I mean, consider the alternative, which is how taxis used to work. Investors like Gene Friedman would own fleets of medallions, and drivers would rent the medal

I mean, consider the alternative, which is how taxis used to work. Investors like Gene Friedman would own fleets of medallions, and drivers would rent the medallioned cars. Or drivers would own their own medallion. Definitely, for sure, the drivers were not employees. One big difference was that there were no big public companies to sue. In Chicago, clever class action lawyers tried suing the city, since they set all of the standards that are the basis of the employee/contractor distinction. It got up to the 7th Circuit, where Posner wrote an an opinion that went basically "uh, no."