How about letting us drive?
Who’s us? Passengers — taxi-ride buyers. Plus anyone else who participates in the market transactions that take us places.
Many Orlando, Florida cabbies are eager to work with the ride-sharing company that makes the smartphone app Uber. They’re tired of leasing cabs for $129 a day while scrambling for enough price-controlled fares to earn a decent living after paying that steep cost. Uber drivers provide their own car and let the firm’s technology connect them to customers. Uber gets 20 percent of fare revenue.
The politics are mostly hostile to the innovation in places like New York City where markets are mangled by super-high license fees and other regulations. The politics are also tough in Orlando, which has been cracking down on Uber drivers. But the mayor and Uber executives have been talking about a deal under which Uber could operate if it submits to … regulation. (Sigh.)
Cab companies in the City Beautiful expect to rapidly lose revenue if innovators like Uber and Lyft get to operate freely. But Orlando taxi drivers expect to gain.
“If you talk to 1,000 drivers,” says one, “950 will tell you they are going to Uber.” Says another: “Let Uber come here. It’s going to be good for the customer and the driver.”
Let them come. Also kill all regulations, including fare caps, that make it harder for cab companies to adapt. Let terms of trade be driven — regulated — by traders. Not by governments.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
7 replies on “Let Us Drive”
Since i don’t live in or go to NYC or Orlando, and do not own or use taxis, I consider myself unbiased.
Get rid of ALL regulations? Any idea-insurance-if the taxi is involved in an accident? or, is it buyer beware? Ask the driver-” how much liability and other insurance do you have?
No regulations sounds great- but the practicality?
Those are the early issues of a disruptive industry. It’s all good because if you taxi, you can save 50%. The point is to prevent the established industry from squashing a disruptive industry through teh power of the lobby like what Tesla is fighting with the model of direct selling cars to the public.
Same with Airbnb which is disrupting the hotel industry.
There are a lot of powerful and disruptive forces working right now. Not the least of which is self-driving trucks which threatens to put 8,000,000 truck drivers out of work in the next few years(teamsters lobby). It will be good for consumers but hey, if you drive a truck, you may be out of work soon. Drones could kill floral & pizza delivery jobs among many. Do we want to halt that progress or allow it to flourish?
In the oligarchic countries, and we may now be one of them now, old industries get propped up at the expense of progress and consumers. When the Iron Curtain fell in the early 90s, we learned that Soviet farms were being plowed and planted with tractors built in the 1930s. Obviously inefficient to farmer & consumer alike.
Should insurance be mandatory for Uber drivers? Auto insurance is already mandatory in all 50 states: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_insurance_in_the_United_States
That includes liability for the driver.
When Uber drivers start getting sued for damages due to an accident they caused, and insurance doesn’t cover it, expect a lot of bad publicity for that driver and for Uber. Drivers who don’t have adequate insurance, can lose most everything they have if they cause an accident with sufficient harm done.
To More Freedom:
I don’t know about other states, but in FL. the insurance minimums are all that is required to drive. I do not know if there is a higher minimum for those who take passengers, or if there would be. (There should be). As to – “could lsoe everything” – I was involved in an accident years ago; the police cited me‑I felt i was the victim; my insurance co. (and private attorney) told me to accept, pay the fine ($50.00)-less expensive then fight. The otehr party’s attorney offered a reasonable settlement; my insurannce co. refused; 3 years later-went to court-round numbers-$2 million verdict against me. I declared CH 7 BK; (insurance co. later settled for jsut under $1 million)- the point being- big verdict-declare BK-in FL ( and I beleive msot states) home is exempt; and have lead time to move assets.
My questions still remain
[…] Common Sense: Let Us Drive […]
[…] that helps users buy rides outside the usual regulated-taxi context (as I’ve discussed here and here). It’s also true in the case of Airbnb, whose app connects renters and home […]
[…] that helps users buy rides outside the usual regulated-taxi context (as I’ve discussed here and here). It’s also true in the case of Airbnb, whose app connects renters and home […]