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Quebec passes law to regulate Uber

cbc.ca

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Re: Quebec passes law to regulate Uber

#21

Post by forgotpwtomain »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #5
teej wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't $200k the free market cost? The government isn't pocketing that money. That's the price you would expect from an asset that generates income with a limited supply. Edit: why am I down voted to max? The government limits supply but the medallions are still sold on the market.

No, the supply is artificially limited by the government; there's no free market involved. That $200k is paid to the government. (The claimed rationale for limiting the number of taxis is to reduce traffic. I would suspect the actual rationale is to favor the existing taxi businesses that already have licenses and don't want competition.)

> The claimed rationale for limiting the number of taxis is to reduce traffic.

The ratio of vehicles per person in Singapore is 0.18 (compare to about ~0.5 most places in the US). It's very easy to get a Taxi to any place not accessible by public transport. I would be astounded if there is any verifiable scientific study backing this claim.

[0] https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/dam/ltaweb/corp/PublicationsR... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_vehicle...

Re: Quebec passes law to regulate Uber

#22

Post by aminok »

ketzu wrote: post #20
ende wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The payment to the government is irrelevant. The point is that the government artificially restricts the number of occupational licenses.

That is not true. If they were non transferable, a limited supply would still stay at the governmental set price.

Competition for the limited supply of licenses would manifest itself in other ways, resulting in $200,000 worth of economic resources being used, on average, to acquire a license.

More importantly, the high market price of a transferrable license indicates there is a shortage of taxis relative to demand for taxi service, which has a cost for the economy.

Re: Quebec passes law to regulate Uber

#23

Post by TeMPOraL »

rdlecler1 wrote: post #16
jclulow wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I can tell, the drive to pamper riders comes from the fear of being cut off from driving for receiving too many sub-five star ratings. I would feel differently about it if Uber were handing out a "water bottle" stipend.

Oh, you mean like any regular job? Where you need to exceed everyone's expectations? This is what a free market looks like. Don't like that? Take a look at Venezuela, and tell me you'd prefer to be dumpster diving for your next meal. Capitalism and Democracy are aweful aweful systems, but everything else is worse.

The difference is probably the level of expectations. In "any regular job" you don't get fired for having your ratings fall below 4.3 / 5 because a customer of yours had a bad day or fat-fingered 1 in a hurry.

The jobs with high turnover rates are usually known as "shitty jobs".

Re: Quebec passes law to regulate Uber

#24

Post by SFJulie »

Elv13 wrote: post #9
slashcom wrote: post #4

Will be interesting to see if they pull out like they've done in Austin. It's definitely been less convenient to go to a bar since they left.

They plan to stay http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/uber-quebec-deal-1.36... In my opinion, the government and the ride hailing companies should have bought back a share of the taxi permit pool value, then cancelled them. It would have been costly, but by taxing the ride themselves (at a fixed rate) then letting competition drive the ride price down while increasing the ride volume. The government could have had…

Automation will work if and only if car operator can make themselves non liable for any accident resulting from bugs.

Accident are stuffs that cannot be predicted. A bug is something that can be avoided.

As far as I am concerned, 99% of the software industry is not able to write critical software that is able to handle with a correct costs the case of failures and/or "abnormal" behaviors.

Software will fail. It will eventually fail dramatically. And with software it can fail in a reproducible way. Nowadays all experiments are made far from worst case (congestion, interferences, extreme conditions....)

Who is gonna pay for the predictable accidents? And will self driving cars will be better at avoiding accidents than humman given a same operating cost on the long term?

My guess, is : hell no.

Re: Quebec passes law to regulate Uber

#25

Post by pixel_fcker »

alasano wrote: post #11

I don't know if this reflects poorly on Uber or current taxi legislation. Living in Québec I've never had a bad experience with taxi drivers the way people seem to have in NYC, etc. Uber was still far better, if anything just for how proud some drivers were of being part of it. The lower barrier of entry seemed like a positive thing overall. A nice woman drove me once, offered me starburst candy and a bottle of water…

Don't know where in Quebec you lived but my experience with taxis in Montreal was horrible (took a taxi every day for a few months) - old, poorly maintained cars with rude drivers who often drive like complete maniacs. Uber was on another level in terms of service before we even begin talking about the convenience of the app itself.

Trust Quebec to do everything they can to legislate innovation and improved quality out of existence in favour of preserving the status quo (and their tax dollars).

Re: Quebec passes law to regulate Uber

#26

Post by rodgerd »

jsmeaton wrote: post #2

The problem with regulation isn't Uber. It's the extraordinary costs required to operate a taxi - mostly the $200k plate. If I can get a background check and a card certifying me to be allowed to work with children for about $50, why does it cost nearly $200k to get a taxi license. Require licenses, reduce the costs to improve competition, and let the various companies compete on service.

And yet in New Zealand, Uber is instructing its drivers to ignore the legal requirements for commercial passenger transport, which boil down to a background check, a license endorsement, and a more frequent warrent of fitness check.

Uber is opposed in principle to even the most minimal safety legislation.

Re: Quebec passes law to regulate Uber

#27

Post by nopzor »

forgotpwtomain wrote: post #21
JoshTriplett wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the supply is artificially limited by the government; there's no free market involved. That $200k is paid to the government. (The claimed rationale for limiting the number of taxis is to reduce traffic. I would suspect the actual rationale is to favor the existing taxi businesses that already have licenses and don't want competition.)

> The claimed rationale for limiting the number of taxis is to reduce traffic. The ratio of vehicles per person in Singapore is 0.18 (compare to about ~0.5 most places in the US). It's very easy to get a Taxi to any place not accessible by public transport. I would be astounded if there is any verifiable scientific study backing this claim. [0] https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/dam/ltaweb/corp/PublicationsR... [1] https…

I don't think it's true at all that it's easy to get a cab in Singapore.

If you're in the downtown area anytime close to rush hour it's practically impossible to get a cab without reserving one in advance (which costs extra), or waiting in line at a designated "taxi stand" for an unacceptably long time.

Personally I think that part of the reason the government no longer allows street hails downtown (even for cabs) is an acknowledgment of this problem.

Re: Quebec passes law to regulate Uber

#28

Post by n72 »

aorth wrote: post #18
teej wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't $200k the free market cost? The government isn't pocketing that money. That's the price you would expect from an asset that generates income with a limited supply. Edit: why am I down voted to max? The government limits supply but the medallions are still sold on the market.

Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Please resist commenting about commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

(I hope this doesn't of overflow HN's stack.)

Re: Quebec passes law to regulate Uber

#29

Post by GnarfGnarf »

Sometimes developed countries miss out on some good ideas. When I lived in Lima, Peru and La Paz, Bolivia in the 60's, they had a system called "colectivos". You stood on a main road, and in a few minutes a random car would stop, you'd pile in with four other people, and for 10¢ you'd get a ride downtown.

No permits, no insurance, any driver can participate. Faster and more frequent service than anything I've experienced back home in North America.

Similar systems exist throughout the Third World. God forbid we ever allow something like that in our "developed" countries.

Re: Quebec passes law to regulate Uber

#30

Post by g4nt1 »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #5
teej wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't $200k the free market cost? The government isn't pocketing that money. That's the price you would expect from an asset that generates income with a limited supply. Edit: why am I down voted to max? The government limits supply but the medallions are still sold on the market.

No, the supply is artificially limited by the government; there's no free market involved. That $200k is paid to the government. (The claimed rationale for limiting the number of taxis is to reduce traffic. I would suspect the actual rationale is to favor the existing taxi businesses that already have licenses and don't want competition.)

The 200K is not paid to the government but to the previous owner of the plate. So yes the price is dictated by demande/offer but you are true that by restricting the offer the are artificially raising the price of the plate.

When Uber started operating in Quebec the price of a plate in Montreal dropper to around 160K. That was the major point of dispute, since taxi drivers usually get loans to buy these plates knowing that they can re-sell then anytime. Uber changed that.

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