INDUSTRY IN REVIEW

by Don McCurdy

Well, maybe not.

It has long been my contention that the government cannot protect me, but can only get revenge for me after a criminal does whatever it might be that caused my death. Well, not so fast. A recent ruling from Edmonton, Alberta in the death of a female taxicab driver has certainly straightened me out on that score.  

Appeals courts have ruled that the judge did not err in not considering the suspect’s conviction of attempted murder charges for a similar attack. Despite the suspect’s semen and saliva being found at the scene of the rape/murder of the female driver the judge didn’t deem the cases similar enough. The sheer impotence of government in protecting the public is of constant amazement to me.

For us, okay, but not for you.

A recent article in New York reported on a retired police officer, while working as a cab driver, shot a man in the leg who was attempting to attack him. Wait a minute, New York? Tough new gun laws, New York? How’d that happen?  

Well, its like this. If you are, or have been, part of the ruling establishment you can get a permit, if not, sucks to be you. Clearly, the retired officers predicament demonstrates a taxicab drivers need to have protection, and clearly that protection is being denied routinely. I’ve heard all of the excuses why honest, law abiding citizens shouldn’t be allowed to carry, but all of those apply equally to the retired officer.

It is hard for me to imagine how politicians can puff out their chest because they were able to leave more of their fellow citizens defenseless. It’s easy to see, without looking too far, that not much is really sacred.

This just in

The city of Toronto hired a consultant who informed them that price is a factor in how many people take cabs. You mean that if more people could afford to take a cab they would? Astounding! Well, okay, maybe not. It is, despite taxi guru Gerry Manleys reported assertions to the contrary, a common law of economics that price affects demand. Why, they might even have a cute name for it, like price elasticity of demand or something.

Now, don’t get me wrong here, the consultant was right on the money about price being a factor in utilization and about the plates, known as medallions or permits elsewhere, contributing to that inflated price. Any casual reader of this column would know that I refer to the cost of servicing the medallion price as the taxi tax. The real problem is that the city has let it go on for decades now and there is no easy way to reverse the process.  

Legitimate investors and life long taxi industry professionals have purchased these plates at an ever escalating price and cannot easily be cast aside with nothing to show for their investment. It would, at least in my opinion, be wrong to simply devalue their investment, but my opinion rarely weighs heavy in the hearts and minds of politicians, here or there.  

I wish all the best to the city in the efforts to improve the industry, which is how we got here to begin with, and I offer this free advice; everyone that comments on what should happen will have their own best interest at heart which may or may not coincide with what is good for the industry or the riders.

When accountants reign.

Recently, it came to my ear that a company I once managed had turned loose several of its most senior staff. Operators who had been with the company since its inception were sent off to retirement as so much dead weight to be cast off so the ship won’t sink.

Now, I dont claim to be a management genius, but it seems to me that your’e sending a bad message when you lay off the most senior staff in a crisis. What does that say to the rest of the staff, such as more recent hires? Well, it says that if you keep your job for long enough to be making more than a new hire, the company will shoot you out the door in the blink of an eye if it makes good accounting sense.  

Accounting is a tool of management, it’s not management. Not dealing with senior staff as valuable members of the company does little to improve efficiency or company morale. To be productive employees need to do more than draw a paycheck, they have to feel valued. No wonder the ship is in peril if cost is the only consideration.

Say when

Reports out of Las Vegas are that the strike is pretty much wrapped up, except for some malcontents who seem to want to cause trouble. Takes all kinds I suppose.  

I’ve been in a couple of unions in my life and learned one unmistakable fact, I don’t want to be in a union. Yeah, yeah, I know Samuel Gompers and all that, but the facts on the ground in this day and age don’t quite add up. In my mind a union is a little like a mob, only as smart as the stupidest member, only as nonviolent as their most violent member. Frankly, there were just a lot of members I didn’t want to be associated with.  

Same story seems to be holding true in the Las Vegas strike. Reports of union drivers making threats and being a general nuisance doesn’t help their cause. If the public comes out against you in the battle then you’ve lost, which is what appears to be happening in Las Vegas.

According to reports, the bulk of drivers have already returned to work under the new rules. Can’t actually call it a contract, so how is it that the agreement hasn’t been signed? Could be the union is unable to get organized enough to know what it is they want. If more than half the members have already voted with their feet it seems to me that the party is over. It’s just that some folks don’t know when to say when.

Who let them in?

Uh oh, somebody ratted out the Boston taxicab industry to the Boston Globe! Their series on the ugly side of the taxicab business was pretty much an indictment of the medallion system and the costs associated with feeding the medallion owners.  

Wow, didn’t I just read this somewhere? Unlike Toronto, the Boston Globe has a solution, let the city rent them out by the year to whoever wants one. The existing medallion holders could keep theirs so they wouldn’t be losing anything. Well, except the artificial value the medallion has acquired. Boston, like Toronto, has the same issue with the city’s participation in the medallion sale scheme so they have the same dilemma. It will be interesting to see how it goes in both cities.

Get the message already.

New York City had a plan. A sophisticated plan to reestablish the iconic taxi of yesteryear with a bold new Taxi of Tomorrow. Much to my, and the handicapped community’s surprise, the Taxi of Tomorrow wasn’t wheelchair accessible. Oops. Not only that, but it wasn’t a hybrid. Well, that brought on the usual spate of lawsuits that poorly planned decisions usually bring when the government is involved and a newer version of the Taxi of Tomorrow has been unveiled that is accessible.  

The city, of course, laid out some self serving guidelines for hybrid taxicabs that also drew a lawsuit. How much ramming down one industry’s throat does it take for the industry to just see what’s good for them? Or is it that the city’s dictator, er Mayor Michael the Fantabulous, just can’t back away from any of his brilliant decisions? Take a hint Mike, your Taxi of Tomorrow has become the turkey of today. It never ceases to amaze me how arrogant politicians can be, even when their brilliant dictates are fiercely opposed.

How hard is it?

Well, it’s probably impossible. The taxicab inspectors in Las Vegas just can’t seem to stop drivers long hauling, not taking the most direct route. The problem is so bad that the assembly has now passed a law that allows the taxicab authority to set flat rates from the airport to the strip.

What about downtown? Now, I admit that I haven’t been to Las Vegas since the president said we should stop going, but every time I’ve gone and stayed downtown the driver always told me in advance what it would cost if we took the freeway and what it would cost via the strip. Okay, the street beside the strip was faster than the strip, but the idea was the same.

Wouldn’t it just have been a little easier to pull the license of drivers who got caught long hauling than to change the entire fare structure? Do we think that unscrupulous drivers aren’t going to figure out ways to swindle people using the flat rate zone system? What is it that is so attractive about leaving crooked drivers on the street that makes taxicab inspectors want to change the world to accommodate crooked drivers instead of eradicating them?  

When I drove it always disgusted me to hear the stories of drivers cheating passengers, even though Ive heard drivers bragging about it. I’m sure this is the better mousetrap.

If you have any comments regarding this or any of my articles please feel free to contact me at dmc@mcacres.com. —dmc

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