Embracing Hope: Clarifying Direction And Options

When thinking about a title for today's blog the word horizon kept popping up, leading me to reference that famous title, Lost Horizon, of course the name of British writer James Hilton's novel published in 1933 about the mythical land of Shangri-La, an Utopian lamasery hidden somewhere in the Tibetan Himalayas.  After an early morning meeting with a lawyer, I am beginning to understand that we in the local taxi industry are entering into a new world that will dramatically change our operational DNA.  Just by legally questioning the City of Seattle and Uber and its ilk, we will be forever altering our approach toward ourselves. While traditionally fairly insular, the current crisis is forcing us to reach out, an emotional expansion heretofore never imagined by that growling crew known as the taxi industry.

In a sense, the horizon we are passing through is mostly an internal one, crossing up and over our own psychological barriers.  While our potential is immense, it has been chiefly us, only having ourselves alone to blame for stunting progress and development forward.  Many feel perhaps rightly we will stumble and fail.  I feel that assessment is an underestimation of taxi drivers and our in general collective industry.  I know we can prove our doubters wrong.  What I do know is that the answer will be known soon as our window of opportunity, as I have noted recently, is rapidly expiring and disappearing, having no choice but to stop a quickly spreading malignancy.

From This Morning's Meeting 

Three possible legal starting points:

1)  Consumer protection

2)  Takings, which translated means Uber etc illegally competing and taking profits

3) Takings, from the municipal prospective, meaning Seattle's lack of adequate enforcement allowing unfair and illegal business practices overtly affecting taxi industry profitability. 

Much more upon this subject later.