The fight over ride-sharing in Kansas City is just getting started while MSM newsies are mistakenly reporting success.
KC TRANSPORTATION honcho Bill George might have won a quiet victory on this topic given that he has long claimed that he only wants Uber & Lyft to compete on the same playing field as his taxi monopoly.
Related . . . The Somalis might have something to say about that but nobody really cares about their complaining over "exclusive" deals that don't seem to understand doing biz in KC isn't always fair.
Anyhoo . . .
Thanks to KICK-ASS TKC TIPSTERS we have a comprehensive view of the process that digs deeper than other newsies trying to get bumped up to a bigger market.
To wit . . .
CHECK THE TOP 5 TOPICS OF DEBATE AS KANSAS CITY COPES WITH THE CONSEQUENCES OF RIDE-SHARING ON LOCAL STREETS!!!
We'll to into this a bit more later but here are the highlights for now . . .
Ride Share Company Driver Rip-Off
The complaints from Kansas City ride-share drivers are coming in FAST AND FURIOUS via social media . . . They're saying that all of this regulation is going to kill their profits and their work will pay them around 85cents per mile, pretty much minimum wage after everything is said and done. So, while we hear a lot about the Internets having "liberated" these tech-cabbies. . . Driver equity has been a longstanding problem for ride-share companies and will get even more complicated with so much regulation in KCMO.
It's ironic that KC is home to a movement to "stand up" for $15 an hour at fast food jobs but some cabbies haven't done the math yet and might be slaving away for sweat-shop wages if they don't plan correctly.
The Insurance App Fight Persists
Now . . .
INSURANCE ARGUMENTS WILL BREAK THE BACK OF RIDE-SHARE COMPANIES AND DRIVERS WHO DON'T WANT TO BE ON THE HOOK FOR COMMERCIAL COVERAGE COSTS!!!
City Hall is jam packed with lawyers and this argument over liability isn't anywhere close to being settled. In fact . . . Kansas City precedent could threaten the ride-share biz across this litigious nation and this is what execs at these companies with BILLION DOLLAR VALUATIONS really fear.
As always, Kansas City is where tech innovation comes to die a painful death via the practicality of our polite populace.
Price Surging Still Plagues Ride Share Customers
Call it consumer affairs protection . . . During election season, this tech nuance of ride share might make an easy target like it has in other cities.
Kansas City Passenger Safety Only Partially Addressed
Remember that Kansas City has voted to "ban the box" against felons so some of the ride-share safety concerns linger. While making companies deal with a City Hall certified background check provider is a nice first step . . . That process has failed before in other towns . . . And politicos are only looking at this one way at first glance . . . Ride-share drivers also face danger and KCMO has a long tradition of killing cabbies for easy cash. Ride-Share drivers don't have the support network of other cab companies and, quite frankly, they are easier targets for criminals looking for a quick score. City Hall would be remiss if they didn't look out for driver protection given that an app can't call the cops if tragedy quickly befalls a driver.
Ride Share Revenue For Kansas City
The price drop for licensing is actually a great idea and one example that lowering taxes encourages more biz. However, if/when these ride-share services start reporting more revenue . . . Count on City Hall to come back for a bigger cut and increased regulation has always been the preferred method to siphon revenue from local small biz.
Other local links:
KSHB: Lyft and Uber are now identified as Transportation Network companies. Those network companies and cabs are both required to pay an annual $250 permit fee per vehicle and get a $50 driver's certificate for each driver. Background checks must also be done by the city or a certified company.
KCUR: It would require drivers that work for the companies to get city permits. Also, it lowers the cost of the permits from $300 to $250.
KMBC: Lora McDonald of the civil rights group More 2 said the group will boycott the businesses with exclusive cab deals.
Northeast News: Residents invited to provide feedback on Taxicab Code
Developing . . .
Hey now, if uber has a lambo deal. I'm getting it. It's worth the extra cash.
ReplyDeleteThe insurance deal is a legitimate one.
ReplyDeleteYou would be the first one to yell "whiplash" is you were a passenger that was involved in an accident.
So are ALL the city drivers (Buses, limos, police, ambulance, truck, maintenence, snow plows, etc.) required to have $50.00 certified drivers? Why not? They are on the same damn streets I paid taxes to build like all the others. City employees damn sure do better than most high school gradates in pay.
ReplyDeleteIf they don't haul NIGGERS I will roll with them. The smell of a nigger in a hot taxi smells of Westport vomit on a hot summer night.
ReplyDeleteUber drivers actually show up UNLIKE Yellow Cab that rarely shows up at all. Ask any bartender in town. Ask them if they would rather have to call Yellow Cab and risk having to babysit a drunk bar patron until after closing or have the drunk call Uber and know he will be out of there in 10 minutes at the most.
ReplyDeleteOMG 826, share it with your Aryan clan over restacking the cinder blocks.
ReplyDeleteUber/Lyft rip off their drivers just and leave them holding the insurance bill.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the new internet economy! Paying 3rd world wages right here in the good ol' USA!
What everyone regurgitating this crap, fail to mention is that Travis Kalanick has consistently shown he does not care one iota about the drivers that make his empire. He cuts and cuts, starving them of any hope of income knowing that when they give up, others will join to take up the jobs based solely on his ludicrous assertions that working harder at a loss will be better for you!
ReplyDeleteHe has demonstrated, at every turn, he has nothing but contempt for the drivers that enable his great success. He is not a man to be trusted.
New York Times-Feb 4, 2015
ReplyDeleteUber has been working to find a way to operate legally in South Korea since prosecutors here indicted its chief executive, Travis Kalanick, and ...
LMAO!!!
Bill George has no worries on this one, and he knows it. KCMO, like most other larger cities, will continue to regulate paid-fare transportation companies (which, fairly, includes companies like Uber and Lyft that are paid for providing transportation). It is logical (and fine from a PR standpoint) for the City to require these companies to provide things like insurance, permits, etc. It may be "new economy", but that doesn't mean old economy principles of liability protection, training, and safety don't apply.
ReplyDeleteThe exclusive-deal issue is also a non-starter. A PRIVATE business has chosen to enter into a contract with another PRIVATE business to exclusively offer services. It gets no more democratic and free-market than that. I wonder if all those complaining think it's unfair that their employer only offers them one type of coffee in the breakroom? Perhaps another useless law requiring equal counter space for all coffee vendors is in order.
Fuck all this mamsy pamsy shit. I'm starting a service that uses rickshaws with ice cream boxes on one side and a liquor cabinet on the other. The city bureaucrats will just shit themselves trying to come up with a permit for that rig.
ReplyDeleteThe taxi licensure scheme is a joke. It doesn't ensure safe drivers or anything else that benefits society. There is no reason to have government involved in these transactions at all.
ReplyDeleteWTF is up with that photo of Bill George? Has he died and gone to Heaven (THAT would be a shock if he headed upward) in a soft white limousine?
ReplyDelete