CABBIES NEED TIME TO MEET THE FUTURE
Chicago cabbies staged a one-day strike last week. You probably never noticed, which might be just as well for them. The cabbies’ strike, by encouraging customers to turn to the competition, could have backfired miserably.
The hard truth is that the big threat taxicab drivers were protesting— the steady encroachment of ridesharing companies such as Uber and Lyft— will not end anytime soon. And when it does, it will be because the taxicab industry has lost. Traditional cabs still will work the streets, but market forces will have handed a much bigger share of the car-ride business to the ridesharing companies.
We welcome that day. Greater competition will be good for anybody who wants to get from Point A to Point B conveniently, safely and at the lowest possible price.
But in the spirit of fair play, just how quickly should that change come? Not as quickly as it looks to be coming. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has proposed a set of new rules, fare increases and fees that, we believe, could leave highly regulated cab companies unfairly biting the dust, with too little chance to compete, while loosely regulated rideshare services zoom ahead. Taxicab drivers and companies, which have played by the rules all along, deserve a fighting chance to adapt to the new transportation order.
The biggest threat to the cab companies is a plan, as part of the mayor’s proposed 2016 budget, to allow ridesharing services to work Chicago’s two airports and McCormick Place, paying the city $5 for every drop-off and pickup.
Emanuel, during a recent meeting with the Sun-Times Editorial Board, defended that change, noting that cabs also would be given a 15 percent hike in fares, which they’ve been requesting for years. But cabdrivers— as well as three members of the mayor’s own taxi industry task force— say it could wipe them out.
“This is an absolute blow to the last remaining areas in our economic landscape where we can expect a reasonable return for our investment of lease, gas and time,” write the three task force board members. Like ankle weights on a runner, traditional cabs are slowed by special burdens. Taxi drivers must obtain a chauffeur’s license, submit to drug and criminal background checks, buy or lease expensive city medallions and pay up to $1,500 in special annual fees per vehicle. They face more stringent insurance and vehicle inspection rules.
The solution is not to fight the inevitable. Ridesharing services, with those excellent apps that can hail a safe ride for a fair price in minutes, are here to stay. The solution, rather, is to ease up on regulations for cabs, such as licensing requirements, and allow for a longer transition to full and unrestricted competition.
If rideshare services have to wait another year or so to work the airports, they won’t go under. Far from it.
They are the future, and everybody knows it.