Is this the first EU-wide strike, or has there been any such things in the past?
EU-wide it is indeed the first one, but as far as I know there have already been quite a lot regional ones.
Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe
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Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe
#12I'm not sure I believe as strongly in the idea in places like London, where the official cab service is both highly regulated, and quite good.
In the US, the regulations for cabs tend to do little but drive up medallion prices. Uber cars are a much-needed disruption in terms of availability and quality, but you still can't really say that the drivers know much of anything about the city. If we had the equivalent of a London cab here in SF, I'd always choose that over Uber, yet I think you can probably undercut the price of an official taxi in London simply by ignoring the rules. That seems wrong.
If unregulated competition kills a good taxi service, that seems like a drastically different outcome than what's happening here in the states.
Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe
#13Sad to see the taxi drivers. What they don’t understand is that soon they will be obsolete. As many other groups. IT startups are extremely disruptive and changes like these are hard to stop. With Google driverless cars around, it’s safe to say that in 30 years no one will need a driver. Uber and competitors could just buy driverless, extra-comfortable cars and get over with.
The problem is, what do you do with thousands of people working today as cabbies? Or you don’t give a shit about a large % of the population not having an income (and thus not being a consumer).
Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe
#14I'd like to highlight this part of the article: > In several of the protests, drivers aren't specifically targeting Uber and other service providers, but what they say is outmoded regulation that makes it hard for them to compete. Part of Uber's challenge in Europe is the variety of regulations governing the continent, even among the 28-member European Union, each of which has different unions and different rules. It…
> It's easy to dismiss off the protestors as old hat for not reacting gracefully to a changing market, but the issue at least in London seems to largely be with the fact that their existing businesses are subject to more costs and regulations than the kinds that Uber and other services are facing.
If they're not old hat, and so on, and their business pays more taxes, why not branch off into Uber clones? If Uber does it, they can too.
Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe
#15I just do not see why uber can be disruptive AND follow the rules. Here in Sweden they are lobbying to get exception from the rules, i.e. not having a meter and not having price comparisons on the cars. It's not hard to be disruptive if you break the rules
But why require every car to have this bulky fixed function meter device when a smartphone app can do the job just as well? Sometimes the rules themselves need to be disrupted.
Why replace something that works and can be systematically verified for something that will lead to all kinds of complications and may be outdated in 5 years?
Sometimes something that just works doesn't need to be disrupted.
Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe
#16I'd like to highlight this part of the article: > In several of the protests, drivers aren't specifically targeting Uber and other service providers, but what they say is outmoded regulation that makes it hard for them to compete. Part of Uber's challenge in Europe is the variety of regulations governing the continent, even among the 28-member European Union, each of which has different unions and different rules. It…
As a London native for almost 10 years I cant tell you how many times I have been ripped off by black cab drivers taking longer routes then they could have. I also cant tell you how difficult it can be at certain times to find a taxi to take you home so people inevitably end up using unlicensed "mini cabs" to get home. This all because the licensing regulations are stuck in the stone age. Hopefully Uber will drag London kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
As a side note I also dont think there is anything stopping a London black cab driver from signing up for Uber.
Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe
#17I'd like to highlight this part of the article: > In several of the protests, drivers aren't specifically targeting Uber and other service providers, but what they say is outmoded regulation that makes it hard for them to compete. Part of Uber's challenge in Europe is the variety of regulations governing the continent, even among the 28-member European Union, each of which has different unions and different rules. It…
'to give their customers the fastest etc.,'. Nice if it works that way but plenty of customers don't agree that that's what happens. And of course it is inarguably a monopoly.
As noted by one journalist
"If black cab drivers are as good as they think they are, then they’ll beat the new competition on a level playing-field. If they’re not as popular, they’ll have to bring down their high prices. Either answer leaves the consumer better off."
Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe
#18Sad to see the taxi drivers. What they don’t understand is that soon they will be obsolete. As many other groups. IT startups are extremely disruptive and changes like these are hard to stop. With Google driverless cars around, it’s safe to say that in 30 years no one will need a driver. Uber and competitors could just buy driverless, extra-comfortable cars and get over with. The problem is, what do you do with thous…
Who is that "you" that is supposedly don't give a shit?
What's even more important, the tech disruption is coming to the vast range of industries and many jobs will be obsolete much sooner than most expect.
Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe
#19I just do not see why uber can be disruptive AND follow the rules. Here in Sweden they are lobbying to get exception from the rules, i.e. not having a meter and not having price comparisons on the cars. It's not hard to be disruptive if you break the rules
But why require every car to have this bulky fixed function meter device when a smartphone app can do the job just as well? Sometimes the rules themselves need to be disrupted.
> But why require every car to have this bulky fixed function meter device when a smartphone app can do the job just as well?
Can it? How can us be certain that the smartphone is actually the one that was in the car when the rate was approved? How does "fixed rate advertised on the outside of the car" match up with ubers surge pricing? Why does a rule that the majority of the population evidently feels comfortable with need to be disrupted?
I don't think disruption is necessarily a good thing. It can be, but it also can bring a ton of negative results.
Re: Protests against Uber are heating up in Europe
#20I'd like to highlight this part of the article: > In several of the protests, drivers aren't specifically targeting Uber and other service providers, but what they say is outmoded regulation that makes it hard for them to compete. Part of Uber's challenge in Europe is the variety of regulations governing the continent, even among the 28-member European Union, each of which has different unions and different rules. It…
As a London native for almost 10 years I cant tell you how many times I have been ripped off by black cab drivers taking longer routes then they could have. I also cant tell you how difficult it can be at certain times to find a taxi to take you home so people inevitably end up using unlicensed "mini cabs" to get home. This all because the licensing regulations are stuck in the stone age. Hopefully Uber will drag Lon…
i've used addison lee whenever i struggle to find a cab (or know i'm going to have trouble find a cab). except for a couple of occasion where the mini cab driver has been a bit late, i've never felt i've had cab issues in london.