By the time they get around to de-regulating the medallion system, self-driving cars will be available, which will put taxi drivers out of business. (Unless they block that too.)
The Tyranny of Taxi Medallions
21–30 of 219 posts
Re: The Tyranny of Taxi Medallions
#22>The reason taxi drivers have to pay for the right to work is that they need access to a taxi medallion to do their job. A medallion is a permit issued by the government that is required to drive a cab in most cities in America. If you don’t use the medallion yourself, you can rent it out to other drivers on your own or, more commonly, through a taxi company. Taxi companies that rent out access to the medallions have immense economic power over the drivers. If you’re not willing to basically become an indentured servant to get medallion access, well, you’re out of luck.
I don't see how the medallion itself (a permit issued by the government) is the problem here. The problem is that the taxi drivers are not allowed to get it directly for themselves, but have to rent it. And another problem is that this "indentured servant" renting is allowed to take place.
Fix that, not the requirement to have a permit to drive a cab (which is useful, as it acts as a filter for all kinds of scum drivers if enforced properly).
Re: The Tyranny of Taxi Medallions
#23Structurally this practice is a lot like the preindustrial precursor of taxation, when governments would sell monopolies on the import or production of things in exchange for a lump sum. When obsolete government practices persist, they tend to be pretty sinister.
I never made the connection to selling monopoly import licenses, but that's exactly it.
Re: The Tyranny of Taxi Medallions
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
As the other commenter pointed out, the problem is primarily with the supply limit on taxis. Not limiting the supply of cabs artificially would result in more supply for whoever needs a ride, arguably lower the cost of a ride and help with more revenue for policing. Making sure that taxis pick up in poor neighborhoods is an important, tough, and long standing problem. It would be disingenuous to argue that the "marke…
Traffic is something to consider - that might be one reason a customer would want to limit taxis.
Definitely, although it's not clear that ride sharing will increase traffic for sure. Cabs and Ridesharing are essentially car multiplexing. Absent an on-demand ride, most people would drive into the city, and then park there.
Re: The Tyranny of Taxi Medallions
#25Taxi drivers significantly under report earnings for tax purposes. They always claim close to minimum wage. You'll find the same in every cash business.
Re: The Tyranny of Taxi Medallions
#26Apart from all the obvious externalities of cab driving operations, the extremely high probability of fraud, and the fact that policing cabs is extraordinarily expensive, there's another problem a lot of these analyses miss about why cabs are regulated the way they are. In many large cities, the taxi system is a fundamental component of the transport infrastructure. There are locations in most cities that are not eff…
What you are saying is fine, but that's not why taxi's were regulated, at least in New York. The regulations go back to the depression and were put in place specifically to limit competition in order to keep prices high and protect employment of existing cab drivers. The history is right on the NYC gov page: http://www.nyc.gov/html/media/totweb/taxioftomorrow_history_... -- quoting from the NYC site: "Widespread pove…
> The situation was made worse by the tactics of “wildcat” (unlicensed) taxis who used what some considered to be “underhanded tactics,” such as drastically lowering fares, to get more business.
Lowering fares to get more business? Oh my. What good could possibly come of such a thing.
Re: The Tyranny of Taxi Medallions
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Policing cabs is vastly cheaper than the cost of a medallion. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1650659 Cities therefore have a powerful interest in making sure that whatever else happens, there is a strata of taxi service available to all residents of the city at some predictable rate. Limiting the supply of taxes reduces the likelihood that this will occur. Not that NY has anything like the "universal service" y…
Taxis are required to service all destinations in manhattan. But yeah, originations are a problem.
They are required to service all of NYC, but will do almost anything not to.
Re: The Tyranny of Taxi Medallions
#28Apart from all the obvious externalities of cab driving operations, the extremely high probability of fraud, and the fact that policing cabs is extraordinarily expensive, there's another problem a lot of these analyses miss about why cabs are regulated the way they are. In many large cities, the taxi system is a fundamental component of the transport infrastructure. There are locations in most cities that are not eff…
What you are saying is fine, but that's not why taxi's were regulated, at least in New York. The regulations go back to the depression and were put in place specifically to limit competition in order to keep prices high and protect employment of existing cab drivers. The history is right on the NYC gov page: http://www.nyc.gov/html/media/totweb/taxioftomorrow_history_... -- quoting from the NYC site: "Widespread pove…
> "who used what some considered to be “underhanded tactics,” such as drastically lowering fares, to get more business."
Lower fares is not the only consequence of this type of free market. In NYC we've seen a rise of intercity buses competing at cut-rate prices, and one such bus company recently and spectacularly failed every single safety inspection performed on their vehicles. They also have an accident rate several times that of their less price-sensitive consumers (Greyhound, Amtrak, etc).
Free markets often have substantial downsides, it's dishonest to pretend that regulation is strictly driven by parasitic behavior. There are also substantial upsides to commoditization - i.e., gains in efficiency when every consumer does not have to engage in complex analysis of the product on every sale. There is a loss of market confidence when you have to go through a mound of paperwork just to determine which intercity bus line is safe to ride.
When a market is over-regulated, such regulation often have legitimate and still-relevant roots. Those who cry for complete deregulation would be wise to figure them out first. Regulations may run amok, but they very often still sit on top of a legitimate need.
Re: The Tyranny of Taxi Medallions
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you are saying is fine, but that's not why taxi's were regulated, at least in New York. The regulations go back to the depression and were put in place specifically to limit competition in order to keep prices high and protect employment of existing cab drivers. The history is right on the NYC gov page: http://www.nyc.gov/html/media/totweb/taxioftomorrow_history_... -- quoting from the NYC site: "Widespread pove…
> The situation was made worse by the tactics of “wildcat” (unlicensed) taxis who used what some considered to be “underhanded tactics,” such as drastically lowering fares, to get more business. Lowering fares to get more business? Oh my. What good could possibly come of such a thing.
If they lower fares by not getting insurance and not maintaining their vehicles it's probably a bad thing.
Re: The Tyranny of Taxi Medallions
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Policing cabs is vastly cheaper than the cost of a medallion. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1650659 Cities therefore have a powerful interest in making sure that whatever else happens, there is a strata of taxi service available to all residents of the city at some predictable rate. Limiting the supply of taxes reduces the likelihood that this will occur. Not that NY has anything like the "universal service" y…
Taxis are required to service all destinations in manhattan. But yeah, originations are a problem.
Correction, taxis are required to take you to "any destination in NYC, Westchester, Nassau, or Newark Airport;"
Source: http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/passenger/taxicab_rights.sh...