Cab Drivers Angry About Having To Compete With Free As Well
from the it's-called-competition dept
There's just something about having to compete with "free" that gets people really, really angry. It's silly of course. In traditional competition, if someone lowers their price and it's lower than your own costs, you simply have to figure out other ways to compete (such as by adding more benefits and value). It's the same thing when you compete with free -- but for some reason, people see that big $0 and they stop thinking, not realizing it's no different if someone is charging $0 or if they're just charging less than you. You need to figure out some way to compete. EEJ points us to a story from a couple months back, noting that in Tampa, Florida, some entrepreneurially minded folks have started up free transportation services using electric vehicles. The operators of these vehicles make their money by wrapping the cars in ads and accepting tips. Other than that, the ride is free.But... wouldn't you know it? Local cabbies are pissed off and demanding regulations to stop this sort of competition. Rather than coming up with better ways to compete, they feel the need to run to the government and get protectionist help. Doesn't this sound familiar? Amusingly, it's actually taxi regulations that have created some of this problem in the first place. At least one of the electric car owners notes that he approached the city about getting a license, but he was denied, because of the artificial scarcity the city places on cabs via such regulations (which help keep the cost of a cab ride artificially high). But... the loophole is that the regulations only apply to hired transportation. If the transportation itself is "free" then there are no regulations.
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Filed Under: business models, cab drivers, competition, free, licensing, tampa
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Free - just means someone else is paying for it.
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On another note, this is instance #34,076,914 in the last year that I have read why most regulations are idiotic, anti-business, anti-consumer, and anti-taxpayer, yet I continue to read so much opinion that the fix to seemingly everything is "more regulations"...are people just stupid or what?
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You bet!
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it's called competition and that's how capitalism works, if you can't cut it then tough shit, don't call the rest of us for your pity party
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Re: Free Just means someone else is paying for it
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Yeah, the advertisers. Next time, rtfa.
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They've also insisted on the internet cease linking to their vehicles. They seem kind of confused...
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Hey..
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If you can solve the TAX issue for the government here, my take is that the cities would be linning up to get on the "free electric taxi" bandwagon so fast you would need to call in the Time Warp guys to record it...
JMHO
Mike
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What a great concept...
If an idea like this flies, it could literally replace a good portion of public transportation and have it be financed in an ad supported way which is a game changer.
It is hard to believe this is America. Sounds to me like we are a bunch of protectionist whiners. Then again, I heard something about change. Awesome, change from a sound independent rugged society with a heavy dose of freedom to one that is losing freedoms every day, becoming totally dependent on the government, and with an ever increasing amount of entitlement thinking - yeah America!
Freedom
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Re: What a great concept...
Because we know we can trust the mainstream media to inform us of the issues right?
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Re: tax
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The cabbies are.... whaaa.... Golf carts?
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Here's an idea for differentiating....
Tell me where the best place in town to get a pulled pork sandwich. Hamburgers and Steaks. Hotfries and wings. And shave that beard off, hippie!
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COOL!
Nahh... Too easy.
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NY NY
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And carpooling is totally destroying their business.
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So she went ahead, baked another batch and headed out with her cart. When the cops showed up again and tried to stop her, she explained that she was giving the baked good away, not selling them. The cops said that was ok...
America, land of opportunity.*
*For those who can afford it...
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It is very possible to make money by selling baked goods. This woman just was not willing to make the necessary commitment. She was a hobby baker, and she cannot possibly have expected to make much money that way. The opportunity is there, she just chose not to take it. The opportunity she had was just a hobby, nothing more.
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Also, like I said above, there's no reason why we need government regulations; optional private regulations would work just fine.
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i.e. you don't need a taxicab license.
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I agree with Coward
If you just put a sticker on a bumper for advertising - there is no way to measure its impact, and in these hard economic times unless you prove that those ads are working - the ad dollars will dry up fast. One way would be to do more proactive advertising by selling in these free vehicles advertisers products - that could be selling tickets to the shows, exhibitions, etc..
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What about walking is the competition as well :-)
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F the cab drivers
They need to do this in NYC. They should put monitors that play commercials - CAPTIVE AUDIENCE!
In many elevators they have monitors that show news items surrounded by advertising (and sometimes full commercials) and they make money.
NYC gov makes money by charging a lot for taxi medallions (hundreds of thousands) because they know cabs make a lot of money. I know someone who quit an office job to drive a cab because he made so much.
FREE transportation should be an option.
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Cab Drivers
At this point, the Tampa, FL government has made sure that these "Free Cabs" do not have a license to conduct business. Someone now needs to sue the local government to bring these carts back to us as free market capitalists who are losing out to lazy socialists/Obama democrats who want nothing more to control your healthcare.
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