Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse • Hacker News Board

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#181

Post by kolinko » Sat, Jun 10, 2017, 12:31 PM UTC

imron wrote: post #114

ghaff wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must be weird. I travel over 100 days a year. I do a lot of walking, sometimes rent cars, take public transportation, etc. I take taxis etc. relatively rarely.

Each of those options is perfectly fine for transportation if you planned and or intended to use them, what I mean is that whenever I've used a taxi or taxi-like service, car rental and/or public transportation would not have been a valid substitute or even possible. Car rental because you have to pick up the car and later drop it off and the costs are significantly higher than a taxi, and public transportation becau…

Have you been to Europe? I live in Poland and use public transportation as much as Uber - being able to afford both just as easily.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#182

Post by pyrale » Sat, Jun 10, 2017, 1:09 PM UTC

basseq wrote: post #3

I'm left wondering... so what? The "personal transportation" market has massively changed. Whether it's for the better or worse simply doesn't matter . Veteran Chicago cabbie John Aikins,67, who is facing foreclosure on two medallions for which he owes more than $330,0000, said he has little hope that the industry can be saved. "It feels like the city is just watching us collapse," Aikins said. "Right now, there are…

> Whether it's for the better or worse simply doesn't matter.

I guess it matters to those upon which the worse is imposed.

By that, I mean not only the taxi drivers. From an individual standpoint, those who get to drive for Uber are happy to get jobs, but looking at the problem at the scale of the workforce, replacing one jobless man and one well-paid man by one less paid man and a jobless man is a net loss.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#183

Post by YPCrumble » Sat, Jun 10, 2017, 1:13 PM UTC

webwanderings wrote: post #71

All Chicago taxicab drivers are driving Uber, Lyft and anything else running on the smart phones. The people who invested and saved through government backed medallion business, are loosing. Don't fool yourself in thinking that the stranger you're sitting in Uber with, could potentially be your co-worker. He's your former cab driver.

Even better, he's my former cab driver who cares about his customer service rating staying high!

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#184

Post by lotsofpulp » Sat, Jun 10, 2017, 1:16 PM UTC

GnarfGnarf wrote: post #176

basseq wrote: post #3

I'm left wondering... so what? The "personal transportation" market has massively changed. Whether it's for the better or worse simply doesn't matter . Veteran Chicago cabbie John Aikins,67, who is facing foreclosure on two medallions for which he owes more than $330,0000, said he has little hope that the industry can be saved. "It feels like the city is just watching us collapse," Aikins said. "Right now, there are…

I take your point. However there is one case where traditional cab companies provide a benefit. When a city issues permits for the lucrative airport business to one specific cab company, it is with the understanding that there will be cars waiting for passengers around the clock, even during unprofitable times of the day. If the cab business becomes a free-for-all, there will be no one waiting at the airport at 3:00…

In this example, you are asking for the cab companies to calculate an average fare which will allow them to operate at a loss during the night. The cab company is taking the risk that their assumptions about how much to charge during the day will offset their losses at night.

However, for this scenario, why does a cab company need to take on this risk? Why is the risk of not having a cab at a cheap price not borne by the person who needs it at 3AM? This seems like a problem that is sufficiently solved by the market, where cabs will charge appropriate pricing to make it worth their while, and if another company finds they can correctly price their fares so that they can offer the same pricing day and night, then customers will choose them.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#185

Post by imron » Sat, Jun 10, 2017, 1:22 PM UTC

kolinko wrote: post #181

imron wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Each of those options is perfectly fine for transportation if you planned and or intended to use them, what I mean is that whenever I've used a taxi or taxi-like service, car rental and/or public transportation would not have been a valid substitute or even possible. Car rental because you have to pick up the car and later drop it off and the costs are significantly higher than a taxi, and public transportation becau…

Have you been to Europe? I live in Poland and use public transportation as much as Uber - being able to afford both just as easily.

I have lived in Europe, although not Poland, but my point is not that public transportation is not useful, just that it's not always a suitable replacement for a taxi.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#186

Post by jmclnx » Sat, Jun 10, 2017, 1:28 PM UTC

If you read the article, most medallions are owned by individuals, were it seems at most 1 person owns 4 medallions. And the cabbies were able to make a living wage. In this specific case we have 2 national companies paying just above minimum wages taking over the industry in Chicago, probably incentiveing local pols not to change regulations. So once again the little guy gets crushed.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#187

Post by Neliquat » Sat, Jun 10, 2017, 1:28 PM UTC

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #11

greglindahl wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google [bank taxi medallion exposure] and you'll discover a few banks that are going to go under. Not a significant problem in the big picture, but it is still a problem for more than just medallion owners.

Good riddance. Taxi medallions are a market in rent-seeking, investing in it should mean you lose your shirt.

So a cab driver who wants to drive (legally!) for a living deserves to be broke because of the system they are forced into? That is pretty heartless. These are honest people who many times took a loan to secure their familys future, and you think they should lose their shirt? Do some reflection dude.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#188

Post by spo81rty » Sat, Jun 10, 2017, 1:29 PM UTC

The fact that someone would pay $300k for the right to drive a taxi blows my mind.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#189

Post by CydeWeys » Sat, Jun 10, 2017, 1:30 PM UTC

chongli wrote: post #169

wutbrodo wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TL;DR: In an economy with government involvement as heavy as ours[1], it's ludicrous to claim that people should not only know the "true" value of something but know precisely when the gov't is going to decide that the market value should be allowed to revert to its "true" value. > Taxi drivers did not get screwed. It's medallion owners that got screwed Right, good catch, I wasn't thinking about that fact. That's not…

I'll never understand the lack of empathy required to see someone get screwed by unstable rules and conclude "well, it's your own damn fault The lack of empathy stems from the behaviour of medallion owners. They're right up there with patent trolls in their unlikeability. They purchase access to a government-granted virtual monopoly and use it to extract rent from hard-working people. They form industry associations…

Nail on the head here. I'm quite a liberal/progressive person, and I have empathy for many people in rough situations, but medallion owners are so hard to empathize with. I do think of them like patent trolls.

Re: Chicago taxi industry sliding towards collapse

#190

Post by quickben » Sat, Jun 10, 2017, 1:43 PM UTC

TulliusCicero wrote: post #47

bitJericho wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll see what you think of the cab industry when uber raises their prices by 3 times in order to become profitable, after the cabbies all gone.

Yeah, and I bet after Borders shuts down, you'll see Amazon raise book prices sky-high! People always claim this will happen, and it never seems to. If Uber tripled prices, a competitor would start up to cut into their market share.

But he isn't wrong. Uber will raise prices after subsidy stops.