Associate Cab drivers upset by deregulated fares

[GGG]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

If anyone could start up a cab company like any other business I'd agree, but the Cab business is a cartel, if McDonald screws you there are thousands of other resteraunts you can apply at, if a cab company screws you there are three other companies and ****** cabs will make damn sure you ain't getting a job with them.

Anyone can start a cab company now. You just can't accept street hails.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by T@T

Amazing there isn't a huge revolt over this(maybe there will be) it's a 12% paycut for the most important employees in the company, I assume dispatchers,mechanics and other staff stay the same, and lets not forget the millionaire owner.

As for Mr. Richard, he is so far up this city's politicians arses it's strange his cars haven't turned brown, his company grew because of bigotry towards drivers and when that had to stop he raised the rental rate for new drivers hoping they would stay away. and I wonder how many brown envelopes full of cash it took to get the city's approval to only have his trash service at the airport.

This is what we all wanted though. Owners being able to set what ever rate they wanted for drivers. It was essence of opening up the market.

[lazypucker]

Originally Posted by GGG

Anyone can start a cab company now. You just can't accept street hails.

So I can legally start up my own Uber service - advertise online or elsewhere for a business for driving people to the airport, taking old grannies to grocery stores, driving drunk people home, and escorts to their client calls?

[rain_e]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

So I can legally start up my own Uber service - advertise online or elsewhere for a business for driving people to the airport, taking old grannies to grocery stores, driving drunk people home, and escorts to their client calls?

Yes if you have the proper license.

It's just like if I wanted to open a casino. I need the proper license I can't just shoot dice on the corner or advertise my basement casino on Kijjiji.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by rain_e

Yes if you have the proper license.

It's just like if I wanted to open a casino. I need the proper license I can't just shoot dice on the corner or advertise my basement casino on Kijjiji.

You mean a 25 dollar business license? Or the 150,000 dollar institutional city bribe license?

[Fuzz]

I think it's $200? It's certainly not $150 000

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I think it's $200? It's certainly not $150 000

In Calgary that's the grey market price, in Vancouver its up to a million

[Fuzz]

I'm not talking about a taxi license, I'm talking about the new one that allows anyone to "rideshare" as long as it is pre-aranged, ie an app. No street hails.

[Poster]

the problem is consumers wanting something for nothing! we shouldnt be asking taxi's to be lower price, we should be asking them to provide better service and technology along with more availability.

we should support the taxi drivers by supporting those firms that add value, not just who is the cheapest.

how can we expect safe, reliable, on demand transport if we arent supporting the revenues required to properly provide that infrastructure? i think we all want more taxi's on the road but if the ROI is not there, who will invest in that? lets stop looking for cheap and start supporting value.

on that note, all the taxi drivers should quit en masse. then they will have power. as long as their brother is standing in line to take their job, the taxi owners will continue to treat them like they are disposable.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by Poster

the problem is consumers wanting something for nothing! we shouldnt be asking taxi's to be lower price, we should be asking them to provide better service and technology along with more availability.

we should support the taxi drivers by supporting those firms that add value, not just who is the cheapest.

Uh, no. It's not the job of the consumer to stick with a broken model and just keep bitching about it if a more advantageous model comes along. It's up to the industry to adjust to the market.

People wanted better service and technology, and someone else provided it. People wanted more availability, and there was a small number of medallions issued a couple years ago, but the availability during peak times and occasions didn't improve at all.

People would not choose services like Lyft and Uber if they did not solve a deficiency in the taxi industry making those options attractive.

[calgaryblood]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

In Calgary that's the grey market price, in Vancouver its up to a million

Not anymore. They barely fetch $30,000 now.

[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.

[llwhiteoutll]

Has anyone explained to him that an investment isn't a sure thing and it's not the city's job to guarantee his choice in investments?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...ticle25515301/

Among the key players was Mitch Grossman, a businessman whose family had collected more than 100 plates. These plates gave Grossman a pharaoh’s power.

If a driver wanted to use one of his family’s plates, Grossman could force him to buy an overpriced car from his sales operation, finance it through a family firm called Symposium Finance (where rates reached 28 per cent) then join Royal Taxi, the Grossman family’s taxi brokerage.

To get around the municipal bylaw against plate leasing, Grossman forced the driver to put the car he had just purchased in the name of one Grossman’s companies, so the names on the plate and the car matched. Not one of the licenses held by Grossman and his family were in their own names. Instead, they were held by companies, most of them numbered. (By doing more than 1,500 corporate searches we determined who was actually behind Toronto’s taxi licenses.)

This is the article I was referring to. I'd heard stories of corrupt plate holders in Calgary basically extorting money out of recent male immigrants. First they make a deal to drive on the promise they'll make enough money to bring their family over from India. Maybe even get help and influence from the mafia like plate holder. But once they start working and invest money, similar to the way described in the article, then the plate owner holds them hostage and they can't leave. They end up staying in that job in hopes that they'll finally get the money and help to bring over their family.

There is an entire website dedicated to this corruption. And most cities cave because, well the same reason most decisions are made: money. The plate holders are wealthy and they buy influence with counsellors and if the city threatens to change anything they threaten to sue or shut down the city like almost happened on multiple occasions in TO recently.

[FireGilbert]

Wouldn't allowing Uber solve these issues? If the cab drivers are not making a fair wage working for the man, then they have the option to try something else. I've met many uber drivers who were formally cabbies but changed to receive higher wages and greater flexibility.

In NSW, they de-regulated the taxi industry to legalise Uber, however added a $1 fee for all taxi and Uber trips. This fee goes towards compensating taxi plate owners who will receive $20,000 cash money per plate or a max of $40,000 for multiple owners. Consumers are happy since there are now more options to get home and cabbies are happy since their investment has not been reduced to nothing.

Come on Calgary get with the times!

[pseudoreality]

Some cabbies in Yellowknife tried to get a racket like this going a few years ago. They wanted the City to limit how many taxis were out there so they could control the market and resale the plates at inflated prices like they do in other Cities. Fortunately City Council was smart enough to say no and let the free market decide how many cars are on the street.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by taco.vidal

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

Originally Posted by llwhiteoutll

Has anyone explained to him that an investment isn't a sure thing and it's not the city's job to guarantee his choice in investments?

Right, and the other thing is he didn't get nothing. He got years of income because of that investment.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by FireGilbert

Wouldn't allowing Uber solve these issues? If the cab drivers are not making a fair wage working for the man, then they have the option to try something else. I've met many uber drivers who were formally cabbies but changed to receive higher wages and greater flexibility.

In NSW, they de-regulated the taxi industry to legalise Uber, however added a $1 fee for all taxi and Uber trips. This fee goes towards compensating taxi plate owners who will receive $20,000 cash money per plate or a max of $40,000 for multiple owners. Consumers are happy since there are now more options to get home and cabbies are happy since their investment has not been reduced to nothing.

Come on Calgary get with the times!

Uber is allowed in Calgary.

[4X4]

I will be so happy once this fake industry is busted right up. 20 years of calling cabs and getting crappy service, meanwhile, there are 150 of them just sitting at the airport. Can't get a ride from 17th to 20th&50th. Only 10 minutes away. Too short. Ok, let's go to Bridlehood! Nope, too far. F.off.

Open it up to people that want to do this job. Stop allowing the local taxi mafia to control a service that is pretty important to the community. There are lots and lots of people that want to frequent pubs and bars, and then get home responsibly. The taxi situation in this city is so piss poor, it makes Calgary Transit look like a good option.

And I don't need to hear from Pylon, the guy who doesn't drink, or Peter12, the guy who has a cab the minute he steps outside, I'm talking about all the actual people that go to a pub on Saturday night, and have 3 or 5 or 8 drinks, and are responsible enough to budget for a cab ride home, but then get stood up on the side of the road for 2-3 hours. I can't believe there is this vocal faction that thinks this is part of the hard knocks of life, and the alkies that want a drink should just deal with it by not leaving the house. How these people think it's reasonable that people wait for hours upon hours for a ride on a summer Saturday, let alone a winter Saturday is just mystifying. But I guess if you don't go out past 8pm, it's not a problem? Especially now that Uber has proven that there are people that are willing to drive us "party animals" home at 1-2am for a reasonable price, and within a reasonable amount of time. I guess the whole taxi racket is just that. A racket.

[Poster]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Uh, no. It's not the job of the consumer to stick with a broken model and just keep bitching about it if a more advantageous model comes along. It's up to the industry to adjust to the market.

People wanted better service and technology, and someone else provided it. People wanted more availability, and there was a small number of medallions issued a couple years ago, but the availability during peak times and occasions didn't improve at all.

People would not choose services like Lyft and Uber if they did not solve a deficiency in the taxi industry making those options attractive.

I dont think you understood the point I was making!

If the cost to run a safe, reliable, technology enabled soluition that puts more cars on the road costs more than current, so be it. the problem I have is consumers wanting more but offering less and being surprised when that isnt sustainable.

as for this industry, I think its #####. if the taxi people had invested in new solutions, then Uber wouldnt have found the space to move in. Uber is good for drivers as it gives them options. however, if we as consumers value Uber because its cheaper, how does that support a sustainable industry?

i dont want people to work with my company because I am cheapest. thats not sustainable. i want to add enough value to their needs so that they can pay me a rate that allows me to not just stay in business but to also invest in the company and is profitable.