Saturday, January 28, 2017

Pro-Uber Cosmic Debris

Depending on where you are situated, at any given time, the insights you can gain from observing the political process can be amazing.

Consider Mayor Fred Eisenberger's claim, as reported several times on CHML the other day, that Hamilton's taxi industry "backs" the new amendments to the taxi bylaw, which exempt the Uber taxi company from almost all of the restrictions that are imposed upon the other two taxi companies in Hamilton.

As a member of Hamilton's taxi industry, I must admit that Fred Eisenberger's announcement came as quite a surprise to me because, frankly, my casual surveys of Hamilton cab drivers reveal that almost *NONE* of them "back" the idea of a two-tiered taxi regulatory regime.

Who, in the Hamilton taxi industry *would* back the idea that:

1 - they will still be forced to pay $100 a year to the City for a cab driver's license, while Uber cabbies pay nothing?

2 - that non-Uber cab drivers will still be required to piss their money away on a ridiculous cab driver training program, while Uber cabbies will be exempt?

3 - that Uber cab owners will only require a Safety Standards Certificate while, while non-exempt cab owners will still require a Safety Standards Certificate PLUS a redundant inspection at a City of Hamilton taxi inspection station, manned by a government employee, who's job security rests upon always finding *something wrong* with the cab that the Safety Standards Certificate missed?

4 - that non-exempt taxi operators must comply with the mandate that taxi transportation for the disabled is a "fundamental human right," regardless of how much of a burden it imposes upon certain taxi owners, while Uber cab owners are exempt from the same obligation?

5 - that, in order to have permission to make a living in the City of Hamilton, as cab operators, non-exempt cab owners must each pay about $600 a year (times 447 cabs) equals about $270,000 per year, at the same time as Uber taxi is given the right to operate an unlimited number of taxis for a flat fee of $60,000?

6 - that non-exempt taxi operators must install expensive cameras to monitor the goings on in their cabs, while Uber cab owners are exempt, on the ridiculous grounds that Uber lacks payment flexibility, and only serves customers who can qualify for credit card accounts? (Which rules out many of Hamilton's citizens, you know... like the poor, the unemployed, the mentally ill, the panhandlers, the Syrian refugees... you know... the people the politicians pretend to *care so much about?*)

What else?

Oh yeah. The amended taxi bylaw will ban the use of ex-cop cars for use as taxicabs. But, unless I am wrong, this will only apply to non-Uber taxis. As more and more Uber cabbies realize they are being financially skinned alive by Uber's ridiculous %25 income tax on their earnings, more and more of them will discover why non-Uber taxi operators have opted to employ used cop cars for, at least, the last fifty years.

According to information I have received recently, the use of ex-cop cars for Ubering has already been adopted in the city of Chicago.

Go figger!

Given what I have written above, do you really think that the Hamilton taxi industry backs the new two-tiered Hamilton taxi bylaw?

Or do you think that Mayor Fred Eisenberger is full of excrement?

He could have showed some balls. Instead he chose to cave in to political expediency. The people are getting fed up with this endless charade of unprincipled leadership.

And please don't forget what these politicians promised you, all along, as they pretended to do all that was within their power to, "level the playing field," and compare that promise with my earlier prediction that, when a politician makes a bold statement about his fundamental convictions, take his words and reverse the meaning?

I ask you. Do you think Hamilton's new taxi bylaw levels the playing field?

How do I know that the people are finally getting fed up with this BS?

President Trump.

Please comment below.