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A medallion was never necessary to run a car service. There were tons of other car services operating in New York without medallions prior to Uber. The medalli
by TheCoelacanth 9y ago
A medallion was never necessary to run a car service. There were tons of other car services operating in New York without medallions prior to Uber.
The medallions were required to be able to pick up street hails. Uber does not and never has accepted street hails. They operate more like the other car services where you request a car from a central dispatcher, and then that car comes and picks you up at a location that you requested.
- taneq 9y agoYeah, but not really. In the days before mobile phones, street hails were a huge majority of a taxi's fares. Your only other choices were to call from home, find a pay phone, or find a cab rank (or does a cab rank still count as a street hail?) Apps like Uber let people effectively "street hail" while sidestepping the legalities, which were written before mobile phones became available.