It was in mid-July when the Seattle mayor signed the bill altering the local taxi regulatory landscape forever. Much was spoken at the time of the cooperative nature of the negotiations helping shape the final version. While I for one understood the new bill replacing the council's version was a complete disaster for us, there were others who said it was the best we could expect considering the political climate. Well, at least upon an initial assessment it appears we got nothing at all in return, blotto! zilch! zero! unless you think getting the privilege of wearing your pajamas to work is a fair trade in return for allowing unlimited and unfettered competition into your previously protected operational sphere while remaining capped and stifled and completely beholden to people who hate and disrespect you.
Last night it took calling 911 to convince the Uber driver sitting on the Deca Hotel taxi stand that he had to leave. I told him I would call Craig Leisy and he said go ahead, call Leisy because he knows as well as I do that the City of Seattle is not serous about enforcing anything concerning the taxis. It couldn't be clearer. Where is even one of the promised ten taxi stands even though there have been four, count them, four home University of Washington Husky football home game in a row, with no effort made to accommodate the long-suffering taxis attempting to serve up to 73,000 thousand fans? All we have in the taxi industry are broken and diverted promises leading to nothing whatsoever. None of this will ever be acceptable.
Yes, the mayor's deal is laughable and we undoubtedly have gotten shafted. And what about the verifiable rumor that up to fifty taxis operated for over two weeks from mid-November to just 3 days ago minus real insurance though Seattle regulators had been notified of the situation from the very beginning? What is going on here? Hell! it is obvious what is happening. Tomorrow I am going back up into the Cascades and then into the Eastern Washington high desert country. Good time to stare at the full moon and consider sanity minus deranged taxi! Com' on black bear, com' on friend coyote, shake my hand, I''ll take your paw!
Joe, do you not think it is time to go beyond what is happening with the city and start looking inward.
ReplyDeleteFor example, why speak of enforcement if there has been none for more than three years? It is what it is and I would think that, by now, it is a given that there will be no enforcement, that is, until the city is embroiled in more and more lawsuits where they are held responsible for their lack of enforcement. Until then, nothing will change because there is no compelling reason for them to change.
Furthermore, the issue with the TNCs is no longer a local one. It is a worldwide issue that many cities are dealing and contending with and, by this time, you should also be aware that the traditional arrangement has forever been altered by the introduction of these services and both the local regulatory apparatus and traditional companies are still playing catch up to these changes.
On the other hand, you are not making any effort to educate your readers in terms of the comings and goings within your own company.
For example, you have failed to mention anything about the rollout of the new system and how it is costing many of your fellow drivers a good deal of income due to how it was rolled out.
It is one thing to lose business due to changes that happened within the industry, but it is quite another when these wounds are self inflicted!
OR, are you even aware that things have become so heated that many drivers can no longer afford their lease fees, so they are already holding back both lease and dispatch payments?
OR, are you even aware of the fact that the union is planning on calling a strike on October 26th due to how the new system was rolled out and the corresponding loss of business?
It is time to go beyond the city! What's done is done and complaining about the past is not going to change the present.
There are things that are happening within your own organization that is costing your fellow drivers a great deal of income and here you are, still complaining about broken promises that were not worth the paper they were written on.
It is time to move on Joe and focus on the things you can control.