Survival Techniques for Uber Cab Drivers in the Contrived Sharing Economy.

As the amazingly powerful political corporation, Uber, has demonstrated, given sufficient financial backing, politicians and fake news media outlets can easily be fooled, intimidated and/or bought off by the notorious one percenters. Even MADD Canada has apparently decided to turn a blind eye to Uber's dangerous distractive technology by partnering with the $70 Billion taxi brokerage. One can only guess at whether MADD is receiving cash from Uber in return for its endorsements.

In the taxi industry, this has led to a bastardized form of deregulation. The traditional cap on taxi licenses in most jurisdictions has been removed by stealth, as Uber has been granted the equivalent of unlimited taxi licenses. To make matters worse, Uber's taxi licenses enjoy a flexibility that is unavailable to its competition.

Predictably, taxi history is starting to repeat itself. The streets are becoming flooded with hungry taxi drivers cruising for a diminishing number of passengers, while the taxi brokerages, including Uber, continue to extract a percentage of the total business volume. Uber gets its 25% regardless of whether it has one hundred drivers on the road, or ten thousand. Unfortunately, all cab drivers, both Uber and non-exempt, experience drastic declines in earnings.

Those die-hards who still wish to attempt to make a living in this new taxi environment will be forced to become more resourceful by attempting to capture a larger share of that shrinking market for themselves, and/or expand the array of the types of services they provide. I have put together a few ideas that cab drivers may wish to consider as the efforts to survive become increasingly difficult for those in the trenches.

1- Bootlegging

You can't make a living by sitting in a parked car and waiting for a $5 fare every hour or so. Therefore, selling alcohol after the government's monopoly booze vendors have closed can be a way of making a few extra bucks. In Hamilton, the price for after hours booze is about twice the retail price. A case of 24, sold for $30 in one of the government's monopoly outlets, typically sells for twice that price when delivered by sharing economy alcohol vendors. If you pick up two cases of beer and a couple of 26ers of whiskey at the start of your shift, it can make the difference between going home with $40 or $200.

2 - Hookers

Love sharing has been around since the beginning of time. Some call it, "the oldest profession." An Uber driver with knowledge and experience in this particular market could match up lonely people with those individuals who have underused resources available. A booking fee, as well as a percentage of the benefits, could be charged.

3 - Tobacco

Though under serious attack, tobacco use still remains popular with about 18% of the population. A starving Uber/cab driver could gather and retain some steady customers in this niche market by allowing passengers to smoke in their cabs. After building up a steady customer base in this niche, Uber/cab drivers have the opportunity to up-sell their regular passengers by purchasing cartons of untaxed cigarettes in the flourishing Six Nations sharing economy and sharing them with their customers in exchange for a commensurate booking fee.

4 - Cash

The most easily available opportunity for impoverished Uber/taxi drivers in the new sharing economy, is to find ways to share less of their earnings with the Uber corporation. And the best way to accomplish this, is to find ways to evade Uber's 25% "share" of the services you provide. Get some business cards printed up and share them with your most pleasant and lucrative passengers. If they are regular users, you can even offer them a 10% cash discount if they call you directly instead of fidgeting around with a buggy smart-phone to summon a random Uber taxi. The customer gets a 10% discount. You get the extra 15% that Uber would have taxed away from you, and Goldman Sachs and the rest of Uber's one percenter investors get zip, zero, zilch. What's not to like about that?

Freedom

Uber/taxi drivers who are able to successfully apply the suggestions provided above may discover that they no longer require the services of the Uber taxi brokerage. It's a win-win situation for the buyers and sellers of taxi rides, and a big loss for the exploiters of politically corrupt regulatory regimes.

Cautionary Note

For the record, as a practicing rideshare driver for a span of over 40 years, I don't personally use any of these techniques to minimize the damage done to me by the regulators. I am sixty-three years old and long past the days when risky business practices might have appealed to me. I am now at that stage where I intend to merely continue driving people around for compensation until there are no more customers. After that, I intend to apply for welfare or ODSP until I reach the age of pension illegibility.

Most of the suggestions I have provided above involve some degree of non-compliance with existing laws. I do not advocate that Uber/cab drivers adopt these suggestions. That would probably be illegal. However, anyone considering adopting any of these Uber/cab driver survival strategies ought not to proceed without being fully aware of the possible consequences. Don't get carried away with the idea that the Uber business model will be as successful for you as it has been for Uber. If you don't have deep pockets, and/or friends in influential government positions and the media, you may discover that non-compliance with the law, in your case, (unlike Uber's,) will not be rewarded with the legalization of your activities, along with the guaranteed profits. You need to know the difference between up and down when it comes down to navigating through politicized economies.

More Issues on the Government-Backed Uber Scam

Distracted Driving

An exploration of dangerous "distractive" technology, its use in Uber (and any other) taxis, and why, oh why, is MADD Canada shilling for Uber?

Labor Strife

The explosion in the number of cabs on the streets is hurting amateur Uber cabbies as much as it is hurting their professional counterparts.

Uber and Ola drivers in India are now aggressively demanding better pay and working conditions. see here.
Toronto Uber drivers are starting to turn on each other because of the squeeze market saturation is putting on them.
See Reporting welfare drivers.
Listen to the CBC program from Feb 15, 2017, "Still in love with Uber?"
Licensed cab drivers are not the only victims of Uber's "business model."
Hyderabad Uber Driver Suicide Adds Fuel To Protests For Better Pay.
See also, Uber driver ends life in Hyderabad, family says he was under pressure to pay car EMI.

“They are increasing the number of cabs in the city but the number of customers have not changed."

From the stranger danger file:

Victim sexually assaulted by Kingston man pretending to be car-sharing driver.

“On February 11, 2017 in the late evening hours the victim was in the downtown district with friends at a bar. The victim had a friend call for a car-sharing service to take her home. The victim later approached vehicles outside of the bar looking for her driver.
The accused claimed he was her driver and the victim got into his car."

""But the ride-sharing app that Uber uses means drivers and passengers already know each other even before they meet, and they rate each other as well — and that’s enough of a safety measure," said [London Councilor Stephen] Turner."

Yeah, right!

And another Toronto Uber driver is charged with sex assault.

Meanwhile, clueless politicians continue to make critical decisions based upon purely fictional imaginings of how the world really works.

By the way, having a sticker in the window provides scant protection to vulnerable riders. Anyone can buy Uber stickers from Amazon.com.

Uber Question

What will happen to used car buyers when Uber drivers sell their vehicles?

"Thing is back in september i had a midsize american sedan and it use to burn normalish gas. I pay $4.2k for it used for 3 months, sold it for the same amount. What I lost was like 3 oil changes and the Tax ($800) and gas ofc but thats it. It had 200k klicks when i had it. It never had any problems. I made profit, enough to buy a full size executive. But with a full size executive, the gas increases, i still make a little profit."

I wonder if this guy informed the buyer that his car had been used as a taxi?

Finally, a message from Uberman: