Taxi, Limo Trade Group Hates Innovative Upstarts, Labels Them 'Rogue Applications'
from the can't-beat-'em-in-the-market,-so... dept
There's nothing like a bit of disruptive innovation to make the legacy players start busting out the old moral panics. We've written a few times about the new generation of ride-for-hire and ride-share services, which are really disrupting the old taxi and limo business -- leading to all sorts of highly questionable lawsuits and attempts at regulating these new players into oblivion. In almost every case, it seems quite clear that these attacks are not because the service is bad for consumers... but because it's disrupting traditional players who haven't innovated. So, it came as little surprise this week to receive an email from the "Taxi, Limousine & Paratransit Association" excitedly telling me all about a new paper they've issued with a giant "warning" about what they call "rogue apps." Isn't that great? Rather than innovative and disruptive services that consumers absolutely love, they just rebrand them as "rogue" apps and they can make them seem sssssssssssssscary. The paper grades various new services, giving them a "red light," "yellow light" or "green light."Not surprisingly, the more well known apps -- Uber, SideCar, Lyft and Tickengo -- all have received the coveted "red light." While according to the TLPA this means they're dangerous "rogue apps," to me it suggests that they're all doing something right. They're providing services that people want that are more convenient or better priced than the old guard, which is why the old guard has to attack them.
The key point they make is that these are all "unregulated" taxi services, which allows them to go into full out moral panic mode about how, without regulations, these services will likely take advantage of consumers. The paper talks about threats of "criminal" drivers and the potential for meter rigging. Of course, as we've seen in other industries, this seems like a clear case of businesses using regulations to keep out innovation and competitors, rather than for a legitimate purpose. Yes, many of those regulations were put in place for a good reason originally, yet many of those reasons really don't apply to these new services.
In the past, you needed regulations to protect you from drivers taking extra long paths to where you wanted to go, driving poorly or charging too much -- because drivers could do that and there was little recourse. But the thing about these new services, which rely heavily on online reputation systems, is that these reputation systems make the need for such regulations much less necessary. The services, like Uber, set the price and poor drivers get booted from the system based on user reviews. And, since most people who have a mobile phone these days to use one of these apps will also have GPS on those phones, people can self-monitor if the driver is taking a reasonable route. Basically, the original safety reasons (which, again, may have made sense at the time) for many of those regulations simply may not really apply to these new services. But rather than deal with that, the legacy players are doing what legacy players do: using those regulations to try to stomp out innovation and stifle competition.
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Filed Under: innovation, limos, protectionism, regulations, taxis, threats
Companies: lyft, sidecar, tickengo, tlpa, uber
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You ever look around at most utilities? In a lot of places, such as my house, there is only one ISP. There are tons of "legal" monopolies.
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I do believe, much like the best sellers the Catholic church created with their banned book list, this will be the go to guide of Taxi services of the techno literate.
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I do believe, much like the best sellers the Catholic church created with their banned book list, this will be the go to guide of Taxi services of the techno literate.
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Good Lord. Is anybody really that naive?
Uber drivers are contractors. If one of them is about to harm a passenger, they won't first stop to consider whether they might harm Uber's reputation. Is this writer telling us they will? Because that's naive.
Does this writer believe that an Uber driver will avoid committing an assault against a passenger because Uber possesses the driver's identity? Or, because the Uber driver might lose his job? This is naive, too.
The reason the taxi business is so heavily regulated is because it is a dangerous business. Drivers get robbed. Passengers get assaulted. This happens every single week in America.
But the moment an Uber passenger downloads the app she has just forfeited any right to hold Uber responsible if something bad happens on her ride.
So, if something bad happens to an Uber customer, what's going to give her some justice, some consolation? The fact that her driver had an excellent reputation?
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Isn't that the case for most cab drivers in markets with a highly limited number of medallions? The owner has the medallion and the cab, and rents the use of it to drivers, 24 hours a day, for a fairly steep price, whether the drivers do well or not.
But the moment an Uber passenger downloads the app she has just forfeited any right to hold Uber responsible if something bad happens on her ride.
You make a good point, and I agree with you: we should prohibit (or at least strictly regulate) disclaimers of liability, binding arbitration clauses, and other such abusive terms in adhesive contracts.
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I fail to see why if someone does something bad, they can hide behind a company, or why that company is at fault. If the company knows that driver has been in trouble before or has other reasons for doubting the driver's ability to not do bad things, then the company could have some culpability, but the majority of responsibility always lies in the person who did the bad thing, not someone who pays them, whether as an employee or a contractor.
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The Patriot Acrt, Warrantless Wiretapping, Indefinite Detentions, Bloomberg's Idea of a Drone Occupied New York, Washington approving drones for use in this country, wealthy corporations bleeding Americans dry and those election representatives we sent to Washington only continue to make living in this country even worse than before.
I think what started with the "Occupy" movement is going to evolve into a new civil war because it's the people in power who don't want to give that power up.
This whole issue in regards to these new start-ups is just one tip of the iceberg.
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Why are we still talking about Uber?
1) run by an Objectivist
2) who engaged in heavy price gouging during the Hurricane Sandy emergencies
3) which is blatantly illegal on top of being despicable? (But exactly what you'd expect from an Objectivist.)
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you also know these are the very same regulations that the taxi companies have to follow, therefore these "new" players are trying to gain an unfair (trading) advantage by not following the laws.
these regulations have been put in place for a reason, just like ensuring pilots of jet's are suitability checked and trained, and aircraft meet specific standards. And it's not just about the risk to pasengers but also for the drivers and the company, are they fully insured ?
Can both the car and driver be easily identified, and is there any mechanism in place to ensure competent and honest drivers, or any method of punishment if these companies fail to meet some minimum standard? Such as security for the driver like armoured driver seat backs or in car video?, or a panic button system ?
what recourse do you have if one of these 'amateur' services fair to show up ? or if the driver is abusive ? or he smells ? or aggressive, or steals off you ?
or is not really with the group he says he is, and you never get to ANY destination ?
Again, these regulations are in place for valid reasons, and things like training, certification, security, professionalism, right down to the requirement to wear uniforms and be easily identifiable are there for a valid reason.
If an airline started operating, and were really cheap, (after all they don't need to maintain their planes, meet regulations like pilot checking, or training. would you be willing to fly with them. and is it fair that people could be put at risk (and professionals lose their jobs) because someone wants to make profit, but not provide a safe and effective service ?
this article just shows how shallow Masnicks mind is, and how nothing matters except how much money you can scam off people.
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That depends. Do I have to go through a TSA checkpoint?
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Its fascinating that an individual cab or limo might actually bypass a central dispatch altogether empowering a whole new level of middlemen removal. This brings to mind the obvious question who the lobbying firm represents the dispatch/firms or the drivers? Looks like the drivers loose. (again?)
Haven't examined the individual rules for each of those apps but suspect a diverse approach from dispatch fee based to fuel charge only carpooling. (all should be the option of the user)
As for taxi regulation 95% is basically for squeezing more revenue from them at the expense of drivers. Both (big city) Limo and Taxi firms are legendary for getting drivers to work 18/hr days min for decent, family supporting wage, earnings. The 5% of safety is mostly just talk no action. Same for Limo drivers as its basically a city fee charged at the airport for admission to the limo lot. (all cities are unique in their fee and tax structure)
Since GPS tracking on smart-phones is normal it would be hard for driver cheating. Also the same for many safety issues so the reasons for government regulation has (almost) vanished. (total agreement) this would especially be true if the phone app actually kept track of the route and fare as part of the service or at least helped (to respect personal privacy) to record it and or at least compare actual mileage/km rates.
Liability is dependent on the hard to encompass concept of �negligence�. Might be nice for some passenger safety rules/etiquette like taking a picture of the driver (like many large city cabs are required to do of the passenger) and sending it to a friend or home.
A red light warning given to the �Taxi, Limousine & Paratransit Association� and related proposed legislation!
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