Last night a for-hire industry colleague (yes, we still communicate) sent me both a startling and puzzling link named "New Entrants" outlining all of the new Uber and similar services. What I found confusing is that it appeared to be some kind of promotional advertising which was going to be presented to the Seattle City Council today, created by the Uber folks. My home PC was not being cooperative so it took me a few minutes to realize that it actually was a comprehensive and formal presentation created by some of Sally Clark's legislative aides. One way of putting it is to call the graphs and charts inclusively gone amok, illustrating what I have said about Sally's tendency to examine everything to the point of exasperation. I would not be surprised if the council had a resident radiologist at today's hearing X-raying every document. Thorough yes but necessary is certainly another question. Do Sally's fellow sub-committee members really require spoon feeding? Why isn't it possible for them to do some independent research?
With all this comprehensive evidence it appears to me that the council has failed to ask one very important question. Just why is it that Uber and these other "johnny-come-lately" operations are surfacing, attempting to exploit what really is a finite market? The answer might be very simple. Profit yes but not from directly carrying passengers as none of these services appear, at least yet, to own vehicles. What they are profiting from is from the drivers' themselves, extracting money from their pockets, taking advantage of the drivers' desire to operate as someone who delivers a passenger from one point to the other. That is the Uber incentive and little else. They are not entering markets because of increased passenger demand. That is a fantasy. They have entered the taxi market because like good opportunistic business MEN, they have found a vulnerable class that they can manipulate for their personal benefit, and of course, profit.
Hey, none of that was mentioned in the glossy presentation. I wonder why but I don't. The people who created it know nothing about taxi. Oh what a surprise! Or am I just an unkind and hard hearted individual who under estimates everyone?
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