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For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden

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Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden

#21

Post by ericflo »

unKlever wrote: post #16
austenallred wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think when you say "the app" you really mean "the convenience of not having to hail a cab" specifically. The app is a game changer, but not for that reason. Not having to hail is nice, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. For example, a couple of days ago I took an Uber. The driver that picked me up was a student. I asked him why he was driving, and he said, "Oh, well I came [to this city] to hang out with my fr…

I think the parent was talking about supply side. I think you are totally correct but, I find myself not satisfied with the answer. All legitimate cab companies should puf money into hiring a company to build a sinple app to connect them to legal taxis. You pay, you get on the app. Tagline, "as convenient as uber, only legal". It would be a hell of a lot cheaper than funding lawyers and lobbyists like they have been.

http://flywheel.com/ it's been around for quite a while and I remember seeing a ton of ads for them

Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden

#22

Post by x0ra »

sandworm101 wrote: post #12

Cab driver /= medallion owner. For every poor hardworking cab driver who has taken a mortgage out to buy a medallion, there are a dozen sleazy operators who own piles of them, do not drive, and have leased them out to cabbies at horrific rates.

then rent your medallion and go work for uber...

Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden

#23

Post by hanklazard »

dmitrygr wrote: post #10
kilroy123 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Local governments could pay money to buy them back? It does seem unfair to charge such high amounts of money for something now worthless.

By that logic apple needs to give me back my $600 for my iPhone3GS He made a bet that value would stay He was wrong Sucks Sad? sure. But not anyone's fault

That example doesn't seem parallel to me because it lacks a sudden deregulation of a very tightly controlled market (or in this case, a newly exploited loophole or lack of enforcement of law or whatever you want to call this).

I think Uber / Lyft etc should either have to play the medallion game (which obviously wouldn't work) or local govts should just do away with medallions and the cities should buy them back from the people they sold them to ... as it is now, it just seems like selective enforcement of taxi laws on the guys with the yellow cars.

Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden

#24

Post by mmanfrin »

dmitrygr wrote: post #10
kilroy123 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Local governments could pay money to buy them back? It does seem unfair to charge such high amounts of money for something now worthless.

By that logic apple needs to give me back my $600 for my iPhone3GS He made a bet that value would stay He was wrong Sucks Sad? sure. But not anyone's fault

If only a handful of iPhones were sold and those iPhones were the only phones that could make calls in SF, then yes -- I think Apple would need to pay you back $600.

Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden

#25

Post by lolwutf »

panorama wrote: post #9

This is an especially poignant story, and it's hard to not feel bad for this driver. On the other hand, people face investment risk all the time, i.e. when franchising a restaurant. When Chipotle or whoever comes in and devours the fast food market, I wonder if the local struggling burger franchisee asks the city for help? I can't speak on behalf of other cities, but anyone who has lived in SF pre-Uber has no shortag…

Comparing a human being to a local burger franchisee is a pretty awful analogy.

Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden

#26

Post by mschuster91 »

dmitrygr wrote: post #10
kilroy123 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Local governments could pay money to buy them back? It does seem unfair to charge such high amounts of money for something now worthless.

By that logic apple needs to give me back my $600 for my iPhone3GS He made a bet that value would stay He was wrong Sucks Sad? sure. But not anyone's fault

Nope. By issuing a medallion, the city grants the right to participate with known rules of competition in a specific market and it also has the obligation to protect the licensee from unfair competition.

The cities have failed to comply with their duty and so, in my opinion, owe damages to the holders.

Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden

#27

Post by [deleted] »

rsl7 wrote: post #6
Kalium wrote: post #2

I don't know what to say. These people made a bet that the future would look like the past. They were wrong, and it's costing them significantly. Yet... what are we supposed to do about it?

If the medallion is the only way you can be a taxi, then enforce it. If Lyft and Uber are legitimate, then lose the medallion and pay this guy back his $250K.

[deleted]

Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden

#28

Post by smelendez »

derekp7 wrote: post #7

Here's the thing I don't understand -- if the main attraction (from a customer point of view) is the app (with everything that comes with it), why haven't the cab companies got in on the same game? Either put out their own app to hail rides (and maybe give their cabs a more luxury look to them), or sign up as Uber/Lyft drivers themselves? Or is there something I'm missing?

Some cab companies do have their own apps, or sign up with national "e-hail" app vendors.

In my experience in a number of US cities, these apps get terrible reviews in the App Store/Google Play because they're borderline unusable. They often don't have all the features of Uber and Lyft, like letting you track the cab while it's on its way to you or even handling payment through the app, and they're often poorly designed and even prone to crashing.

My guess is that cab companies want an app that will feed into their existing dispatch workflow, with the limitations that entails. They probably also have no experience picking IT vendors, negotiating with them or evaluating apps.

Also, lots of local cab company owners and medallion holders are probably skeptical that they can compete or profitably do business with a worldwide, hypercompetitive billion-dollar taxi company. It's not easy running a local discount store when Walmart opens across town, but it's not necessarily any easier for a small supplier trying to sell through Walmart.

Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden

#29

Post by brc »

Sad story but every economic change for the better creates winners and losers. You can't regulate away loss without regulating away improvement.

He is better off forgetting the medallion and finding work somewhere else to repay the loan. He should be able to make a few dollars renting the medallion in the meantime.

As for the government stepping in - live by the fake government market, die by the fake government market. I have no sympathy for people who build businesses behind government firewalls or with government subsidies, and suffer when those rules change. Because plenty of legitimate businesses have engine to the wall when the government arbitrarily creates regulations where previously there were none.

I just don't understand why this guy doesn't start getting uber pickups - if that is the problem, just join them.

Re: For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden

#30

Post by mehrdada »

Let me guess. For every person in this situation, there were probably ten in his situation a few years back. I suspect if you were to ask him or folks in a situation similar to him before he got his medallion, they would have complained about overregulation from the city and definitely wouldn't have called for more. Perspective.
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