An Unavoidable Conclusion: It No Longer Makes Financial Sense To Operate A Taxi In Seattle---Uber Winning The Transportation Conversation!

I may be slow on the uptake, walking (or driving) in a self-induced haze but reality is what it is, and all of us driving taxi in Seattle are operating at a deficit, paying much more while getting far less versus Uber and Lyft, whose corresponding financial expenditures are negligible in comparison while their rates are higher.  Simple math tells the story, all adding up to what the hell am I doing driving a cab, paying a bunch a money for the privilege of wearing myself out to the bone?   Given my current insurance rates of $500.00 per month plus my weekly $195.00 dispatch fee, it all rounds out to the reality that I don't make a dime for myself until surpassing $1300.00 dollars.  Breaking that down to $30.00 per hour translates into about 43 hours of my time, which again roughly translates into nearly four 12-hour long days working "for the man" and not myself.  

Conversely, Uber and Lyft drivers pay almost nothing other than their personal car insurance costs, everything inclusively covered while carrying passengers minus their gasoline and car maintenance.  Yes, Uber and Lyft takes a portion of each ride but your personal outlay before that point is basically nothing, and nothing, my friends, is a good price versus whatever price the cabbie is paying.  And my initial outlay is less than what other cabbies pay.  A taxi buddy was paying $1,100 per month for insurance, meaning he had to earn $1900.00 dollars before seeing any money for himself, all this sobering when again positoned against Uber and Lyft expenditures. 

The question again then must be asked, what are we doing?   Are we fools?  The answer is fairly obvious. And another obvious reality is that the local taxi industry here in Seattle and King County was betrayed in 2014 by Seattle's then mayor working in conjunction with the Seattle City Council, and they in turn with the King County Executive and his King County Council.  The results, the verdict was victory for TNC and defeat for the cabs.

Uber and Lyft won then back in 2014 and continues to keep winning while we driving taxi have been shafted up the yin-yang.   As I said, reality is what it is and to refute reality is more than foolish, it's stupid.  Welcome to TAXI REALITY, Thanksgiving Day, 2022.  What are we?  We are a bunch of TAXI TURKEYS!  Gobble, gobble!  

Will President Biden grant us a Holiday pardon?  No, off with our heads!  We are dead!