Slashdot Mirror
French Cabbies Say They'll Block Paris Roads On Monday Over Uber
mrspoonsi writes Parisian taxi drivers have vowed to block roads leading into the French capital on Monday to protest a court's refusal to ban urban ridesharing service UberPOP. Like their counterparts in large cities across the globe, Parisian taxi drivers are fed up with what they see as unfair competition from Uber's popular smartphone taxi service. UberPOP, which uses non-professional drivers using their own cars to take on passengers at budget rates, has 160,000 users in France, according to the company. A commercial court in Paris ruled on Friday that a new law making it harder for Uber drivers to solicit business could not be enforced until the government had published full details of the restrictions. "It's the straw that breaks the camel's back," said Ibrahima Sylla, president of France Taxis, whose organisation has joined several others in calling for the early morning protest on Monday. They have urged taxi drivers to gather at the northern Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport and the southern Orly airport at 05:00 am before slowly converging on the city in a bid to block arterial highways. "This is a fight against Uber. We're fed up. Allowing UberPOP means leaving 57,000 French taxis high and dry, and thus 57,000 families. And that is out of the question," said Sylla.
The taxi drivers are arguing that if they can't be the ONLY ones to drive people to their destination, then NOBODY can. And then they wonder why fewer people want to patronize them.
How will we know the difference between their protest and normal traffic?
Have gnu, will travel.
I travel all over the world for business. As such, I take a lot of taxi rides each year. But it doesn't matter if I'm in NYC, London, Paris, Berlin, Toronto, LA, Sydney, Rome, Vancouver, Chicago, or even my home base of San Francisco. Regardless of where I am, taxis are an awful experience.
Why is it that, in any major Western city, all of the taxi drivers are from the Middle East, India, or Pakistan? Why is it that they can't keep their vehicles clean? Why is it that they can't speak a fucking word of English? Why is it that they're always chattering on in Arabic, Hindi or Urdu through their mobile phone's earphones/mic, while driving? Why is it that they often don't have any frigging clue where they're going? Why is it that it always costs so goddamn much for such shitty service, especially when this industry is allegedly "regulated" in most areas?
I don't like the idea of Uber, or Lyft, or any of those services. I don't want some untrained, possibly-uninsured hipster driving me around. But then I look at the alternatives, and these amateurs actually look pretty damn good compared to the so-called third-world "professional" taxi drivers!
As a customer, I'm fucked either way. I'm guaranteed either shitty service when I go with a taxi, or I'm guaranteed a higher degree of risk when I go with some online service. I just can't win!
Oh, yes, causing massive traffic snarls is a sure way to with the hearts and minds of the public. Reminds me of the German train drivers who keep striking, not for more money or better working conditions, but because their union bosses are at risk of losing their negotiating power to a larger union. Makes everybody in German just love the train drivers.
Paris taxis charge to just come and pick you up. Get in the car, and find that the meter has already been running from wherever the driver let off his last fare. Given a new competitor, the taxi drivers could always compete by offering better service, or lower rates, or more reliability, or... Nah.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
I've never driven a cab for a living but I've spoken w/ cabbies about it, and it's not an easy job. A good cab driver knows the turf. S/he gets you to your destination safely and efficiently... and doesn't rip you off or make you feel creeped out. Over time, failure to meet these criteria has resulted in licensing and regulation. The licensing requirements also provide a barrier to entry. So "official" cab services have evolved an ecosystem of sorts. And a skilled, hard-working driver can make decent, but not great, money. Here's a Huffington Post article that asserts some numbers for both Uber and traditional cabbies:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Now along comes Uber. Cool business model. Flexible price structure. Apps that get a ride to where you are when you need it. Disruptive to the old order. If you know what you're doing, you can use Uber to get around conveniently. If I understand it right, the Uber system addresses, using the clout of the company, some of the good cab requirements (e.g. they'll monitor their drivers).
But Uber disrupts an existing ecosystem... a system that lots of licensed, chartered drivers depend on for their livelihoods. While tech types typically revel in so-called "disruptive technologies," I worry that Uber spells the demise of yet another low tech job. I mean, shouldn't there be something between fast food workers and cube dwellers? So I can see both sides of this. There's not a simple answer to the problem.
Good luck to you if you think an Uber cab is going to be cheaper than a local cab service.
So reduce the number of regulations and taxes that taxis are subject to and suddenly they'll be able to deliver the same service as Uber but even more reliable. The taxi drivers seem to be complaining about the unfair advantage that the Uber drivers have, so you either subject the Uber drivers, who certainly fall into the definition of "taxi", to regulation or you deregulate taxis.
I assume there's some good reasons behind most, but probably not all, of the regulations affecting taxis, so why would we want to allow some subset of drivers to bypass those but not others?
I'd personally prefer the route of all of them being subject to the taxi regulations, but those regulations being eased in areas where they might have grown absurd.
When Google provides self driving taxis for free, but with a big screen showing commercials in the passenger compartment.
Driving jobs will mostly disappear before you know it.
That shouldn't be hard -- obstructing traffic is against the law. They can just arrest the cabbies after they refuse to move when requested and have their cabs towed.
It is like you don't even know France..
I suspect you don't. Obstructing traffic is against the law, but also a thing that happens routinely as a part of demonstations. Usually it is farmers though.
Here in Oslo, I really looked forward to Uber. Now that it is here, it costs a minimum of $20 more than any taxi company I compare it to.
Is it different elsewhere?
See, this the the weird thing. As someone in Auckland, NZ, this simply makes no sense to me. The local taxi company already *has* computer-assisted hailing (complete with updates on current cab location as it approaches -- on iOS and Android) and, of course, can take payment via credit card. (Real chip-based credit card readers with PIN, so it's more secure than any website or app).
There's no limit to the number of cabs any particular company could run, nor any limit to the number of taxi companies (just certain registration, a level of knowledge requirement and certified taxi fare meters and cameras etc.) Because of our already deregulated nature, people simply are not permitted drive a car for hire-or-reward without the right type of driver's license ("P" endorsement).
Thus, all uber, thus, gives me is a snazzier app. That's it.
Even uber can't survive in an unregulated market if other internet taxi companies enter the market flood it with even more taxis.
So you are saying that if anyone can enter a market, the number of vendors will skyrocket until it reaches zero?
Actually that's what often happens. Someone's making money, many others flock to the market, nobody ends up profitable, market retrenchment. Remember all the x86-compatible cpu manufacturers ... most bit the dust. Or the mom-and-pop computer stores? Or all the different donut franchises? Or now, all the new mobile developers who aren't even breaking even and are running on a wing and a prayer?
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.