Posted it in an other thread [0] but do we really want to go back to the medallion system? Pre-Uber, either the driver rented the car to a middleman who rented the medallion from a rich owner, or said owner was selling and financing (most banks won't touch these medallions!) a medallion at a ridiculous interest rate to a driver that planned to use it as his retirement savings (an extremely volatile asset and not very liquid).
The more I spoke to cab drivers the more it seemed their industry was a pyramid scheme aimed at helping established rent-seeker take advantage of often poor new immigrants. Uber brought a breeze of fresh air: Someone could simply buy a car, calculate the depreciation and it's value on the market (since unlike medallions cars are relatively liquid assets!) do rideshare and calculate their profits or loss. They can get out of the game at anytime, and they know exactly how much they are going to get for the car they have should they sell it.
Also, the argument on Uber/Lyft drivers not being contractors since they can't set their own rates and decide which ride they take strikes me as weird since medallion drivers were contractors, had to charge the price set by the city and could only pick-up customers in the (arbitrary) zones covered by their medallions.
And I'm not even touching the usual pain points and often discriminatory practices of medallion drivers (refusing card payments, refusing rides to non-white passengers and to non-white neighborhoods...).
No doubt, many taxi drivers have been getting screwed over by the current and pre-ride-sharing state of the industry.
I'm a big believer in incentives and how they influence behavior.
For better or worse, ride sharing systems have put drivers in a situation where they have to provide amazing customer service, and due to supply pressures, the price has been falling to levels that make it difficult to make a living.
Before ride-sharing came along, cities had set the rates to protect customers from being gouged. I think they can safely remove the ceiling now. They may have to set a minimum per-mile rate to protect drivers now (if they aren't doing already doing so).
> the price has been falling to levels that make it difficult to make a living
I'm really curious to know how much drivers are making. I recall when Uber arrived, a lot of guy driving taxis (not medallion owners but renters) were really happy to switch over.
AB5 has this paternalist (and somewhat racist) undertone that drivers are too stupid to know how much it costs them to operate their business.
The more I spoke to cab drivers the more it seemed their industry was a pyramid scheme aimed at helping established rent-seeker take advantage of often poor new immigrants. Uber brought a breeze of fresh air: Someone could simply buy a car, calculate the depreciation and it's value on the market (since unlike medallions cars are relatively liquid assets!) do rideshare and calculate their profits or loss. They can get out of the game at anytime, and they know exactly how much they are going to get for the car they have should they sell it.
Also, the argument on Uber/Lyft drivers not being contractors since they can't set their own rates and decide which ride they take strikes me as weird since medallion drivers were contractors, had to charge the price set by the city and could only pick-up customers in the (arbitrary) zones covered by their medallions.
And I'm not even touching the usual pain points and often discriminatory practices of medallion drivers (refusing card payments, refusing rides to non-white passengers and to non-white neighborhoods...).
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24225648