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You say "credentials and insurance" I hear "red tape and rent-seeking". UPD: But yes, they do have some paperwork. Its relevance is open to the debate. However

You say "credentials and insurance" I hear "red tape and rent-seeking". UPD: But yes, they do have some paperwork. Its relevance is open to the debate. However, same applies to any paper coming out of public bus system.

barrkel 9y ago
You say "red tape and rent-seeking", and I hear "fly-by-night operators, fraudsters and scammers".
- thriftwy 9y ago
  How bad your police should be before you can be profitably scammed by a bus?
  - Tyrek 9y ago
    Police aren't there to prevent the first offense - only to clean up afterwards. Regulation (read: licensing, etc) is more pre-emptive in heading off some of these issues.
    - thriftwy 9y ago
      There's only so many minibuses. It's not an infinite number, so obviously, first offences occurence will be naturally limited by this fact. Regulation also costs society money, indirectly taken from your wallet. You spend a lot of money without even solving a problem, because there's no certificate for honest person. I would say, regulation costs 10x of cleaning up afterwards, which you still have to do. I would wait for the first offence if it was me.
- SamReidHughes 9y ago
  We wouldn't want fraudulent bus rides, now, would we.
  - camgunz 9y ago
    It's more like unsanitary or unsafe vehicles and dangerous drivers who are either unlicensed or violent.
    - thriftwy 9y ago
      Having ridden public transit in the USA, dollar vans that I have ridden elsewhere have a long way to go before their sanitary status deteriorate as much. I'm talking about scary sticky floors everywhere. Light rail in Sacramento is ghetto on the wheels, and don't pretend blaming it on poverty since dollar vans were in much much poorer areas than CA. If anything, driver of private vehicle cares more about their vehicle, it being private. Who cares for public ones?
      - barrkel 9y ago
        driver of private vehicle cares more about their vehicle, it being private That's how it starts. But then one bus driver figures that if he gets together a loan, he's able to buy a bunch of buses and hire a bunch of drivers and scale up his income. Next thing you know, he's trying to evade liability when one of his dodgy buses has an accident, or he's trying to avoid repaying the loan, or he's cheaping out on driver skill. If the whole house of cards falls down, he sets up another shell company via a relative, transfers the assets across via a sale, and continues on his merry way. The private bus owner with the well-maintained bus goes out of business because the he's outcompeted by the scale efficiencies of the fly by night operator.
        thriftwy 9y ago
        You can obviously hold a call for bids on dollar van routes, so that the best routes go to most capable companies and upstarts have to choose between less desirable routes. Other than that, you could write same things about bakeries and not buses. But we still have a lot of inexpensive private bakeries around.
        SamReidHughes 9y ago

barrkel 9y ago

You say "red tape and rent-seeking", and I hear "fly-by-night operators, fraudsters and scammers".

thriftwy 9y ago
How bad your police should be before you can be profitably scammed by a bus?
- Tyrek 9y ago
  Police aren't there to prevent the first offense - only to clean up afterwards. Regulation (read: licensing, etc) is more pre-emptive in heading off some of these issues.
  - thriftwy 9y ago
    There's only so many minibuses. It's not an infinite number, so obviously, first offences occurence will be naturally limited by this fact. Regulation also costs society money, indirectly taken from your wallet. You spend a lot of money without even solving a problem, because there's no certificate for honest person. I would say, regulation costs 10x of cleaning up afterwards, which you still have to do. I would wait for the first offence if it was me.
SamReidHughes 9y ago
We wouldn't want fraudulent bus rides, now, would we.
- camgunz 9y ago
  It's more like unsanitary or unsafe vehicles and dangerous drivers who are either unlicensed or violent.
  - thriftwy 9y ago
    Having ridden public transit in the USA, dollar vans that I have ridden elsewhere have a long way to go before their sanitary status deteriorate as much. I'm talking about scary sticky floors everywhere. Light rail in Sacramento is ghetto on the wheels, and don't pretend blaming it on poverty since dollar vans were in much much poorer areas than CA. If anything, driver of private vehicle cares more about their vehicle, it being private. Who cares for public ones?
    - barrkel 9y ago
      driver of private vehicle cares more about their vehicle, it being private That's how it starts. But then one bus driver figures that if he gets together a loan, he's able to buy a bunch of buses and hire a bunch of drivers and scale up his income. Next thing you know, he's trying to evade liability when one of his dodgy buses has an accident, or he's trying to avoid repaying the loan, or he's cheaping out on driver skill. If the whole house of cards falls down, he sets up another shell company via a relative, transfers the assets across via a sale, and continues on his merry way. The private bus owner with the well-maintained bus goes out of business because the he's outcompeted by the scale efficiencies of the fly by night operator.
      - thriftwy 9y ago
        You can obviously hold a call for bids on dollar van routes, so that the best routes go to most capable companies and upstarts have to choose between less desirable routes. Other than that, you could write same things about bakeries and not buses. But we still have a lot of inexpensive private bakeries around.
      - SamReidHughes 9y ago