Cabbie ?
The World’s Cabbies are in Uber Trouble as in Big Trouble.
The cause …Uber – as in the Uber ride service.
And Uber itself is not some small outfit – recent reports indicate it has a worth in excess of $40 Billion Dollars.
Cabbies here in Ottawa are suffering along with their world confreres; Estimates say that their weekly income has dropped as much as two-thirds.
One would think that the public would have great sympathy for them … but you’d be wrong.
Comments like the days of ‘the Horse and Buggy’ are over they say to explain that the time has come to put to pasture the once famous yellow cab.
And when Cabbies protest, they are uniformly vilified and told that they are only hurting their image and hastening their demise.
As a bit of a contrarian, you might well imagine that I do not share the general public’s negative opinion of the Cab and its Driver.
The Cabbie is caught in the proverbial middle – he or sometimes she is totally powerless in what has transpired:
The Cab industry is regulated by the Municipality – in our case by the City of Ottawa which issues scarce licences which in turn are bought up by a small number of millionaire owners.
The owners then pass along to the hapless driver the regulatory costs of running the cab which includes public liability insurance which is most expensive together with the rental of the cab itself.
Then ad the cost of paying the company which operates the ?
Hence my analogy of them being caught in the middle.
For the pleasure of driving cab, they world 12+ hours a day often realizing much less than they would have received, had they worked 9 am to 5 pm somewhere for minimum wage.
So when your meagre wage is suddenly slashed by 66% how are they to manage – to keep house and home – to feed their families – to send their kids on to university …to even keep the cab on the road.
Some lash out – wouldn’t you?
Just imagine you work for someone and your pay is $60,000 per year and all of a sudden that amount is reduced to $20,000 or less. Likely to be somewhat annoying – n’est pas?
And yet I have heard some people say – “they should just then seek other employment”.
Dah – but do you really think that they would be driving cab if they could easily get other employment?
Most are recent immigrants with poor domestic language abilities – easy for a native canadian to say – well go seek other work…
Rather, these chaps and gals are stuck in a soul destroying job – long long hours, poor pay, dealing day in and day out – night in and night out with congested city traffic, dealing with drunks / druggies, and too often with other obnoxious patrons.
Just imagine and as for me – I do not blame them for striking or work to rule.
The blame rests with the municipality but many municipalities like our own here in Ottawa – fail to take responsibility – indeed the Mayor himself has called some Cabbies thugs.
Our City has kicked the ball down the road by establishing a commission to study the issue … all the while these guys … and gals are bleeding.
The fair haired Boy or Girl in all of this is Uber. And yet Uber is not registered to provide taxi or ride service to the public, it is breaking both Municipal and Provincial laws by not being registered and it has been established that many Uber drivers are doing so without any public liability insurance for commercial driving. They can also use their own uninspected vehicles.
So no wonder they can charge much less than the once proud yellow cab.
Okay so that is the issue and those are the problems. In such cases I try to leave you with a solution and put forward the following for your consideration.
- Ottawa cancel all existing licences (some are selling for a half million and more due to their scarcity) and enter into a modest compensation for their millionaire holders;
- Licence all ride services to ensure that their vehicles are safe, the drivers are responsible and that they carry public liability insurance for commercial activity. These licences should be unrestricted in number and be issued at a modest price.
- If a company wants to organize a dispatch system and charge drivers for joining up so be it …by the same token if they want to take their fares over the internet via an Uber or similar arrangement …they are free to do that too.
It doesn’t seem to be all that complicated to me and certainly not worthy of an in-depth study – just get the interested parties together in a room and use my suggestion for the basis of discussion. I bet within a few days a settlement favourable to the majority will be reached.
And along with it – the dignity of some fine men and women will have been restored.
As I see it…
“K.D. Galagher’
