Toronto Taxi Drivers Protest Uber

[Rennadrel]

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/t...iver-1.3357316

Link is to a video of a taxi driver attempting to attack an Uber driver and getting dragged down the street. Taxi drivers in Toronto have been on strike and are protesting the Uber taxi service. Surveys have suggested that the Uber competition forces taxi companies to lower their prices, which many see as horribly inflated. Are the taxi drivers right to protest and demand the government ban Uber outright despite Canada being a free market country? If the taxi companies don't want to compete with alternate services and hold a monopoly that rips off consumers, they deserve to go under because of Uber.

[Vizardlorde]

I wonder what theyll do once selfdriven taxis come about

[Kathandira]

That dude is insane! He could have gotten run over, or throw off the car and hit by another.

[Moralgy]

Didn't south park do this before?

[Acidbaron]

When new economy (app / social media based or inspired in this case) meets old economy it's normal for this to happen, the local governments have no real answer for this so it clashes. This has been going on for a while though, it sometimes goes rather far to even physical violence between the groups of taxi's.

[Allybeboba]

Taxi drivers' party is over. It is time for them to move aside. They have been taking people to the cleaners way too long.

[Ripster42]

The gov'ts just need to regulate uber drivers like they do taxis. I see no problem with uber other than that they're not well regulated. Most places taxi drivers need a special license, and it's pretty much bullshit that uber drivers don't need the same license.

Edit: at least that's what uber is telling its drivers.

[Attackrabbit]

Taxi's here have been stupidly expensive for a long long time and recently have been refusing to take people on journeys that will net them less than £15 to £20 so it's high time uber took over tbh.

[Mistame]

He's lucky that wasn't me. Start hitting my car and I'll put your ass down. The title is misleading, by the way. It should be "Taxi drive assaults Uber driver". That wasn't "protesting".

I wonder what theyll do once selfdriven taxis come about

Self-driven taxis are a ways off and won't be aboot any time soon.

[Repefe]

Taxi drivers going under, because they can't compete against uber is fine. What is awkward is when taxi drivers, who had to purchase licenses that costed up to hundreds of thousands of dollars from city governments, are now made to compete against uber, that has to pay like a thousand bucks a year for a license. The difference in expenses is in some cities enormous.

You want fair and open market on taxi services ? Reimburse taxi drivers what they had to pay to government for their medallions, inflated by how many years they had used the medallions. That would be fair. That would be fairly supporting progress and open market competition. Throwing taxi drivers under the buss while counting all the money they had to give to cities to be allowed to be taxi drivers in the first place and claiming how doing that is you supporting open market and new technologies is you being a hypocrite.

[Kujako]

Not seen an explanation as to why Uber isn't a taxi service and therefore should be treated the same under the same regulations.

[toastteetoast]

I love how we call assualt protesting now.

Its so progressive!

[Repefe]

Not seen an explanation as to why Uber isn't a taxi service and therefore should be treated the same under the same regulations.

Normal taxi you can just signal with your hand. Uber uses online platform to connect drivers and users. That alone allows Uber to escape qualification of taxi service and all the costs and regulations that come with it.

[Kujako]

Normal taxi you can just signal with your hand. Uber uses online platform to connect drivers and users. That alone allows Uber to escape qualification of taxi service and all the costs and regulations that come with it.

Every taxi ride I've taken in the past decade has been via a app. (shrug)

[Heladys]

it's less about Uber being cheaper and forcing taxis to lower their prices than it is about drivers with a modicum of hygiene, an ability to converse in the languages in common use, cars that do not smell like vomit and Chanel #5, and which actually have all four wheels attached.

[Stanislav]

adapt or become extinct, its taxi's time.

resorting to "protesting" by attacking people will sure get people want to use your services.

[Repefe]

Every taxi ride I've taken in the past decade has been via a app. (shrug)

Yeah, the legislative and regulations are playing catch up to the new situation and are yet to even the play field. It's just important to remember that it's not just taxi drivers and their services that are to blame for this, government plays its role.

[Sykol]

Taxi drivers had their own personal club for years that kept competition out and basically handpicked who could be one of the boys. They've lost that control, and now priced themselves right out of their own business. Congratulations.

[Elegiac]

adapt or become extinct, its taxi's time.

It's actually not Taxis that have to adapt.

The entire reason why Uber is 'competitive' is because it manages to escape all the licensing fees and regulations put on registered Taxi services. Said regulations and licenses exist for a reason - all it's going to take is 'I was raped by an uber driver' or some sort of civil lawsuit and Uber will be subject to the same regulations, and lose their advantage.

[Reeve]

Not seen an explanation as to why Uber isn't a taxi service and therefore should be treated the same under the same regulations.

Uber is a ridesharing service, I think the response would be. It helps bring people together to help them share rides for a small fee. Cities like people carpooling, don't they?

At least I guess that's what Uber would say. :P