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Over 30 Uber Cars Impounded In Cape Town

Posted by samzenpus on from the not-in-my-town dept.

An anonymous reader writes Uber's in trouble again: 34 drivers in Cape Town, South Africa have had their cars impounded after being caught driving without a metered taxi permit. Uber says that the process of getting permits is subject to delays and drivers have been left in limbo due to a moratorium on new licenses last year. Cape Town says that it's been clear all along about what Uber drivers need to operate in the city and it's making no exceptions. Uber first arrived in Cape Town in 2013.

3 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. Serves them right by Harlequin80 · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you don't follow the law you will get in trouble.

    If you were to change the word driving to drilling or perhaps had pharmaceutical companies say "the FDA is subject to delays so we decided to sell out drug anyway" would Uber supporters say "thats ok - regulations are stupid!"

    1. Re:Serves them right by Vintermann · · Score: 5, Informative

      I am licensed to do most of the things a plumber is licensed to do, too. Usually it's the insurance company that minds me doing everything myself, not the government. In fact I had a plumber berate me once, he said installing a toilet was such an easy task we should be able to handle it ourselves next time.

      People are licensed to drive. Taxis are licensed to drive people for profit. Profit motives should always be considered potentially dangerous, there are a lot of things people are willing to do, corners they are willing to cut, if it stands between making good money and being destitute.

      Taxi deregulation has been tried, many many times. It has many perverse and unexpected results. For instance, you get more taxis on the road with deregulation, but prices become higher. Customers are unable to discriminate between individual drivers based on price (this is also true in Uber's regime, by design). As a result, it's pretty much random who gets a paying customer. If you only win that lottery once every three days, of course you have to crank up prices when it happens - as much as you dare, until you start to worry that they might change their mind/step out of your cab/punch you.

      --
      xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
  2. Re:Give Uber a dictionary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, except 'level playing field' doesn't include enabling monopolies that build decrepit, out of date protection rackets that get in the way of innovation.

    So you're arguing for liberty when it's something you want, and regulation when it's something you don't. Got it.