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Europe's Top Court To Decide If Uber Is Tech Firm Or Taxi Company
An anonymous reader writes: A Spanish judge has requested that the European Court of Justice determine whether or not Uber is a generic "digital service," as it claims, or a "mere transport activity." If the court rules that Uber is a transportation firm the company may have to follow the same licensing and safety rules as taxis and other hired vehicles. "Today's news means that the European Court of Justice will now determine if the national rules currently being applied to digital services like Uber are legal and appropriate under European law," said Mark MacGann, Uber's Head of Public Policy for EMEA, on a conference call with journalists.
If we're using ownership of cars as the threshold, then I'm afraid to tell you in many places the cab driver owns his own car.
So, I'm sorry to tell you, but once again the ways people defend Uber as being inherently different from a cab company are completely bullshit.
A cab is a commercial vehicle for hire. Uber is just a bootleg cab company playing a shell game with the definitions for their own purposes.
Your definition of a taxi not also being a personal vehicle is not real. It may apply in some places, but it most certainly is NOT the actual definition.
I'm betting there's lots of places where the cabs are owned by the drivers. And they sill fall under the regulations around taxis, commercial cars for hire, and the license and insurance required to do that.
Sorry, Uber is a cab company, no matter what they say.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
That only means that Uber's workers are more likely to fall under the classification of independent contractors instead of employees, it has no bearing on whether Uber is a taxi company or not. There is nothing inherent to being a taxi company that prohibits hiring independent contractors, who typically supply their own tools and equipment to perform a job. and any such prohibition on the part of the company, while certainly entirely permissible for a company to do, is a reflection of an employer-employee status being more likely to be applicable, and not indicative of whether it is or is not a taxi company.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Sorry, Uber is a cab company, no matter what they say.
I'm not a fan of Uber but I'm not certain this is true, in my understanding a typical cab will drive around looking for random people to wave it down and potentially wait at certain high pickup locations.
An Uber (or Lyft) vehicle will only respond to a request from the webapp, it strikes me as more analogous to a Limo service or other hired vehicle. Are those considered taxis? (not rhetorical, I'm actually curious. For tax purposes it appears they are).
I live in a city in the Midwest, and have traveled for work to many other cities in the Midwest. Nigh universally, there is no such thing as a taxi that drives around looking for fares. You call a taxi company, or use their website, to request a taxi be dispatched to your location.
Rarely, in some cities, there are designated areas called "taxi stands" located in or near neighborhoods with a high density of bars. Taxis can sometimes be found idling there, waiting for inebriated folks to stumble their way. This is far from a ubiquitous practice, and even where the taxi stands exist, generally only contain taxis on Friday and Saturday nights.
Perhaps taxis continually circle or wait around high-traffic locations in very large cities. However, even on my trips to Chicago, I've seen only the dispatch request model.