Thursday, June 8, 2017

Or.... you could just call a taxi.....

For some time now, I have been trying to draw the attention of politicians in some Ontario jurisdictions to certain dangers attending their suspicious embrace of the Uber taxi company. In addition to Uber's obvious disregard for the law, and dubious insurance coverage there are also issues of passenger safety.

So far, I have not received a single reply from a single politician, or hired bureaucrat, addressing the obvious and predictable safety concerns I have attempted to warn them about. (Toronto mayor, John Tory, has even blocked me on Twitter.)

Given their often repeated claims that one of their core values in deciding whether to award Uber an unlimited number of taxi licenses is safety, I might have expected at least one response.

Not a single response.

Dead silence.

I have tried to point out the dangers associated with the use of distractive devices for taxi dispatch. The reply was,

Zip, zero, zilch.

And I have tried to point out the dangers associated with using unmarked vehicles as taxis because the practice provides ample opportunities for criminals and stalkers. As I've said many times, Paul Bernardo would have loved Uber.

Not a single reply, challenge, question, or rebuttal.

From what I have seen, the politicians and bureaucrats who have complied with Uber's demands that their bylaws be amended to comply with the Uber business model have given nothing but empty lip service to their claim that safety is one of their "core values." The evidence suggests that safety is barely an afterthought when it conflicts with corporate privilege.

The evidence keeps rolling in. I keep sending it to the politicians and, predictably, there is no response.

Clearly, the professed fealty to public safety is nothing but vacuous virtue signaling, or as Rush Limbaugh used to say, "symbolism over substance."

The reports are rolling in almost daily about the rat's nest the politicians have opened up with their knee-jerk obeisance to the Uber cab company. This one just came in,

Man Assaulted, Stabbed After Getting Into Car He Thought Was Uber or Taxi

For a list of Uber incidents, click here.

Here are a few of the videos I sent to various political decision makers, none of which received a single response:

Also of Interest

San Francisco Is Investigating Whether Uber And Lyft Are Public Nuisances.

Yeah, "Safety is a priority for Uber."

A top Uber executive, who obtained the medical records of a customer who was a rape victim, has been fired.

You know, when I read these reports, the first question I ask myself is, have the politicians in my city, well, all of Ontario, for that matter, really done their homework before deciding to comply with Uber's mandates, rather than stand up to them?

From my point of view, the answer is clearly, "No." And I will go further. They don't know, and they don't care."

"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."
George Orwell

Hamilton Mayor, Fred Eisenberger, lies about city's deal with Uber having the "backing of the taxi industry."

He later confessed that he was referencing a "stakeholder team," consisting of, as far as I have been able to determine, three taxi brokers and a taxi school official that worked with Licensing in writing the bylaw that screwed the other, approximately, 1,196 taxi industry stakeholders who were not consulted. He admitted it to me in an email by stating,

"I realize that not all drivers, yourself included, are fans of the compromise that was ratified and put into place."

It should be noted, that the taxi brokerages, and the taxi school, have interests that are often diametrically opposite the interests of the other 1,196 drivers, operators, and license owners.

So much for unanimity.

"Contrary to the fanatical belief of its advocates, compromise [on basic principles] does not satisfy, but dissatisfies everybody; it does not lead to general fulfillment, but to general frustration; those who try to be all things to all men, end up by not being anything to anyone. And more: the partial victory of an unjust claim, encourages the claimant to try further; the partial defeat of a just claim, discourages and paralyzes the victim."
-- Ayn Rand

Final Entry: Uber Driver gets Ripped off on Trip from Chicago to Buffalo

This driver was was saved by the tip.

Using the AAA as a source, and assuming the Uber driver was driving a small sedan, it would have cost this driver somewhere in the ballpark of 1,100 mi. X $.464 $/Mi = $510 to run this trip.

The rider was charged $632 for the trip. The Uber corporation would extract $2.50 + .25 X $632 = $160.50 in brokerage fees (what I call the Uber Income Tax,) leaving the driver with a payout of $632 - ($160.50 + $510) = $632 - $670.5 = *negative* $38.50.

It's lucky for this Uber lackey that the rider tipped him $300. That helped cover the $38.50 loss this driver incurred leaving him with net earnings of $261.50 for the 16 hour round trip, or about $16.35 per hour.

So, if all Uber passengers were to tip their drivers 47.5%, it would be a decent job.

That rarely happens, though.

By contrast, here is an example of how Uber drivers calculate their "earnings," from UberPeople.net:

"$632 - $2.50 = $629.50 × 75% = $472.13 plus $300 = $772.13 - $100 gas = $672.13 over 16 hours is $42 per hour is worth the drive."

So now you know part of the reason Uber is able to miraculously charge so much less than taxis.

See the new item here.