Letter from the Law Commission

UNDER the current law, a taxi licensed in one area can do pre-booked, or private hire, work in any other area. The problems this causes where a taxi is licensed in an area with low standards and then does pre-booked work in an area with higher standards for its own private hire cars are graphically illustrated by your article ("City cabbies hit out as 100 exploit loophole", Post, July 15).

The Law Commission's proposals for national standards for taxis and private hire cars would, as the spokesman from Bristol City Council, whom you quote, said, stop one area's standards under-cutting those in another. But I am afraid these proposals are not contained in the Government's current Deregulation Bill. We are awaiting a response from the Government on all of our proposals.

Nicholas Paines QC

Commissioner, Public Law team

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Reader-s-letter-Proposals-taxi-standards-missing/story-21739496-detail/story.html?
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What made Milwaukee Famous.

MILWAUKEE (WITI) — The Milwaukee Common Council voted unanimously on Tuesday, July 22nd to completely lift the cap on the number of taxi cabs that are allowed to operate in the city of Milwaukee. The vote was 15-0.

The new law requires taxis to comply with basic health and safety requirements such as inspections and minimum insurance coverage.

The law also offers a path for services such as Uber and Lyft to be recognized and licensed, increasing transportation options in Milwaukee.

Before Tuesday’s vote, the city of Milwaukee only issued 420 taxi cab permits. Now, there’s no such limit.

Uber and Lyft had been operating illegally, but now they’re welcome — but with a set of requirements those companies aren’t happy about.

After every alderman voted on Tuesday, a crowd of cab drivers cheered the unanimous passage of the ordinance that allows Milwaukee to issue an unlimited amount of taxi cab permits.

http://fox6now.com/2014/07/22/common-council-votes-unanimously-to-lift-cap-on-taxi-cab-permits/
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DUBLIN

A taxi-driver and accountancy student has avoided going to jail after he was caught accepting a delivery of fake travellers' cheques valued at €150,000.

Morgan Obiukwu (44) told gardaí he knew the counterfeit cheques were being sent from Nigeria but didn't expect such a large amount and was surprised at the weight of the package when it arrived.

The father-of-three pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to impeding the prosecution of another person who had imported false instruments on May 5, 2010.

Judge Mary Ellen Ring gave Obiukwu a 12-month suspended sentence, taking into account his otherwise good behaviour, hard work and early guilty plea.

Gardaí and customs officials were tipped off that a parcel of counterfeit cheques were being sent to Obiukwu's home address at Oak Avenue, Royal Oak, Santry, Dublin 9.

Garda Barry Griffin told Maurice Coffey BL, prosecuting, that a controlled delivery was set up.

After Obiukwu was seen accepting a parcel at his door and signing for it gardaí used force to gain entry to the house. During the entry Obiukwu was spotted through a back window trying to hide the package behind white bin bags.

Gardaí found an envelope in the kitchen containing three bundles of American Express travellers’ cheques worth a total of €150,000, addressed to Jerry Mugitsu.

Obiukwu was arrested and admitted using a false name to accept delivery of the cheques, and also seeking to hide the cheques from gardaí.

The court heard he is in his final year of studying accountancy at Dublin Business School and drives a taxi. He has three previous minor convictions, including road traffic offences.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/dublinbased-taxi-driver-avoids-jail-sentence-after-accepting-150000-worth-of-fake-travellers-cheques-30451300.html
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Taxi app Hailo is “actively” looking into allowing its customers to pay with bitcoin, according to company CEO Jay Bregman.

The company, which lets users hail taxis via its own app, could even allow bitcoin to be sent directly to drivers, he said in an interview with CoinDesk, a move that would set the company apart from other bitcoin-accepting businesses.

To-date most merchants have chosen bitcoin payment solutions that convert bitcoin directly to fiat currency.

“We have [always] sought to find independent ways to provide benefit to our drivers and our passengers. I believe strongly that bitcoin is one of these ways. Absolutely, like many other things, we actively looking into it,” said Bregman.

Payment option

Stressing that his comments were made in a personal capacity, he said that bitcoin could become an optional way of settling your bill with Hailo, but that it wouldn’t replace the current user-authorisation process, which requires a credit or debit card.

http://www.coindesk.com/hailo-ceo-bitcoin-benefit-customers-taxi-drivers/
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San Francisco

DeSoto Cab Might Leave Taxi Game to Compete with Uber, Lyft

DeSoto Boss: "I'd be a big hypocrite ... But I have to survive."

It's July, smack in the middle of tourist season, supposedly one of the hottest months of the year for San Francisco taxis.

And yet, at any given time of day, you'll see about a quarter of every cab company's fleet idling in its lot.

That's a sad state of affairs, says Hansu Kim, co-owner of DeSoto Cab Co. and vociferous critic of predatory practices within the industry. He's long bemoaned the liberties bestowed on so-called "TNC" services like Uber and Lyft, which seem to operate in a deregulated environment. He also decries new rules for state-regulated livery vehicles, which allow any driver to apply for a limo license, slap it on an ordinary Prius, and turn the car into an on-demand "rideshare" service.

"Here's my dilemma," Kim says. "I see a driver pool that is shrinking fast. I see the city has a completely deregulated industry. And I see 'limousine' vehicles acting like taxi cabs." Kim adds that because he's playing by a stricter set of rules, the competition is threatening to put him out of business.

So now he's adopted a different credo: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

"I'll give my medallions back to the city and put TCP [charter transportation] licenses on all my vehicles," he says. That's $250 per cab, as opposed to $2,500 per medallion, per month."

The $2,500 per month-per cab cost difference translates into a savings windfall for DeSoto. Since DeSoto currently operates 200 cabs, that's nearly $6 million over the course of a year. (The cost of medallions may decrease to $1,800 per medallion per month in September, Kim says, but even then, he'll come out winning.)

By recasting himself as a limousine sedan service, Kim would also be regulated by the state, rather than the city. His company would be based in San Francisco, but his drivers could pick up fares in surrounding cities -- like Oakland or San Mateo -- with impunity. If they tried that as regular municipal cab drivers, they'd get cited by the SFMTA.

Kim says he'd use the same DeSoto brand name and the same two-toned blue color scheme. He'd gut his fleet of taxi lights and meters. He'd become a livery service that looked like a taxi fleet.

He believes that longstanding brand recognition will help DeSoto perform well in a deregulated market. "I will never go out of business," Kim insists. "I will just transform."

He may transform in as little as 90 days. And he thinks other companies will follow suit.

"I'd be a big hypocrite," Kim says, "because I don't believe in this loophole. But I have to survive."

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2014/07/facing_pressure_from_uber_and.php