City of Toronto Files Court Injunction Against Uber

Sebolains writes: The city of Toronto in Ontario, Canada has filed a court injunction on Uber Canada Inc. today that requests for all operations in the city to cease. Uber has been operating there since 2012 without a license from the city, and so officials are concerned that Uber's operations pose a risk to both drivers and riders. How quickly this will happen, we don't know, but the city has asked the courts to be expedient in hearing this application.

Comments

Re:Toronto Municipal Gov't divided

[thej1nx]

Funny.

But not as funny as pretending that somehow the drivers do NOT have valid driving licenses, or that there are some special inspection requirements that are not required for family cars, but should apply here. This is why lobbying is pure evil.

What is next? Ban car pooling? Because it is only a matter of time till someone comes up with a popular "couchsurfing/airbnb" version of car pooling, and just generating revenue via registration & background verification fees and advertising.

Re:Toronto Municipal Gov't divided

[davester666]

No, the regulations were initially put in place precisely for the stuff Uber is doing.

Underinsured drivers [see accidents where Uber drivers are between "jobs", sorry you aren't covered].
Vehicles not being inspected on a regular basis.
No ongoing driver checks.
Overcharging customers.
Underpaying drivers.

Then there is the whole death spiral of an unlimited number of drivers all trying to earn a living from a fixed number of clients.

We have ALREADY gone through "Uber" before [only without the global central computer to maximize fee's and minimize payout]. It is exactly why taxi's are regulated now.

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

Re:Toronto Municipal Gov't divided

[dave420]

There is a difference between sharing a journey which would happen anyway (and being compensated for fuel used, etc.) and someone actively earning a living from driving people around. If you can't see that maybe you should familiarise yourself with this subject before commenting? I know taxis suck in the US (I have no idea about Canada), but elsewhere they are good, and this Uber nonsense threatens to lower the quality massively, as well as put people at risk.

There already *are* popular ride-sharing apps & websites out there, and they're perfectly legal, as they are organising ride-sharing, not people pretending to be professional taxis.

Re:Toronto Municipal Gov't divided

[ultranova]

Yes, and that difference is who is getting paid. That is literally the only difference.

Joe Average has no incentive to drive 16+ hours a day. Joe Uber does. That means Joe Uber is going to get into more accidents, and requires a far higher level of skill to get the rate down to acceptable level. Furthermore, while it's of course nice to have cheap taxis, it also means that Joe Uber pretty much has to work those 16+ hours a day to make a living, and that's not so nice for everyone who shares the roads - and sidewalks, and occasionally a living room with a new hole in the wall - with him. So I, for one, wholeheartedly support limiting the supply to the level where Mr. Uber can go home after 8 hours and then mandating that he actually does just that rather than continues busting his ass at the expense of public safety.

And when you drive through a city, the taxi drivers are always the biggest assholes, cutting people off and whatnot, even when they don't actually know where they are going.

So do you think this situation would get better or worse by having a lot more and more desperate taxi drivers around?