[taco.vidal]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa...ates-1.3524212

Ottawa taxi driver worries legal Uber will make plate 'not worth anything'

Driver Tony Abouhamad bought his plate for $80K in 1999, now says it is worth nothing
CBC News Posted: Apr 07, 2016 6:18 AM ET Last Updated: Apr 07, 2016 6:30 AM ET

An Ottawa cabbie worries his taxi plate will be worthless if city council adopts a staff report legalizing Uber.

Taxi driver Tony Abouhamad scraped together savings combined with a loan in 1999 to purchase his taxi plate for $80,000.

But since Uber began siphoning off customers, Abouhamad says the value of his plate has nosedived from $300,000 to nearly nothing.

"I thought this was safe — like real estate — and after 19 years they tell me it's not worth anything," said Abouhamad.
"I'm confused and I feel like whatever I worked in life, I lost everything… this is my pension and it's gone. I've lost my investment."

Cab drivers like Abouhamad will be among the 40 delegations scheduled to speak today at a special city committee discussing the report recommending app-based ride-hailing services like Uber be regulated.

The city controls the number of taxi plates and over the years the value of those plates — which now number 1,188 — has climbed.

Abouhamad is one of 644 people who own just a single plate.

He says Uber has impacted not only his investment but also his income, saying since Uber arrived in 2014 his income has been cut in half.