AFP, New York :
Should Uber be forced to pay drivers better? After years of untamed growth, app-based for-hire services have brought New York’s iconic yellow cabs to their knees and the city is mulling regulatory action.
It’s a rare New Yorker whose smart phone is not hooked up to market leader Uber or several of its biggest competitors – Lyft, Juno and Via. The city of 8.5 million is the biggest app-ride market in the United States.
The nightmare of getting behind the wheel in traffic-clogged streets, the astronomical cost of parking and poor public transport in outlying neighborhoods has seen demand for these services skyrocket since they were first introduced to America’s most populous city in 2012.
Today around 80,000 drivers work for at least one of the big four app-based companies, compared to 13,500 yellow cab drivers in New York, according to a new study commissioned by the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC).
If New Yorkers for years ignored criticisms that met the arrival of Uber in London and Paris, and then today they are more aware.
For all the US financial capital’s embodiment of unfettered wealth creation, it is also more heavily regulated than many US cities.
In 2017, a report by expert Bruce Schaller highlighted worsening congestion, the deteriorating efficiency of public transport and pollution concerns in a city that wants to spearhead efforts to counter climate change.
Since December, six yellow cab drivers have committed suicide in deaths interpreted as acts of desperation in the face of plummeting income.
“Everybody now is in trouble. Not only me and the yellow cab drivers, also Uber,” sighs Malik Awan, 60, a driver originally from Pakistan who switched from yellow cabs to Uber, only to switch back again.
“It’s the same piece of bread. But before it was hundreds of people eating from it. Now it is 10,000 people eating the same piece.”
The TLC, the agency responsible for regulating taxis, commissioned two economists to carry out the latest study in a bid to underscore the chaos and push city authorities into taking action.
Should Uber be forced to pay drivers better? After years of untamed growth, app-based for-hire services have brought New York’s iconic yellow cabs to their knees and the city is mulling regulatory action.
It’s a rare New Yorker whose smart phone is not hooked up to market leader Uber or several of its biggest competitors – Lyft, Juno and Via. The city of 8.5 million is the biggest app-ride market in the United States.
The nightmare of getting behind the wheel in traffic-clogged streets, the astronomical cost of parking and poor public transport in outlying neighborhoods has seen demand for these services skyrocket since they were first introduced to America’s most populous city in 2012.
Today around 80,000 drivers work for at least one of the big four app-based companies, compared to 13,500 yellow cab drivers in New York, according to a new study commissioned by the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC).
If New Yorkers for years ignored criticisms that met the arrival of Uber in London and Paris, and then today they are more aware.
For all the US financial capital’s embodiment of unfettered wealth creation, it is also more heavily regulated than many US cities.
In 2017, a report by expert Bruce Schaller highlighted worsening congestion, the deteriorating efficiency of public transport and pollution concerns in a city that wants to spearhead efforts to counter climate change.
Since December, six yellow cab drivers have committed suicide in deaths interpreted as acts of desperation in the face of plummeting income.
“Everybody now is in trouble. Not only me and the yellow cab drivers, also Uber,” sighs Malik Awan, 60, a driver originally from Pakistan who switched from yellow cabs to Uber, only to switch back again.
“It’s the same piece of bread. But before it was hundreds of people eating from it. Now it is 10,000 people eating the same piece.”
The TLC, the agency responsible for regulating taxis, commissioned two economists to carry out the latest study in a bid to underscore the chaos and push city authorities into taking action.
