Quote:
Originally Posted by acottawa
Part of the problem is the city has never enforced very high standards on cabs in terms of cleanliness, air conditioning, dress code, age of the vehicle, smell, knowledge of the taxi driver of the road system, knowledge of the taxi driver of an official language, etc. At least with uber, presumably customer ratings of drivers would force these things.
I wonder though what the actual availability of drivers with uber would be. If someone is in Kanata on a Tuesday afternoon I wonder if an uber driver would be around.
|
I know someone who tried last night in the market area around 10:30 and the app reported Uber as not available. I suspect this is less of real launch and more of a launch to force the legal issue and give the company an opportunity to fight the city regulations.
---------------------
That said my thoughts on the regulations and how to fix them.
The first question is whether Uber is a taxi. My answer to that is yes they are and therefore they should be subject to regulations. BUT our regulations need to work.
The first problem with Ottawa's taxis is that we have created an artificial scarcity by severely limiting plate sales. In Ottawa right now it would be very difficult to even start of a new traditional style taxi company never mind something like Uber.
The first change I would propose is that the city should have an annual auction to a decent number of new plates. Say somewhere between 25-50, with say 10% accessible plates. This would also raise money for the city.
This is why we have the quasi monopoly by Conventry Connections. A government should not have regulations that protect one company over all others.
The second issue is what we regulate. There are certain things like safety, employment standards, environment regulations, civic order etc that it makes good sense for government to regulate.
For taxis this includes things like the visible identifications of cabs by numbers and signs (also good advertising for the company), cameras in cabs, standards for the vehicles etc...
Ottawas taxi regulations extend far beyond what is needed in that they dictate the actual business model taxi companies use...right down to the pricing model and prices they charge (they can't even do things like offer discounts say during a slow time...or to compete with Uber). Worse than that the regulations only allow for a single business model. One way business differentiate themselves is with there model. Someone may want to start a taxi company that uses fare zones in stead of meters, or a flat rate model or a model based demand (busier time = high price), etc.. Right now they can't do that.
So the second change is only to regulate what is needed for safety and order and allow for evolution into new business models.