Uber in Des Moines

[Tri4Cy]

Requiring drivers that may go out a couple hours a week to have an expensive license and 750k insurance.... Big hurdles kill the idea of crowd sourcing. Hurdles are only worthwhile if you commit full time. Same thing could kill volunteer efforts. The dsm office recently tried to impose these rules on volunteer drivers for medical transport etc... Same deal would kill the effort if you imposed these regulations on people who give a ride. Ride sharing only works if it is easy to participate ( same with volunteer transport). Your defense of Dsm here is over the top.

To your point, what if the city required every volunteer at the food bank to be licensed to distribute food? I personally feel like Uber should be regulated as a company, like any other company. They are then responsible for managing the people allowed to brand under their name/use their services. If people hate you as a driver, or Uber were to develop the same reputations/stereotypes as many cab services...they are out of business.

Didn't DSM have an issue with cab's and the airport a few years back too? I think some outside cab companies were legally blocked from servicing the DSM airport and only the major cab's were allowed to do so.

FREE MARKET *******!!!

 

[Clonefan94]

Just a little bit of support for Des Moines here, for the sake that everyone keeps saying Des Moines is so far behind the times by instituting regulations on Uber. Chicago and surrounding burbs are starting to implement similar regulations as well. I'm sure 99% of it is driven by the cab companies, but can you really blame them? It costs cabs a lot of money just to even be in business as a cab company, why shouldn't Uber be under those same restrictions? they are doing the same exact thing.

I'm really not here to argue about how much regulation there should be or what side of the ride service wall I'm on, just that it's not only Des Moines that's doing this. It's hurting cab companies bad, they are the driving force and it's therefore costing cities money as well. So, Des Moines won't be the only ones doing this stuff.

 

[alarson]

It costs cabs a lot of money just to even be in business as a cab company, why shouldn't Uber be under those same restrictions? they are doing the same exact thing.\

A lot of the reasons it costs so much are regulations supported by the cab companies. They cost the cab companies more, but they also act as barriers to entry to competitors, so they preserve their business by keeping out competition. Its the same reason many large companies are also often fine with more regulation as they can afford to hire people to handle it where smaller business cant cope. I have zero sympathy for the cab companies when they have benefitted from these competition-stifling regulations for decades.

 

[DSMCy]

It's hurting cab companies bad, they are the driving force and it's therefore costing cities money as well.

Uber is hurting the cab companies because cabs offer an inferior product. Up until now, we haven't had an alternative.

 

[Clonefan94]

Requiring drivers that may go out a couple hours a week to have an expensive license and 750k insurance.... Big hurdles kill the idea of crowd sourcing. Hurdles are only worthwhile if you commit full time. Same thing could kill volunteer efforts. The dsm office recently tried to impose these rules on volunteer drivers for medical transport etc... Same deal would kill the effort if you imposed these regulations on people who give a ride. Ride sharing only works if it is easy to participate ( same with volunteer transport). Your defense of Dsm here is over the top.

Comparing a volunteer and an Uber driver is pretty ridiculous, imo. Buying a lincense, paying to be certified, to help people for free, is definitely not a good idea. I don't necessarily see the problem having to get a license and pay to be certified if you are getting paid to so call, "Share a ride"

Uber is a cab company that found a way to skirt the law. Now, weather those laws should be less restrictive really isn't my issue, my issue is that you call a spade a spade. Uber is a cab company, at the very least, they are a chauffeur service and should be subject to the same rules and regulations of every other business that provides those services. Maybe their should be less regulation over that industry over all, but Uber, none the less, is part of that industry.

 

[benjay]

Uber is hurting the cab companies because cabs offer an inferior product. Up until now, we haven't had an alternative.

Is this your way of admitting that Uber is a taxi service and really not any different than Yellow Cab?

 

[Clonefan94]

Uber is hurting the cab companies because cabs offer an inferior product. Up until now, we haven't had an alternative.

Right, but they are also charged through the teeth to be a cab company. I'm not saying I agree with it, only that if you've followed the rules as a cab company, you spend the money on licensing, regulations, insurance because the city requires you to, then it's only fair that everyone else trying to get into that business do the same.

I love brewing, have often been asked by my friends to start a brewery, or at the very least, sell my homebrew. I know what it costs to start your own brewery, it amazes me that people even try. But just because there are so many hoops to jump through, so much red tape to clear and so much licensing and regulation I have to pass, does that make it OK for me to just go ahead and start selling beer without going through those hoops?

As I said, I don't agree with all the regulations, I just don't think that it makes it OK for someone to not have to go through it all, just because they found a loophole by calling it something other than a cab. Everyone keeps chiming in on "Free Market" here, I guess that's what it needs to be, but it should be free for the cab companies too. If they didn't have all the overhead, maybe they wouldn't have an inferior product.

If you want to get into an industry, but don't like the laws, either change the laws or don't go into that industry. Don't expect the world to make an exception for you, just because you think you are better.

 

[DSMCy]

Is this your way of admitting that Uber is a taxi service and really not any different than Yellow Cab?

When I want to go home after a night downtown, I have two options:

Stand in the cold while off duty cops puff out their chests, yell at everyone, get in a smelly car, feel a little scared as the driver swerves all over the place, argue with said driver at my stop because he/she doesn't want to accept a credit card, or in 2014 they can't take a card, then pay to go to an ATM to get cash

OR

Open my phone, wait 2-3 minutes, get picked up in someone's personal car that they take care of, see a picture of the driver and type of car before they pick me up, get dropped off of my house, walk away.


If those two things are "really not any different" then I guess you're right.

 

[benjay]

I guess you're right.

score!

 

[bawbie]

Uber is hurting the cab companies because cabs offer an inferior product. Up until now, we haven't had an alternative.

Then level the playing field, and have Uber and the Cab companies play by the same rules. I still haven't heard one good reason why Uber needs a special set of rules.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Then level the playing field, and have Uber and the Cab companies play by the same rules. I still haven't heard one good reason why Uber needs a special set of rules.

Cab companies would play by the Uber rules if they hadn't have spent probably billions of dollars in lobbying and unionizing to get those regulations and their cartel in place. The cabs don't want to play by Uber's rules, Uber doesn't want to play by the cabs rules.

So let's settle this like Americans and may the strongest survive.

 

[Cycsk]

My google search found that a taxi medallion currently costs $300,000 in Chicago. I knew it was a cartel, but this is insane. Must be huge money in the taxi business there.

http://chicagodispatcher.com/clients/chicagodispatcher/NovemberMedallionPrices.pdf

Can't find info for Des Moines. What does a taxi medallion cost in Des Moines?

 

[roundball]

Because government created the internet? The internet is innovative and awesome because of the lack of government intervention (for now).

Do we or do we not have things called Telecommunications Acts and Federal Communication Commissions?

I take it you also have a negative view of Net Neutrality since it's *gasp* a regulation/intervention?

 

[erikbj]

I just got an email that Uber is now in CR!!!!!!

 

[roundball]

I disagree with this too, farms should be regulated for runoff, companies for pollution, manufacturers for product safety but this does does not protect safety not serves any great public service. Uber is safe. It is efficient. It has safeguards to protect consumers through the market in a transparent way so get the eff out of this business. Regulation itself however in many cases is not at the level it should be and many other cases way over the top as in this case. Regulators need to be kept in check but like everything it isn't as black an white as you or round ball are both making it.

I absolutely agree, which is why I loathe knee-jerk reactions to anything labeled a "government intervention". Nobody can honestly believe in the maxim that regulation is bad, right? Is it really that difficult for people to see the role that regulations, rules, law, order, structure, etc. have had in advancing society? It's asinine to pretend otherwise.

But you're correct, it's not always black and white; government can and does get it wrong, and there are countless examples of it. But to throw the baby out with the bathwater and decry government as "******* up everything it touches" is pretty preposterous.

 

[CY88CE11]

So, a couple weeks ago, I picked my friend up from the airport, and he thanked me by buying me a 6 pack. How much trouble am I in for not having a chauffeur's license?

 

[Incyte]

A lot of the reasons it costs so much are regulations supported by the cab companies. They cost the cab companies more, but they also act as barriers to entry to competitors, so they preserve their business by keeping out competition. Its the same reason many large companies are also often fine with more regulation as they can afford to hire people to handle it where smaller business cant cope. I have zero sympathy for the cab companies when they have benefitted from these competition-stifling regulations for decades.

Somebody doesn't have a good response so they jut tried to change the argument. Valiant effort though.

If your basis for not regulating Uber is that cab companies pushed these regulations to stifle competition, i fart in your general direction.

Also, the requirement for a chauffeur license for taxi drivers is a state law.

 

[CarlHungus]

It's too bad the Des Moines City Council isn't in favor of a free market

 

[Incyte]

It's too bad the Des Moines City Council isn't in favor of a free market

Or favors commercial enterprise having commercial levels of insurance to protect consumers.

 

[CarlHungus]

Or favors commercial enterprise having commercial levels of insurance to protect consumers.

Yeah, I'm sure that's their reasoning behind this...