I used to have to take taxis places, and I hated it. Drivers take longer routes when I admit to being unfamiliar with the city, often don’t accept cash, overcharge, and generally provide an altogether overpriced and unpleasant experience. Then along came Uber, with reasonable prices, fast reliable service, and a fantastic platform; it’s no wonder that Uber is hurting the cab industry, it is literally better in every single way. However, as with all change there is opposition, in this case notably Chicago Alderman Ed Burke, among other Chicago officials who recently have passed “Uber Taxes”. This is unfair and unfortunate. Levying extra taxes and regulations on rideshare services like Uber goes against market principles, and prevents the superior service from outcompeting and succeeding against the cab industry, this is bad for the consumer and the economy as a whole, as well as being glaringly unfair.
This new Uber tax includes a $1 per ride fee, which doubles to $2 per ride during “surge pricing” this type of pricing can occur during inclement weather or when there is excessively high demand for rides. These new taxes would not affect the cab industry. Some other nonsensical parts of Chicago’s most recent rollout of proposed rules are as follows: Uber’s app cannot be used to hail taxis, Uber cars cannot have internal or external advertising, Uber cars cannot take both time taken and distance traveled into account when pricing a ride, and worst of all, Ubers cannot pick people up or drop them off at airports.
All of these rules are just plain stupid. They do nothing but hurt business and inconvenience/overcharge people. Ed Burke went as far as to hail the laws for bringing in a potential $70 Million per year in extra taxes, but that $70 Million is unfairly charged to people who use rideshare services. These rules are unfairly slanted in a way that is so clearly trying to attack Uber in order to preserve an outdated and underperforming cab industry that I am shocked that anybody ever thought that they were a good idea, let alone anything other than morally corrupt. For example, cabs have advertisements on them, internally, externally, on little tvs in the cab, you name it. Step into a cab and you’re bombarded with ads. Yet Uber can’t do the same thing. The same argument goes for the prohibition of pricing in way that takes into consideration distance and time, that is clearly the best way to price a personal transportation service. It is unfairly slanted. In addition these rules are a huge inconvenience to people who want to use rideshares. You cannot be dropped off at the airport from an Uber, and you cannot use their app to hail taxis. It is almost like the last two were products of a brainstorm session titled, “how to make Uber unusable”. Why on earth is that a real proposed set of laws?
There is absolutely no way that any of those rules can be perceived to benefit the people of Chicago. They are obvious jabs at Uber and Uber alone, and a prime example of politicians using their power at the expense of the general population and refusing to let the market decide what company wins. This is like if instead of allowing Burger King and McDonalds to compete and let what the people want to win win, the government randomly passed laws that prohibited Burger King from selling Whoppers, forced them to double all of their prices, and paid a government employee to sit at the entrance and poke you in the eyeball whenever you entered a Burger King.
The government should not be passing this sort of regulation to preserve a dying cab industry, it is bad for everybody. Not to mention how unfair the regulations are, it is unnecessary to take aim at Uber and roll out some of the biggest tax hikes and strictest regulations for no reason other than that the cab industry is too big to let die and too foolish to live.
Chicago Alderman With Taxi Ties Poised to Pass the Nation’s Highest Uber Tax
Austin Berg
The Seven Worst Parts of Chicago’s Proposed Uber Ordinance
Jacob Huebert
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/the-7-worst-things-in-chicagos-proposed-uber-ordinance/
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