California: Enjoy the Comic Circumstances

California local governments have been able to harvest significant sums from the taxi industry; permit fees have to be purchased in each city and can total $3,000 to $13,000 depending on where a cab operates.

(Chart from Rideguru)

Ride-sharing companies have severely damaged this revenue source in recent years. It had been hoped that a new California law going into effect would increase the taxes on Uber and Lyft and help taxis compete. As is too often the case, the law has unintended consequences: [bold added]

California’s new gig work law, which takes effect in January, sought to prod Uber and Lyft to turn their drivers from independent contractors into employees.

It could hit the taxi industry instead.

Taxi drivers are generally contractors. While many say they might benefit financially by making minimum wage and overtime plus benefits, they also fear their industry is so financially precarious that the additional expenses could make it collapse.

“If we weren’t struggling to stay afloat, I would probably support AB5 for taxi drivers,” Marcelo Fonseca, a longtime San Francisco driver, said of the gig-work law. But “in this current market, AB5 will probably bankrupt the taxi industry.”

Uber and Lyft plan to fight the gig-workers-are-employees law in the courts and through ballot propositions, bypassing the legislature:

Uber and Lyft don’t intend to reclassify their drivers, despite the law. They are pursuing a 2020 ballot initiative to allow independent contractor drivers to receive some benefits and minimum earnings guarantees. Uber says it will battle reclassification in court.

“The supreme irony is that these companies with their billion of dollars in venture capital can fight this off, and probably prolong that fight for a very long time, whereas the taxi industry may be subject to this on very short notice,” Gruberg said.

“If the taxi industry has to absorb employee status while Uber and Lyft get a pass because they go to the voters or drag it out in the courts for years, this could be our death knell.”

In the one-party State of California your humble blogger has grown accustomed to laws being passed and then watching the scramble to undo the unintended consequences.

We can't do anything about it, so we've learned not only to accept but enjoy the comic circumstances.

NEMT in Need of Disruption

Dad with his walker at Ala Moana (2012)

I haven't used Lyft or Uber yet, but their NEMT (Non-emergency Medical Transportation) service looks promising: [bold added]

An estimated 3.6 million Americans a year miss medical appointments due to unreliable transportation, costing the U.S. health-care system roughly $150 billion annually, according to Uber, citing independent studies. The U.S. Government Accountability Office pegged spending on NEMT under Medicare and Medicaid at nearly $3 billion in 2013. As the start of this year, supplemental benefits to Medicare Advantage were broadened to include a range of medical transportation that supports overall wellness and health—even rides to some massage appointments.

When we were unavailable to take Mom or Dad to their appointments, we tried hiring companies who specialized in NEMT for the elderly. The results were disappointing; my parents always felt rushed, and drivers didn't seem to be interested in alleviating discomfort. Plus it's costly, because the companies require us to pay for the vehicles to wait around during the appointment.

We family members know how to collapse and set up their wheelchairs and walkers, as well as assist the patients into various sedans. There's no substitute for family drivers' TLC, but hopefully Uber and Lyft can disrupt the NEMT status quo and give us better quality at a reasonable price.

Ready or Not, Here (Will Be How) We Go

(Illustration from Stanford Alumni Magazine)

Much like the automobile was in 1900, self-driving cars in 2018 are a curiosity. However, those who are involved in the research (major car companies, universities, and tech giants, not to mention Uber and Lyft) say that we are on the verge of a dramatic societal transformation:

Babies born today won’t ever need a driver’s license....

• Only 20 percent of Americans will own a car in 15 years.
• Passenger vehicles on American roads will drop from 247 million in 2020 to 44 million in 2030.
• Driverless technology will transform many, if not most, modes of transportation: trucks, tractors, ships, forklifts, trains, construction equipment.
• Transportation costs will drop to about 20 cents a mile, at which point everyone will have affordable access to road travel. (That’s about a threefold decline, according to a 2017 AAA report.)

Disruption may be too mild a descriptor for what is happening to our means of transportation. How we get from here to there is not merely a convenience, but rather has the potential to affect poverty levels, social standing, our daily human interactions, cultural norms and even life span, according to Stanford scientists and researchers.

On the one hand, self-driving cars could democratize transportation, making independent travel possible for many who lack it, including people who are blind, disabled, young, old or poor. Prognosticators also expect reductions in pollution, traffic, collisions and the cost of getting around, and an increase in green space as the demand for parking lots declines.

But skeptics worry that the adoption of driverless cars will eliminate too many jobs and give hackers a new way to attack, even possibly turning cars into lethal weapons. As the debate unfolds, autonomous vehicles are hitting the road in droves. Ready or not, say experts, here they come.

Autonomous vehicles, robots who are smarter, faster, and stronger than we, Mars colonies, and the elimination of disease and the ravages of age---we are rushing pell-mell into a future that is barely imaginable.

In the Name of Safety and Fairness, Of Course

Uber's self-driving cars (CNBC photo) still
have a driver for safety purposes

Despite Uber's widely publicized missteps the ride-sharing company's valuation still is estimated to be well north of $50 billion.

IMHO, bad, even criminal, behavior by employees or drivers isn't the biggest impediment to Uber's potential. Uber and rival Lyft have more to worry about from city governments intent on regulating---and, of course, taxing---the upstart transportation companies. [bold added]

City Attorney Dennis Herrera on Monday subpoenaed Uber and Lyft to disgorge records on four years of driving practices, disability access and service in San Francisco. The companies have steadfastly declined to share data other than that they have about 45,000 drivers in the Bay Area.

“No one disputes the convenience of the ride-hailing industry, but that convenience evaporates when you’re stuck in traffic behind a double-parked Uber or Lyft, or when you can’t get a ride because the vehicle isn’t accessible to someone with a disability or because the algorithm disfavors the neighborhood where you live,” Herrera said in a statement.

The subpoenas seek information on “miles and hours logged by drivers, incentives that encourage drivers to ‘commute’ from as far away as Fresno or Los Angeles, driver guidance and training, accessible vehicle information, and the services provided to residents of every San Francisco neighborhood,” Herrera’s office said.

The companies already compile that information for their regulator, the California Public Utilities Commission.

Subpoena all their records because of double-parking and accessibility? In San Francisco I don't see a lot of traffic tickets being handed out to double-parked trucks, nor do most taxis appear to be wheelchair accessible, but maybe I just need to get out more.

Uber and Lyft, if you pay big $$$ and give up the names of your 45,000 drivers so that San Francisco can register and tax everyone who drives into the City even for a couple of minutes per year, you could avoid this hassle. Nice little business you have there, Uber and Lyft, it would be a shame if something happened to it.