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I've watched the Taxi/Uber story in Calgary with interest.

The big question is: why do cities legislate taxi companies activities at all? They don't legislate a whole whack of other businesses except for whorehouses and bars.

Why is the taxi business given such a hard time?

And the big question is who cares?

 

Don

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Taxi licenses have a lot of value and the owners of them want to see as little competition as possible because that would devalue the licenses, so they maintain the face that it's about public safety. In reality its less about safety, etc, and more about greed where they try to treat the licenses as a stock. They managed to keep the number of licenses in Calgary the same throughout the 80s, 90s, and 00s (except for the addition of handicapped taxis) until very recently when the public started screaming for them. I don't think they can sell them alone but I saw an ad on kijiji awhile back for a decrepit van that happened to come with a taxi license for $100k.

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Working at City Hall during this entire Uber episode has been challenging. Calgarians are being led to believe the entire thing is a political issue, when really it is a legal issue. The framework currently doesn't exist for Uber to legally operate in Alberta. The City has a role to adjust bylaws that would allow Uber to operate, and the Province will need to create a new insurance framework for Uber. Disagreeing with a law doesn't make it acceptable to ignore it. Imagine if other new market entrants behaved the same way Uber has?

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The big question is: why do cities legislate taxi companies activities at all? They don't legislate a whole whack of other businesses except for whorehouses and bars.

You need a business license to operate - can't just rent space at the mall and start selling stuff. Depending on the business you may also require certain insurance, for example I'm pretty sure gyms and recreation facilities need to carry a certain amount of liability insurance.

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Too bad that doesn't hold true for fishing guides in this province!!

 

 

You need a business license to operate - can't just rent space at the mall and start selling stuff. Depending on the business you may also require certain insurance, for example I'm pretty sure gyms and recreation facilities need to carry a certain amount of liability insurance.

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