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Uber leaves Kansas after lawmakers demand background checks and more insurance

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21–30 of 143 posts

Re: Uber leaves Kansas after lawmakers demand background checks and more insurance

#21
post #6

How despotic! Lawmakers demanding background checks and insurance from taxi drivers! This is outrageous. Where is muh freedom? I want to be able to hire a taxi with a rapist driver! http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/transportation/article/...

Yeah, I mean it's like a background check will protect everyone: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2937996/Woman-33-rap...

A background check is obviously not bullet-proof, as it failed with "Esa Alusaimi", but it is so much better than nothing.

Re: Uber leaves Kansas after lawmakers demand background checks and more insurance

#24

All of this nonsense about insurance and checks and blah makes me weep for humanity. If I can hitch hike legally, why can't I pay for the same service? Basically it seems to me that regulation has the effect of forcing lifestyles upon people. You can't just sell people things, you have to be a Thing Seller and devote yourself to that regulatory environment and then you can sell some of the people some of the things.…

The difference is when you hitchhike, there is insurance coverage in effect. So when the driver slams into a tree and you get hurt, your care (which isn't covered by health insurance) is paid for by the auto insurer. When you aren't covered by insurance, society absorbs the costs of the $10,000+ ER visit, $500 ambulance trip, etc. Your family bears the burden of chronic medical issues and work loss, etc.

The answer is simple. You pay a little more for commercial/livery coverage and your passengers are covered against perils.

The background check thing is even easier. Do you want your wife picked up and driven around by a convicted rapist? For the want of Uber spending the massive sum of like $20?

Re: Uber leaves Kansas after lawmakers demand background checks and more insurance

#25

If my recent experience is anything, Uber needs some serious regulation. I live in SF, and was flying out of OAK. I had used Uber only once before, a long time ago; but this time, I suggested to the wife that we use Uber again. We had to leave SF at 7:15AM - 7:30AM or so. Around 7:15 I pulled up the app, and saw that there were several cars around (as they usually are). I requested an UberX; punched in the destinatio…

This is an edge case, and you can think of it as a side effect coming from living in SF, where everybody has to deal with bay bridge problems. I understand your frustration but I would split the blame 50-50 between the city for not providing transportation, and Uber to not red flagging this problem and offer a special solution for this.

Re: Uber leaves Kansas after lawmakers demand background checks and more insurance

#26

If my recent experience is anything, Uber needs some serious regulation. I live in SF, and was flying out of OAK. I had used Uber only once before, a long time ago; but this time, I suggested to the wife that we use Uber again. We had to leave SF at 7:15AM - 7:30AM or so. Around 7:15 I pulled up the app, and saw that there were several cars around (as they usually are). I requested an UberX; punched in the destinatio…

Or, you know, don't use Uber.

I get that you had a bad experience, but the response to every bad experience should not be regulation. "Surge pricing" is no more a scam than any other market-based pricing mechanism.

To be clear, I'm mixed on Uber overall, and I do think they need some regulation, but not with regard to pricing, coverage, or response time. Those are good fits for self-regulating markets. I'm more concerned with things like knowing that when I get in to an Uber, I'm covered by the proper insurance if I end up in an accident on the way to my destination.

Re: Uber leaves Kansas after lawmakers demand background checks and more insurance

#27
post #6

How despotic! Lawmakers demanding background checks and insurance from taxi drivers! This is outrageous. Where is muh freedom? I want to be able to hire a taxi with a rapist driver! http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/transportation/article/...

Just wait till an NRA class lobby organization emerges and fixes it for everybody. :)

Re: Uber leaves Kansas after lawmakers demand background checks and more insurance

#28

If my recent experience is anything, Uber needs some serious regulation. I live in SF, and was flying out of OAK. I had used Uber only once before, a long time ago; but this time, I suggested to the wife that we use Uber again. We had to leave SF at 7:15AM - 7:30AM or so. Around 7:15 I pulled up the app, and saw that there were several cars around (as they usually are). I requested an UberX; punched in the destinatio…

I gave up on Uber for airport rides. For LAX it's not unreasonable to request a 4:00 am ride for a 6:30 flight, which quite often comes up with "No cars available" anywhere except their most expensive tier.

Wingz is a cheaper replacement for UberX and Blacklane is a cheaper replacement for Uber Black, both have to be arranged though.

Re: Uber leaves Kansas after lawmakers demand background checks and more insurance

#29
post #3

Does anyone have details on the associated costs involved for Uber and/or the drivers? I can't imagine background checks being very excessive for the drivers, so maybe it's grossly expensive and miscategorized insurance? Uber + Lyft just relaunched here in Portland. Drivers are required to have valid business licenses and pass a background check too. Everyone is very happy with the changes. (except our local taxi com…

Same in many European cities, where even UberX drivers have to have a "private driver" license. The requirements involve documented regular maintenance and insurance coverage that would include passengers, not sure what's the business logic behind opposing them.

> not sure what's the business logic behind opposing them

They want to have no costs to doing business, and to reap all the profits.

Re: Uber leaves Kansas after lawmakers demand background checks and more insurance

#30

All of this nonsense about insurance and checks and blah makes me weep for humanity. If I can hitch hike legally, why can't I pay for the same service? Basically it seems to me that regulation has the effect of forcing lifestyles upon people. You can't just sell people things, you have to be a Thing Seller and devote yourself to that regulatory environment and then you can sell some of the people some of the things.…

Precisely, because you don't pay the guy that gives you a lift when you hitchhike, but you do pay to an Uber driver.

Once there's money involved, we are no longer talking about an agreement between gentlemen, but about a commercial transaction, and those require regulations because the incentives are different, and money does weird things to people. A driver maximizing profits has no incentive in, say, checking his brakes regularly (money spent + car immobilized for some time), while a random driver does ("yeah, I'll take a cab for a couple days, no biggie").

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