the time for a pickup where hailing is common, and never in locations where hailing isn't common. Taxis are allowed to take a hail while going to a dispatched call. If the dispatched call is too short of a distance, they'll try to get out of it. An airport fare is much better than a shorter in town fare. That you think it shouldn't happen isn't proof that it doesn't. Uber doesn't steal from taxis. People hail taxis. People dispatch Uber. Dispatched cars in NYC don't need medallions. They are private cars.
Uber drivers play all sorts of games with canceling fares which are too short or not "ideal" for them. And Uber's real-time map is a lie, [wired.co.uk] which is obvious in several places that I have tried it. At least the taxi companies are regulated so there are complaint channels and potential consequences. With Uber you're relying on a sleazy company to police themselves.
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That is nonsense. Legally questionable, and what taxi business would allow that?
That's a very good question. What taxi business would allow that? Or a better question would be which taxi business would allow that?
Talk to your taxi drivers. Some of them use multiple dispatch centers to get referrals.
I'm not saying all of them do. Also, I am speaking specifically about San Francisco during peak hours, which is where I live. It probably won't apply to you if you're walking out of a five star hotel in San Francisco, or if you live in a city where the number of medaillons is not artificiall
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That's not exactly how it works, but it's hardly nonsense. Plenty of NYC taxis break the rules to ask you where you're going and leave you without a ride if they don't want to go t
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Once booked, an Uber car can not be flagged someone else, it can not hear about other people needing rides to other locations, and it can not make itself available for other tentative bookings. First in, first out. That's how it works. There is no inventory sitting in queues waiting midway to be processed (if you don't mind me using the metaphors of lean manufacturing).
This IS NOT TRUE in locations where Uber has pooling. Major cities like NYC, Uber drivers can and do get notices of other riders and are allowed and will take you out of the way to pickup those riders. Now you still pay the original price, but getting to your destination can take ALOT LONGER than expected. If you have not given yourself quite a lot of extra time, taking Uber to JFK from downtown Manhattan can be a big mistake!
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It's different in that when Paris was attacked by terrorists, regular taxi drivers rescued victims and people in danger of being killed, and Uber shut down and was gone during the crisis.
I suppose it could've been worse, they could have hit new highs for surge pricing.
Odd how Slashdot hasn't seen fit to mention this interesting data point...
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Summary wrong: Uber is NOT being sued (Score:2)
If you are going to create an artificial monopoly and charge people a lot of money to take part in it then they do have a grievance if you sudden
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The correct way would be to enforce that Uber follows the law and challenge NYC (and other cities) to hand out more "medallions" / licenses to run a cab business.
The your called monopoly is only the (questionable) scarcity of "medallions", not the other legislations.
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NYC has a lot of people in it and the streets are not wide enough to cary a level of traffic that a commuting pattern like another city work work. If you are going to have cars you are going to have to regulate the number. parking costs does that (to an extent) for personal vehicles, but not so for taxis. Medallions are a good thing, they prevent the tragedy of the commons.
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They've made an artificial monopoly, yes, but part of the 'problem' is that Uber is arguably NOT acting as a taxi service per the rules of NYC. They're operating under their 'black car/livery car' rules, which are more relaxed, and do not have medallions.
Another problem is that they're not actually 'charging people a lot of money'. Sure, there's fees to operate a taxi, but they're not that much higher than for a black car. The medallions are permanent in nature and were mostly issued ages ago, and are th
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Uber drivers and their cars are not TLC-Licensed so no Uber does not follow the rules.
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There is exactly no point in Uber's business model where the drivers are any better than the average taxi driver.
Have you ever been in a taxi? Or an Uber car?
I could debate the theoretical ins and outs of the business models and how they might affect quality, but there's really no need because simple observation demonstrates that you're wrong. I have occasionally encountered a taxi that was clean and in good condition, with a driver who is polite and friendly. I have also encountered many cabs that were old, dirty, smelly and with a driver who was rude and ornery. I've yet to find an Uber car or driver that wasn't v
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Your observations in no way contradict Uber being rent seeking
I don't think that word means what you think it means.
They put almost all the financial burden and risk to give you a good service on the drivers
Which is exactly why Uber drivers are better than taxi drivers, thus clearly contradicting your original claim (assuming you're the GP). Uber drivers have direct financial incentives to provide good service. These incentives are stronger than the similar incentives for taxi drivers, even though taxi drivers are tipped and Uber drivers aren't.
don't let the bluring of lines Uber does to the general public lead you to false conclusions.
What blurring is that? It all seems very clear to me: Uber is just the service that connects drivers and riders, f
my niece doesn't understand dial telephones (Score:4, Insightful)
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Horses are older than landlines, taxis, etc. Tell her "why would anyone ... horses?" [grin]
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ladies ride horses to get off
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Yeah, but you were in your thirties.
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Evolve or die (Score:2)
It's not like the Taxi industry could adapt to the changing market place; Instead let's insure that we save a dying business model and hamper progress by using legislation as an excuse for for necessity.
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Ensure - to make sure that something happens.
Insure - paying premiums, just in case it doesn't.
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You forgot: ...
Unsure: not knowing what is going on
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Funny, in other countries (like say my recent visit to Hong Kong) you can book a local taxi through Uber, so clearly Uber is open to the idea. But no, in NYC they decided to go their own way and create a crappy booking app and sue Uber because they were suddenly forced to compete.
And aside from the ride-sharing, at the more expensive Uber tiers (like "Black") they are operating fully within the laws for a livery company with licensed drivers.
The medallions is a racket scheme where people got rich taking out
Uber in NYC *is* regulated.` (Score:2)
In NYC the Taxi and Limousine Commision regulates... taxis and limos. Taxis are hailed and can't be called, and limos are called and can't be hailed. You can't carry passengers for hire without being one or the other.
For years and years this has been the case. You'd "dial 7" or "dial 6" or whatever and the "black car" (technically a limo, but to distinguish from the yellow taxis) would come pick you up.
So Uber shows up and the T&LC goes "Great! Another black car company! Fill out this paperwork and you'
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The complaints and lawsuits aren't about the Uber Black and above service tiers which you rightly identify as legally licensed livery services.
The complaints are about the low-cost tiers which are essentially the same thing as Lyft. Unlicensed individuals selling rides for hire through Uber as a booking agent. The drivers and vehicles aren't licensed as limos or taxis, and the cars don't have the special plates or stickers. Uber is taking a cut and claiming it's OK because there's no licenses required for d
liability and insurance are the big ones also labo (Score:3)
liability and insurance are the big ones also labor laws.
The taxi company's may abuse the labor laws. But they have full liability for accidents lift and uber look for loops holes even when a 6-year-old girl is killed by a uber driver that is on duty but uber has there system setup so they are not in there book.
If I you have passengers is the coverage hole (Score:2)
If I you have passengers is the coverage hole that real taxis have.
Non Uber ones are covered when they are going from the depot to there work zone, on the clock waiting for a fair, hired on there way to a fair, sitting in a taxi waiting zone, after a fair going back to there work zone / waiting area (manly airport cabs that drop people off and then drive back with out a fair), end of day back to the depot.
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The complaints are about the low-cost tiers which are essentially the same thing as Lyft. Unlicensed individuals selling rides for hire through Uber as a booking agent. The drivers and vehicles aren't licensed as limos or taxis, and the cars don't have the special plates or stickers.
Except, in NYC, the low-cost tier (Uber X) IS licensed as limos, with drivers with Taxi and Limo Commission licenses, and vehicles with the special TLC plates. The only difference between Uber X and Uber Black in NYC is that Uber Black has nicer cars (think Escalades vs. Camrys). This is a big difference between NYC and the rest of the country. NYC doesn't have the "Bob and his Chevy working for a couple hours driving people around" aspect.
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The point of medallions isn't to protect jobs. It's to try to control the number of cars driving around looking for a fare. and clogging up the street.
But uber is bitcoin only (Score:2, Funny)
I'm not sure how a bitcoin-only system like Uber can win over the traditional taxis.
Wagon of Fools (Score:2)
For me: GPS is the killer feature (Score:2)
I don't know about NYC cabs specifically, but everywhere I go, traditional cabs don't use GPS. So instead of sitting back and relaxing, I have to play navigator to the guy driving the cab. This is interesting in locations I've never been. I give the address, and the drivers asks me which highway to take. How am I suppose to know? I end up using my phone's GPS just so the driver can go where I need.
Now you can run into problems with Uber when they are relying on GPS to get places somewhere like Boston, and t
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You mean until the streets are so clogged with cars so it ends up being slightly quicker to walk across town, and slightly easier to sit in a car and pay for not having to walk/get wet in the rain?
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Or when there's a real emergency and Uber shuts down rather than get stuck in an unprofitable or bad-PR situation. There are situations where their surge pricing would not be well received and where they'll switch right off, as France learned.
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Hey, there is this thing called the tragedy of the commons. There are solutions to it. Medallions are an example solution. Some regulation is good.
Amazon (Score:5, Interesting)
Look what Amazon has done to local retail in America - decimated it!
Dude, that was, in order:
(1) strip malls put individual storefronts out of business, and raised rents when they were gone
(2) shopping malls put many strip malls and individual storefronts out of business, and raised rents when they were gone
(3) Walmart put many "anchor stores" in shopping malls out of business, which then killed individual mall stores dependent on foot traffic, and killed many strip malls with limited varied compared to Walmart, and remaining storefronts, all by buying in bulk, undercutting prices (even if good had to be sold at a loss to do so), and then raising prices once the others were gone
It's all about driving down aggregate costs (which is one reason many places in California have ordinances on maximum store size: to keep Walmart out, or at least from realizing a high enough economy of scale to drive smaller stores out of business, because they are more or less the same size
Amazon was pretty much uninvolved with any of that.
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Moreover, cities don't force Amazon to build abundant, cheap customer parking as they do to brick and mortar stores, so that's another cost Amazon doesn't have to pay.
And, cities gave big-box stores deed restrictions [ilsr.org] as a way to prevent competition from other brick and mortar stores.
So I wouldn't give Amazon or big-box stores so much credit for their own success. It's the gross incompetence of city planners that has been destroying small business for decades.
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Amazon was pretty much uninvolved with any of that.
No,but amazon was involved of abuse of the tax system. Inter state VAT in the EU was originally charged at the local rate, which made it super easy to do business, because you didn't need to know everyone else's rules, just sell abroad like you sell locally. So Amazon set up shop in Luxembourg and sold Europe wide on a massive scale, undercutting bricks and mortar stores which have to charge VAT at local rates.
Eventually the EU clamped down on it and funnil
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Amazon never won out cause of tax. Amazon charges tax now, and I still buy stuff from them instead of my local stores. Because Amazon has what I want when I want it. I once tried to buy a book from a local book store. They didn't have it, but would order it for me. It was going to take them two weeks to get it and cost around $15. Amazon had the book for $10 with two day shipping.
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And look at who is profiting - DIng! It's the senior executives and investors of these parasitical companies.
. Oh, the irony in
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You understand nothing about this situation. NYC taxis do exactly one thing, hailed rides. If you want dispatching, you call a "car service" that costs less than the cab. The reality is that before cell phones and smart phones dispatched cars were just vastly inferior and so weren't that numerous. Now they aren't that bad to use.
The only real regulation that is a pain for the cabs is that a medallion costs about $12/hour (in rent). They are there to keep the number of cars on the street at the correct level
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If taxi drivers simply swapped over to Uber, it would be win-win. Customers get imprvoed service, drivers keep their jobs, and fuckwits who imposed the shitty taxi services on us for decades go bankrupt.
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- Hail by app.
- Identify the car and driver that will pick you up.
- Track the car as it comes to pick you up.
- Price estimate from the company before you get in the car.
- Pay by pre-registered credit card.
- Provide feedback to company and other customers.
These items improve upon calling a dispatcher who may or may not answer, having an unidentified car sent to pick you up. having no idea where the car is