IT'S ALL ABOUT UBER !!!
WHAT ABOUT THE POOR CABBIE?
Over the last couple of years, I have watched with interest the Worldwide Fight going on between the UBER Ride Service and the quaint Taxis Cab Business; the checker cabs, the yellow cabs and of course the famous black cabs of London England.
UBER, the upstart, has come along recently promoting Smart Phone Apps which you can use to request a ride and pay for it at the same time challenging the long time love affair between the public and our cabbies.
And they are doing it through the riders' pocket books - they can operate far more cheaply since they do not have to get a licence, nor liability insurance, nor even a police check.
UBER's pitch is that the Cab Industry is so 'yesterday' - "get with the program and come into the 21st Century".
And I say, not so fast guys.
And, I can hear many out there countering - 'Galagher, you probably would have said the same thing at the turn of the 1900s claiming that the horse and buggy was superior to the new-fangled automobile'.
Maybe, but let's look first at where the Cab Business is today and how it got there:
Governments, primarily local or city governments quickly got into the licencing of cabs - their owners and their drivers. Not only did it raise revenue via the selling of licences plus the annual fees, but it ensured that their respective public's were provided with a safe method of transport.
But in issuing these licences - the government authorities also restricted the numbers issued so a black market arose where licences were sold over the years for ever increasing dollar amounts.
And thus was the state of the Cab Business over the course of most of the 1900s.
So it is time to put you in the driver's seat so to speak and then tell me what you think about what has happened to the hapless cabbie:
You are an immigrant - you come to a new country and find that the only work you can get - in ever more modern societies - is menial. You end up driving a cab for 12 hours plus per day and make less than minimum wage.
You are trying to support a family of 4 for instance - and at the end of a brutal week have little to show for your work.
You have to pay rent to the owner of the cab licence since you do not have the money to pay the $300,000 plus to buy your own. You pay gas, insurance, repairs and various other fees for the honour of working these long hours.
You dear reader decide after several years of this to beg, borrow and steal to arrange to buy one of these over priced licences and find yourself making more money per week but you are in debt up to your eye-balls.
You still have visions of seeing your 2 kids get an good education because you know that this is the only way that will see them escape the hand-to-mouth existence you have had to endure.
And along comes Uber - the new age which prices the old yellow cab out of existence.
The cabbies ask for 3 things - one that the Uber drivers have to have a licence too, second that they must obtain adequate insurance and finally that they all must regularly produce police clearances.
The big one of course is with respect to the licencing which in their wisdom the authorities decide is now longer needed - so the licence owners say okay - then compensate us for what we paid for our worthless licences.
To bad - so sad is the reply they get.
They are told it is just like a bad stock investment - some times the investment goes up, sometimes it stays the same and sometime it drops ...even to the point of worthlessness. It is chance you took when you purchased the licence.
So what do you the immigrant think - you worked 12 to 14 hours a day for minimum wage to raise your family - you then put everything you / your family / your friends had to buy a licence and for the privilege you placed yourself in debt for eternity.
And now these smart ass bureaucrats - paid too much and under-worked have the nerve to tell you to suck it up.
The fact is, these self same governments / bureaucrats were part and party to this ponzi scheme from the very beginning. They knew by restricting the issuance of licences that their cost would skyrocket over time and now when they decide the day of licencing is over - they have an obligation to the folks who played the game along with them.
Reimburse them for their sour investment.
As I see it...
'K.D. Galagher'
