Heavily regulated industries pose barricade to innovation...
Uber is fun to read about. But what is interesting about the company is how they have evolved. In the early days they basically did whatever they wanted and got away with it because they were small fries. Now that the company has been seeing success and is getting traction they seem to be locked in endless legal battles. This has caused the company to mature. In many cases the company has shown willingness to follow/adopt rules and regulations. But, in many other cases the regions they attempt to operate in simply refuse to work with them until they fail at suing them in court.
Further to the problem is the supposed ire from taxi drivers. I don't think taxi drivers care all that much. Or rather, the ones that do care, care because it makes their already terrible position worse. The fact is, in most places being a taxi driver is amongst the worst job available. And no, I don't mean the work itself. Some people love driving, otherwise Uber probably wouldn't get very far. What sucks about being a cab driver in most areas is the rules, regulations, costs and other things. And you can't just choose to operate your own. Cab companies in many places fight over a limited number of permits, impose even harsher rules and restrictions on their drivers and then reap all of the benefits. The actual cab work often amounts to little more than slave labor with drivers fighting to break even on all of the things they are forced to pay for.
Air BnB has similar issues though it isn't yet as big as Uber is.
In both cases however, people are largely doing things which are perfectly legal. Or would be with only the slightest in context changes.
For instance, I can carpool. I can even agree to pay regular amounts to the person driving. At that point the driver isn't much different from an Uber driver. Actually, they're worse. Uber drivers at least need to register and pass certain tests. The person I have drive me into the office doesn't need any qualifications.
Similarly, for a company like Air BnB, many people will rent out cottages or summer homes. It isn't different aside from the brokering service in the middle. And all that a brokering service in the middle does is expedite transactions. Air BnB could just as easily be a website or a forum for people to post vacancies on, and it would then be identical to many sites that do the same sort of thing for cottages. With Air BnB the people who generally complain are the neighbors (though in the rare case a house is abused the owners might complain) and the problem there is, unless zoning forbids subletting, banning Air BnB wouldn't suddenly make it impossible for your neighbors to rent their houses out to hooligans.
The funniest thing with Uber has to be that there a lot of reports of cab drivers actually moonlighting as Uber drivers.
I find it hard to believe that an industry so filled with defectors that the majority of cab drivers are incensed as the people who are used to raping people's livelihood to make an extra buck who can no longer afford another extension on their houses. In fact, I'd wager a lot of taxi drivers intend to continue to moonlight as Uber drivers until they can pay off their obligations to the cab companies and then just become a full time Uber driver.
The general argument against companies like Uber is that they don't have the same level of oversight and regulation so people are at risk. I'd actually argue that the opposite is true. Firstly, rules and regulations stop nothing. A driver in Calgary recently kicked a passenger out of the vehicle for being homosexual. Rules and regulations didn't stop a taxi driver from verbal abuse, borderline hate crimes and unethical behavior. How do you suggest that they could stop any other form of illegal or unethical behavior? They can't. And, in a traditional cab, if something goes wrong, the onus is on the passenger to be able to accurately identify the driver.
Taxis also operate off of a metered rate and can use many tactics to increase the overall fare.
With a service like Uber, these things are absolutely still possible. But, with Uber being able to identify both the driver and passenger for every pickup it is much either to find and hold accountable the driver involved in any incident. And not only that, the user actually has even better guarantees that the cab driver is who they say they are. You get information such as the driver, the car make and model, etc... prior to being picked up. A taxi driver on the other hand would be easy to impersonate or switch with a friend or any other sort of questionable activity. As a result, it would actually be a lot harder for an Uber driver to get away with a crime than a traditional taxi driver.
The fare is also charged in advance, so aside from some quirks in the payment system, you can't really screw passengers over that way either.
This isn't to say that Uber is doing everything right. But it is clear that their model actually offers a lot of security that a traditional taxi service doesn't. And it is able to do so in a way which is more profitable for both the company (Uber) and the drivers than traditional cab fares. In many places there are probably a lot of restrictions local governments could enforce to improve customer safety and public interests, but there is simply too much codified in existing law and by-laws to let these industries advance.
Further to the problem is the supposed ire from taxi drivers. I don't think taxi drivers care all that much. Or rather, the ones that do care, care because it makes their already terrible position worse. The fact is, in most places being a taxi driver is amongst the worst job available. And no, I don't mean the work itself. Some people love driving, otherwise Uber probably wouldn't get very far. What sucks about being a cab driver in most areas is the rules, regulations, costs and other things. And you can't just choose to operate your own. Cab companies in many places fight over a limited number of permits, impose even harsher rules and restrictions on their drivers and then reap all of the benefits. The actual cab work often amounts to little more than slave labor with drivers fighting to break even on all of the things they are forced to pay for.
Air BnB has similar issues though it isn't yet as big as Uber is.
In both cases however, people are largely doing things which are perfectly legal. Or would be with only the slightest in context changes.
For instance, I can carpool. I can even agree to pay regular amounts to the person driving. At that point the driver isn't much different from an Uber driver. Actually, they're worse. Uber drivers at least need to register and pass certain tests. The person I have drive me into the office doesn't need any qualifications.
Similarly, for a company like Air BnB, many people will rent out cottages or summer homes. It isn't different aside from the brokering service in the middle. And all that a brokering service in the middle does is expedite transactions. Air BnB could just as easily be a website or a forum for people to post vacancies on, and it would then be identical to many sites that do the same sort of thing for cottages. With Air BnB the people who generally complain are the neighbors (though in the rare case a house is abused the owners might complain) and the problem there is, unless zoning forbids subletting, banning Air BnB wouldn't suddenly make it impossible for your neighbors to rent their houses out to hooligans.
The funniest thing with Uber has to be that there a lot of reports of cab drivers actually moonlighting as Uber drivers.
I find it hard to believe that an industry so filled with defectors that the majority of cab drivers are incensed as the people who are used to raping people's livelihood to make an extra buck who can no longer afford another extension on their houses. In fact, I'd wager a lot of taxi drivers intend to continue to moonlight as Uber drivers until they can pay off their obligations to the cab companies and then just become a full time Uber driver.
The general argument against companies like Uber is that they don't have the same level of oversight and regulation so people are at risk. I'd actually argue that the opposite is true. Firstly, rules and regulations stop nothing. A driver in Calgary recently kicked a passenger out of the vehicle for being homosexual. Rules and regulations didn't stop a taxi driver from verbal abuse, borderline hate crimes and unethical behavior. How do you suggest that they could stop any other form of illegal or unethical behavior? They can't. And, in a traditional cab, if something goes wrong, the onus is on the passenger to be able to accurately identify the driver.
Taxis also operate off of a metered rate and can use many tactics to increase the overall fare.
With a service like Uber, these things are absolutely still possible. But, with Uber being able to identify both the driver and passenger for every pickup it is much either to find and hold accountable the driver involved in any incident. And not only that, the user actually has even better guarantees that the cab driver is who they say they are. You get information such as the driver, the car make and model, etc... prior to being picked up. A taxi driver on the other hand would be easy to impersonate or switch with a friend or any other sort of questionable activity. As a result, it would actually be a lot harder for an Uber driver to get away with a crime than a traditional taxi driver.
The fare is also charged in advance, so aside from some quirks in the payment system, you can't really screw passengers over that way either.
This isn't to say that Uber is doing everything right. But it is clear that their model actually offers a lot of security that a traditional taxi service doesn't. And it is able to do so in a way which is more profitable for both the company (Uber) and the drivers than traditional cab fares. In many places there are probably a lot of restrictions local governments could enforce to improve customer safety and public interests, but there is simply too much codified in existing law and by-laws to let these industries advance.
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