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Regulators Demanding Uber Price Increase to $75 Minimum in Vancouver

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Re: Regulators Demanding Uber Price Increase to $75 Minimum in Vancouver

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because you need to be regulated to be allowed to operate a taxi or limousine service. That's because of the history of horrific things people do to each other when taxi's aren't regulated. As to what logic is behind this other than protecting their members against the new guy I have no idea.

What do people do to each other? Or was that a joke?

Most common is fare scams (driving in circles, pricing scams and various types of extortion), assault and sexual assault.

Then you have things like all the types of discrimination you can think of as well as safety issues (having seatbelts, having tires with tread on them) and so on.

Re: Regulators Demanding Uber Price Increase to $75 Minimum in Vancouver

#22
post #9
post #2

What business does the Government have to fix the prices of a private company so arbitrarily like this? Surely this isn't constitutional?

Have you ever been in a taxi in Mexico City at night? Terrifying. I'll take my Canadian regulations, thanks. Shafting Uber is not a problem of excessive regulation, but of purposely protecting incumbants.

Yes, I have been in taxis in Mexico City at night. Many times in many different parts of the city I have procured the services of taxis of all kinds for decades. All of my experiences have been fine and I've never been terrified, scared, concerned, attacked, robbed, worried, or kidnapped in any way.

I have been overcharged, though. It happens less now that I speak the language fluently but I can't change the fact that I'm an obvious foreigner. The city does not regulate nighttime fares.

If you are concerned, get a "sitio" taxi from one of the thousands of convenient taxi stands that check on and track their drivers and cars. It costs a little more but provides rock solid security.

You should never have any trouble with Mexico City transit of any kind except personal cars; driving yourself is insane in a city of 24 million. The transit system, from taxis to subways, is clean, cheap, innovative, reliable, and efficient with an excellent worldwide reputation.

That is accomplished with a network of private regulations (taxi sitios), fully public systems (subway, bus rapid transit), minimal public regulation (taxi licensing), cooperatives of private contractors (minibuses), privatized toll roads, and public streets. As an operators, you can choose the level of regulation you want to operate under and then operate the corresponding kind of transit you want your business or career to involve. Diversity works much better than monopoly of the type being mandated in Vancouver or NYC.

Re: Regulators Demanding Uber Price Increase to $75 Minimum in Vancouver

#23
post #17
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever been in a taxi in Mexico City at night? Terrifying. I'll take my Canadian regulations, thanks. Shafting Uber is not a problem of excessive regulation, but of purposely protecting incumbants.

Correct me if I'm wrong but Mexico City is not in Canada .

Right. And the attitude that results in a taxi passenger bill of rights (http://www.taxirights.gov.bc.ca/) is what makes Canada so clearly not Mexico City.

Re: Regulators Demanding Uber Price Increase to $75 Minimum in Vancouver

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do people do to each other? Or was that a joke?

Most common is fare scams (driving in circles, pricing scams and various types of extortion), assault and sexual assault. Then you have things like all the types of discrimination you can think of as well as safety issues (having seatbelts, having tires with tread on them) and so on.

Ugh, I see. Thanks.

Re: Regulators Demanding Uber Price Increase to $75 Minimum in Vancouver

#25
post #2

What business does the Government have to fix the prices of a private company so arbitrarily like this? Surely this isn't constitutional?

Surely this isn't constitutional? The federal government could make it illegal to drive a taxi in Vancouver except while wearing a pink tutu and singing Christmas carols. The provincial government could make it illegal to charge taxi fares which are not a prime number of cents. Yes, it's perfectly constitutional to set a minimum price for private hire cars. Whether a law is dumb is orthogonal to whether it is constit…

> The federal government could make it illegal to drive a taxi in Vancouver except while wearing a pink tutu and singing Christmas carols.

As a former frequent user of that particular mode of transportation, that would be 'business as usual', which makes me wonder if such a law (or at least one like it) is already in effect.

Re: Regulators Demanding Uber Price Increase to $75 Minimum in Vancouver

#26

This is unfortunately turning into an example of "you can't fight City Hall". In a city like SF, where the taxi cab service is the worst I've ever experienced (empty taxis just driving past you, or never honoring a commitment to pick you up even if you call in), Uber is something that is necessary. But the status quo's long term experience with enforcing a monopoly through laws/regulations, etc, will make it really h…

I've lived for years in both Vancouver and in SF. I can't say I prefer one's taxi service over the other. At least in SF, I have the option of Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar.

I would love to have Uber back home, but not for $75 a ride.

Re: Regulators Demanding Uber Price Increase to $75 Minimum in Vancouver

#27
""" Mary Polak ‏@MaryPolakMLA Passenger Transportation Board is an independent decision maker so gov’t does not influence decision. #bcpoli #UberVanLove """

This makes sense, actually. At first I was angry because there was no system in place for the public to complain/appeal this, but this has nothing to do with public services. If it had to do with buses or other forms of public transportation, then there would be a way to publicly appeal.

However, this is a matter dealing with private companies- as such it makes sense that the PTB is outside the public domain. Unfortunately, this makes it much harder for anyone outside an UBER rep to affect things one way or another.

A cursory glance at http://www.ptboard.bc.ca/ confirms this- the appeals appear to be for the user/company directly, and the only contact to the PTB appears to be snailmail, which nobody on HN is going to use for any reason.

As for the actual rates information itself: http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/ptb/documents/rule_limo-min-rates.pd...

Best they could do is $75 * .15 discount, not enough to be viable.

UBER can appeal for the board to approve company specific rates, but I'm not sure exactly how they'd justify it or what's involved in the process. Worst case scenario is waiting until the rules end date comes (June 30, 2013) and see if a campaign to rewrite it is within the public domain.

Re: Regulators Demanding Uber Price Increase to $75 Minimum in Vancouver

#28
post #9
post #2

What business does the Government have to fix the prices of a private company so arbitrarily like this? Surely this isn't constitutional?

Have you ever been in a taxi in Mexico City at night? Terrifying. I'll take my Canadian regulations, thanks. Shafting Uber is not a problem of excessive regulation, but of purposely protecting incumbants.

How does regulation make taxis safer? As cars, they need to have a license plate you can write down and give to the police. I can't imagine what aspect of regulation offers protections beyond that.

IMO taxi regulation in North America is generally designed for no other purpose than to purposely protect incumbents, so saying those are different things is a false dichotomy. Of course, since that might look bad to the voting public, sometimes they pretend there are other benefits.

I'm not a libertarian btw, I have no problem with the concept of regulations, I just call rent seeking when I see it.

Re: Regulators Demanding Uber Price Increase to $75 Minimum in Vancouver

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do people do to each other? Or was that a joke?

Most common is fare scams (driving in circles, pricing scams and various types of extortion), assault and sexual assault. Then you have things like all the types of discrimination you can think of as well as safety issues (having seatbelts, having tires with tread on them) and so on.

Fare scams still occur on metered taxis, and these scams are any more widespread in taxis than any other industry.

Nothing distinguishes transportation, from say, overpriced crappy old model cameras on Fisherman's Warf, Dead Sea cosmetics, or any other scam - other than that it's easy for the city to claim it needs to regulate.

A simple licensing and complaint system is all that is necessary.

Re: Regulators Demanding Uber Price Increase to $75 Minimum in Vancouver

#30
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct me if I'm wrong but Mexico City is not in Canada .

Right. And the attitude that results in a taxi passenger bill of rights ( http://www.taxirights.gov.bc.ca/ ) is what makes Canada so clearly not Mexico City.

People who have read the Reglamento de Transporte del Distrito Federal would be astonished to learn that a taxi passenger bill of rights makes the difference between Mexico City and Canada.

Especially astonished would be those who've read Chapter 5 Articles 33 and 34.

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