Six-year boom pushes New York to mull Uber regulation
Six-year boom pushes New York to mull Uber regulation
By Catherine TRIOMPHE AFP • July 5, 2018
New York (AFP) - 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 in trouble' -
"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.
Increased competition from the app-dispatch companies has
slashed the value of "medallions" -- the New York yellow cab taxi
licenses. In 2014, they sold for more than $1 million. Today they are valued at
less than $200,000.
Unlike drivers in smaller towns, most in New York work
full time and not just to make extra money at the end of the month, according
to the TLC study.
Often immigrants without higher education, they get into
heavy debt to buy their vehicle license and have little other means of
generating income.
Around 85 percent earn substantially less than the
equivalent of a $15-an-hour minimum wage, according to the TLC-commissioned
study.
After more than 30 years on the job, Awan says his
monthly income has fallen from $8,000 -- based on 10-12 hour shifts seven days
a week -- to $6,500.
- Uber dismisses 'flaws' -
Hence, calls to regulate the market have multiplied. A
May editorial in The New York Times called on Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio
and elected officials to make the transportation system fairer to paid drivers,
responsive to the needs of commuters and more environmentally sustainable.
The Democrat city council is now mulling various options,
such as a cap on driver numbers, raising taxes on journeys or imposing a
minimum income for drivers.
The TLC-commissioned study recommends a guaranteed income
of $17.22 an hour for drivers -- $15 plus a supplement to mitigate against rest
time -- and claimed it can be implemented without over-penalizing Uber and its
competitors.
The salary hike could be off-set by limiting the number
of drivers, reducing the percentage they take off each ride and by making
customers wait about 15 seconds longer to reduce the number of passenger-less
cars.
But Uber is not impressed. A company spokesman dismissed
"assumptions" in the report as "over-simplified to the point of
(being) flawed," arguing that the proposals would hurt riders
"through substantially increased prices."
But the Independent Drivers Guild, a union set up in New
York in 2016, said it was "optimistic" that the city will act based
on this report.
"The hope is that it would trigger a raise for
workers across the country," says Jim Conigliaro, guild president.
The TLC calls its own report "an excellent
foundation for public policy" and says it is "happy" to work
with the city council "on legislation that helps increase driver
pay."
The city is expected to decide on the proposals at the
end of the summer.
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