Over 30 Uber Cars Impounded In Cape Town

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.

Comments

Give Uber a dictionary

[TBoon]

Give Uber a dictionary, and highlight the definition of the word "taxi".

Re:Give Uber a dictionary

[Shinobi]

While your faith in the religion of liberretardianism sounds fun, history empirically proves you 100% wrong.

Re:Give Uber a dictionary

[mwvdlee]

How about just giving Uber a large kick in the behind.
These guys seem to be intentionally breaking laws continuously.
At some point they can only be labeled as a criminal organisation.

Re:Give Uber a dictionary

[Aighearach]

Give the state a dictionary, and highlight the definitions of the words "capitalism" and "liberty." We are adults. We shouldn't need to be 'licensed' just to charge someone for a ride.

Sorry kiddo, I've read my Adam Smith. You might be interested to know that "Capitalism" is the system where the government creates a level playing field for entrants to an industry... by regulating it so that everything operates according to known, predictable rules.

What you're advocating is called "feudalism," where everybody just does what they want, meaning that whoever has the most money forces everybody else out of business through whatever unfair practices are available.

As for Liberty, over thousands of years nobody has really been able to agree what it means, so just looking in a dictionary isn't going to do much good. You may or may not receive a top shelf explanation of the various philosophical meanings of the highly abstract concept, but it is guaranteed to be too high level to be of use here. What about the Liberty of the taxi operator who is complying with the community standards and expectations, but being forced out of his livelihood by a company spiteful of the community's right to have local rules and a level playing field?

Re:Give Uber a dictionary

[Anonymous Coward]

1. "That's what socialists say socialism is, but that's not what it really is." - so you redefine socialism to mean "anything which calls itself socialism and doesn't work"? That's intellectually dishonest. Socialism exhibits itself in various ways, purely or as a concept to mix with others, some of which fail horribly, and some of which succeed excellently. For example, the labour union - while corruptible as any organisation of humans - is an excellent example of cooperative voluntary association which has improved conditions for workers.

There will always be a big state, whether it's called that or not. Only in the minds of fantasists does power not fill a vacuum. The question that always remains is who pulls the strings of power: is it the powerful few, or the voice of the many? Money does not speak for the voice of the many, because money weighs votes by the size of the wallet. Our representative "Western Democracy" does not give the voice of the many, because propaganda can be used to mislead people into acting against their own interests. What is the solution? Well, some sort of balance, as always - something ideologues are so scared of.

3. Russian imperialism trainwrecked Eastern Europe, just as US imperialism has been fucking up South America. This has very little to do with the ideology they claim to follow, and everything to do with turning another nation into a mere tool for your own ends. As for "the self-loathing cultures it created in Sweden" - well, I suppose if you have no rational argument then you can use terms like "self-loathing" to describe a culture which is doing annoyingly fine in the eyes of a quasi-religious idealist who refuses to believe that anything can work except when it's working as he wants it to.

4. "As long as vehicles meet safety regs" - and comprehensive insurance regs, and the driver meets criminal background and area knowledge regs, and there are not so many commercial vehicles as to congest the roads, and the companies are not involved in any illegal practices, and de facto employees are not treated as contractors (who cannot sustain their employment) merely so the employer can avoid responsibilities it would otherwise have, and any and all other considerations which have been established democratically as being necessary in a civilised society which treats people equally.

Now I would definitely question the high-price medallion requirement of certain (but not all!) cities, but I understand its purpose: to ensure that people are completely invested into the job. It's just that it has the side effect of keeping out people who could otherwise do the job. But it's definitely not want of money that's stopping companies like Uber, who have more funding than any other taxi company in the world.

Why stop with rides?

[Powercntrl]

There's all kinds of services people can offer without pesky government interference! Meal sharing could be the next killer app. Why pay restaurant prices when you can just search for a family with an extra chair at their dinner table?

It's like when your furnace goes out and you find some self-proclaimed handyman on Craigslist to fix it. Licensed, bonded, insured? Hah, those are just extra costs that would be passed on to you. You're saving a bundle and carbon monoxide poisoning is probably just some B.S. made up by those government brown nosing "legit" guys who charge higher prices!

In Cape Town? Corruption...

[Dr_Barnowl]

This is South Africa.

The "delays" are more likely to do with the fact that Uber have failed to grease the right palms.

Re:Serves them right

[Harlequin80]

I don't agree with you.

Taxi regulations ensure that drivers are background checked. In Australia that make it illegal for the taxi driver to refuse a fare. They require the driver to have been assessed at a higher level than your once in a lifetime driving test. They log the hours that are worked by you as a driver so you don't work too many and hence get exhausted.

Is the system perfect? Of course not. But it is definitely better then no regulation.

Re:Serves them right

[rmstar]

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

The fun thing here is that it is not Uber that got in trouble, but their drivers. Which aren't their employees, btw. Uber just looses a bit of revenues. The drivers, though, which own the cars, now have real problems.

That's the real innovative thing in Uber. They have found a way of shielding themselves from any problems. It really is genius, albeit evil genius.

Surge pricing has an interesting dark side that I see nobody talk about: cars are often too cheap for the service to be sustainable, in the sense that the money does not even cover the running costs of the cars when considering wear and loss of value on purchase price. Since noticing this implies a complex calculation as well as the mental makeup to take such calculations seriously, most drivers just don't notice. They are literally loosing money. Uber, however, always makes money.

It really is genius.

Re:Serves them right

[Aighearach]

Why can't a taxi driver refuse a fare?

For obvious, known reasons.

Everybody knows you know, so why do you pretend you do not? Is it some sort of code?

Re:Serves them right

[Anonymous Coward]

So common, so obvious, yet you don't list any.

1. "So, you are black? Hell no I will drive you."
2. "So, you want to go somewhere where I'm not guaranteed a return fare? Hell no I will drive you."
3. "So, you are gay? Hell no I will drive you."
4. "So, you are Muslim? Hell no I will drive you."
5. "So, you are not from my country? Hell no I will drive you."
And so on.

Re:Serves them right

[Vintermann]

It is false equivalence to say that unregulated taxis have the same consequences as unregulated pharma.

Well, that wasn't the argument. The argument was that if lawmakers think the consequences are bad enough to warrant regulation, then maybe companies (with a huge profit motive clouding their judgements of said matter) shouldn't just be able to disregard it.

Re:Serves them right

[serviscope_minor]

If Uber sucks, don't use them. We're not talking about something extremely complex and life-altering here (like pharmaceuticals).

I like how you ignored the bits about better testing stnadards and logged hours to make sure the drivers are competent. A car crash does count as a life altering issue.

But hey, if you die in an uber related car crash, vote with your dollars and don't use them next time!

Re:Serves them right

[dywolf]

There is no real reason for taxi regs these days beyond safety regs, which apply to all vehicles.

Again: this right here is the source of your ignorance.
You simply do not know what you are talking about.
There are real and concreate reasons for the regulation of taxis.

Your ignorance of that history is not a reason to dismantle those regulations.
But you can try if you want...you'll simply learn first hand why they existed in the first place.
Which is ultimately the end consequence of libertarianism: if it actually succeeds and is implemented, it will necessarily be abandoned as its followers slowly learn firsthand why we did things the way we did, a lesson they could have avoided if they had simply learned some history. When we talk about those who dont learn history being doomed to repeat it, libertarians are a prime example.