In most cities, taxi drivers don’t have to worry, with the exception of ripping off passengers. Even then, it is hard to get the city involved. Most taxi companies run as almost a monopoly within a city, which brings in a lot of money through licensing. The cities then turn a dead eye to said companies as a result.
No, Uber seems to be within the regulations for the 4 ride share companies that are in my state that I know of. If you are ‘rideshare’ you follow one set of rules. If you are a ‘taxi’ you follow another. Taxis actually get more rights as a result. They also pay for these rights. For instance, even though we see Uber drivers sitting in ‘taxi zones’, they can actually get ticketed for doing so. In my city, taxis are allowed to do U-Turns. Normal citizens and ride shares cannot. Apparently this right comes with having a commercial vehicle license. Airports allow taxis a loading zone, where as ride share (in my city) have to sit in the cell phone lot and wait (its the only place we can legally accept a ride and we are geofenced from accepting them if we stray outside of this area). Taxis are also allowed to charge a premium for picking up from the airport. We are not. This is supposed to be a result of the airport fee – anyone picked up at the airport pays an additional $1.75 that goes directly to the airport…though only taxis get the benefit of being able to charge more as a result.
The point is, we are exactly within the regulations passed by our city / state. Go figure, different types of trade are regulated differently. Even when they perform similar roles. In all aspects of live. Go figure.
That said, I switched to Lyft…who has been pretty much the squeaky clean version of Uber. I’m sure they are still bastards…but in comparison they come off better.
Either way, I’m not here to defend the companies, I’m here to defend the drivers. Not sure how this keeps evolving to folks asking me to defend the companies. I’m not. However, I will explain the facts as I know it.
