BARROW

A DECISION on whether taxi drivers in Barrow will have to face a test to see whether they are fit for the job is set to be made by the council in the next few weeks.

On September 7, Barrow Borough Council's Executive Committee will meet to consider plans to implement a mandatory Knowledge Test for cabbies, regardless of whether they are new or have been in the profession for years.

It will be then be put before the full council so that it can be adopted.

The test, which will have to be taken by Hackney Carriage and private hire taxi drivers, will see cabbies face a local geography test as well as enhanced awareness training.

http://goo.gl/fuFUfM

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SAN FRANCISCO

Based on what I’ve been hearing while I linger outside the National office, things aren’t looking good for taxi drivers.

Over the past few months, several San Francisco taxi drivers have suffered heart attacks in public: one at the Hyatt Regency cabstand, a second at SFO (possibly fatal) and a third at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency offices. The last one occurred while the man was complaining about the high fees associated with his increasingly worthless medallion.

With an oversaturated market that pits unregulated drivers against highly regulated drivers for a limited number of rides, it’s only a matter of time before the situation becomes a public health issue.

Tales of personal difficulties run the gamut from exhaustion caused by drivers working longer hours to make up for the loss of income, to drivers breaking out in hives before going to work because they’re so anxious about making enough money to pay their bills. I hear incidents of domestic problems, wives and girlfriends “up to here” with all this taxi/Uber/Lyft shit … Even a cab driver threatening to kill himself.

Then there’s the story of the Moroccan driver who took out a $250,000 loan for a medallion, but he couldn’t afford to pay the premium and his bills without driving seven days a week. As a result, his family life started to unravel. It got so bad his wife took out a restraining order. One day, he left his cab in the lot at SFO and tried to board a plane to Morocco, but they wouldn’t let him on. After that, he took the cab back to the Luxor yard and just sat in the driveway blocking the entrance until they called 911. He hasn’t been heard from since. But the SFMTA, always diligent, went by to retrieve the medallion.

Around a month ago, I drove a woman who works in the taxi medallion loan department at the San Francisco Credit Union. She deals with the drivers who call seeking help on how to cover their premiums. They’re usually screaming invectives or breaking down in tears. It’s her job to tell them, regardless of how negatively Uber and Lyft are impacting their income, they took out the loan and they have to pay it.

“I feel really bad for them,” she told me. “But that’s just the cost of doing business.”


Last week, a Yellow driver jumped the curb on Market Street and crashed into a shoeshine stand, critically injuring the two men who worked there. This was big news. All the local newsites and TV stations picked up the story. According to initial reports, the taxi was recklessly speeding down Market, but it was later revealed the driver was suffering from a medical issue at the time. Which is why he never braked before colliding with a newsstand, the shoeshine stand and, finally, a light pole.

Based on what I’ve heard from people who knew the Yellow driver, he was a medallion holder with a perfect driving record. But like so many others, he’s been forced to drive longer hours to survive in this new climate, and at the time of the accident, he’d lost consciousness due to extreme dehydration, one cause of which is stress.

In recent news, there was the story of a driver who had his eye gouged out by a passenger who didn’t like the route. Last I heard, he’s still driving. It’s not like anyone can afford to miss a shift these days. Even if you lose an eye.

Or what about the driver who got Tasered and robbed by his passengers in Potrero Hill?

Most folks believe these attacks wouldn’t happen if drivers weren’t so desperate for fares.

Sure, you can’t perfectly gauge someone from a quick ocular patdown, but if a guy’s liable to gouge another person’s eye out for going the wrong way, there’s probably something sketchy about him to begin with.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/taxi-drivers-dropping-like-flies/

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Uber Is Playing a $16 Billion Game of Chicken 

Your current Uber experience is unsustainable.

A Bloombergreport Thursday revealed that Uber continues to lose an astounding amount of money as it tries to figure out a business model that works internationally. Uber lost $1.27 billion globally in the first half of 2016, according to the report. But more concerning for domestic riders is the fact that, after a profitable quarter in the United States, Uber is now once again losing money in the US market as it tries to use the enormous amount of financing it’s raised ($16 billion) to destroy competitors such as Lyft.

In its quest to corner the ridesharing market, that has meant steep price discounts and promotional fares for consumers that are subsidized by Uber’s investors. Uber lost $100 million domestically in the second quarter. Lyft isn’t faring any better—its goal is to lose less than $50 million per month, according to the Bloomberg report.

“Uber has been engaged in a fierce price war with Lyft Inc. this year, and that has also contributed to the enormous losses,” Bloomberg reporter Eric Newcomer wrote. "Uber told investors on Friday's call that it's willing to spend to maintain its market share in the US. The company told investors that it believes Uber has between 84 percent and 87 percent of the market in the US, according to a person familiar with the matter. One investor said that he was expecting Uber to continue losing money in the US for the next quarter or two."

The path Uber has been pursuing is one of dominance: Get people addicted to its service, push Lyft and traditional taxis out of the market by undercutting their prices, then jack up the prices once the market has been safely monopolized. It’s a strategy that Wal-Mart nailed, and it’s a path that Jet—which sought to undercut Amazon, which itself lost tons of money at the outset—was on before it sold to Wal-Mart. Hell, it’s kind of the business model that has led to big telecom monopolies in cities around the US.

Uber is cutting prices to consumers to make you forget about Lyft, and Lyft is cutting prices in an attempt to remain relevant. Both companies are losing massive amounts of money. It doesn’t take an economics degree to figure out what this means. The rideshare battle is not sustainable long term, meaning that one or more of the following have to be true:

Rideshare drivers will be replaced with reliable autonomous vehicles
Rideshare prices will increase significantly
One or more rideshare companies will go bankrupt, pivot, or otherwise stop competing at the scale they are now
The big gamble both companies are making is that result #1 happens before result #2 or #3 does.

But even if we do see the rise of robotaxis in the near-term, there are a host of questions that could ultimately affect how much you pay for a ride: Who will own the cars? If it’s Uber, how does that affect its bottom line considering that it currently doesn’t pay for its own cars? Who will pay to perfect the technology? Will lobbying be necessary to get them on the road? Will Tesla, or Google, or Ford beat them to the punch?


http://motherboard.vice.com/read/uber-is-playing-a-16-billion-game-of-chicken

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Australia.

Hundreds of angry taxi licence holders and their families briefly shut down the corner of Swanston and Flinders streets on Monday afternoon, in protest at the Andrews government's reforms to the cab industry.

The group of about 350 protesters were objecting to the government's controversial buyback scheme for taxi licences, and its plan to legalise Uber.

The crowd chanted "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!", as they marched from Parliament to the city's busiest intersection.

Some members of the group sat down at the intersection, only to be ordered by the leaders of the march to get up and stop further down Flinders Street, where they would cause less disruption. The group sat down on Flinders Street in front of St Paul's Cathedral for about an hour.

Under changes announced last month by the state government, Victorians could soon be slugged a $2 levy on every taxi, Uber or hire car trip.

The levy is part of the state government's plan to legalise ride-sharing services while compensating existing taxi drivers and also funding a $378 million buy-back scheme.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/taxi-protest-shuts-down-city-centre-20160905-gr8ybd.html