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They should be improving their service or reducing prices. If you want to lose, protesting, blocking traffic, and eliminating service is how you do it.
by adamio 12y ago
They should be improving their service or reducing prices. If you want to lose, protesting, blocking traffic, and eliminating service is how you do it.
- Nursie 12y agoThey can't. They have legal restrictions on how they have to operate which Uber either don't have to obey or don't think they have to obey. This is what the protest is about. Not just "OMG competition!"
- adamio 12y agoBeyond set fares, what legal restrictions are keeping them from improving service?
- Nursie 12y agoI think the fares are the main one. They have a meter that uses set prices and is sealed by TFL. I guess the idea was that people would always know it was a fair fare or (if they ordered a minicab) that they would pay a fixed fare they knew ahead of the journey. I can see this having its root in consumer protection. I think the minicab folks are annoyed for the same reason - they can't charge the way Uber does, only black cabs can do that. So uber is in a grey area - it's not licensed to charge by meter, but it kinda-sorta does, and it doesn't charge the rates black cabs have to. IIRC black cabs are prohibited from using GPS as well... but that seems minor and I may be wrong.
- justinreeves 12y agoYeah, seems like a lot of people are jumping straight to the comment section based on the headline.
- air 12y agoThey probably also oppose any easing of those restrictions.
- im3w1l 12y agoSo "OMG competition from people without The Knowledge" then?
- stdgy 12y agoI don't think that is what these protests are about at all. For instance, in France, the protest leaders have called on instituting required time-delays for all Uber pickups(15 minutes). They've also called for a nationalized taxi hailing application that would exclude Uber, and have called for Uber's app to be disallowed from showing driver locations. Similarly, Britain's protesters have demanded Uber to do away with fare estimates. Notice how these complaints aren't in the form of: Let us do what Uber is doing. Rather, they take the form: Stop letting Uber do what it's doing. The Taxi owners want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to continue to protect their business models by placing artificial limits on competition, and they seek to disallow novel technology that would make their fare structure less opaque.
- Nursie 12y agoThe 'official' line I heard on Radio 4 this morning was that it was the uneven playing field that had got them riled up, and that minicab operators were also fuming because they had been restricted from operating in this way too, But you're right, the individual cab drivers probably just want competition outlawed. >> they seek to disallow novel technology that would make their fare structure less opaque. FYI - In London the fare structure is not opaque, it's set out on a notice in every Taxi and the meter is set up and sealed by TFL.
- akumen 12y agoMy thoughts exactly. Instead of getting with the program they want to stifle the competition while making life difficult for their clients. I just can't sympathise with the taxi drivers.