The Masked Tulip Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 I was very surprised some years ago to learn just how valuable taxi licences/badges/medallions were in NY. They were basically passed down from father to son for generations with families owning them and actually making money loaning them out. They were better than pensions. Some of the priviledged who owned these badges could hire them out or simply sit back and watch the price accumulate. But that is all changing with UBER. In NY there have been negotiations to block UBER from the centre of NY. The taxi services, in many major cities around the world, basically being run more or less as a cartel. Others might say like a mafiosa. I have been talking about this quite a bit in the past year with friends. Technology, in the shape of things such as UBER and soon to be driverless cars, will change the car industry and the associated car service industries completely. A generation from now there could be far less cars on the road - what happens to all the drivers, mechanics, car assembly line workers as software and hardware technology replaces them. I am glad, in the guise of the taxi industry, that this is happening to them. Far too many rich, smug taxi drivers in some Western cities. But huge changes ahead. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-16/medallion-bubble-burts-around-world Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
workingpoor Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Yes i will be very happy to see the "Mr Big's" rinsed out of the game. It is a cartel and i'am now seeing these types filling their fleet of cars with immigrant drivers who speak very poor english. A hackney plate costs about £25 from the local council but the going rate is about £30,000 when they change hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNACR Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Huges swathes of workers are very vulnerable though. If all businesses stopped taking cash or cheques and all payments, and purchases, were instead processed through some sort of accounting software portal you've got even more, what have been traditionally well paid, paper shufflers filling a flatpack cardboard filing box with the contents of their desk and heading for the exit. Vat invoice, and vat returns, are about ten years passed their sell by date. Someone on a computer, connected to the internet, prints out an invoice and posts it to someone else who sits and types it into a computer connected to the internet. I think by the time driverless cars get here there'll be a lot less people with jobs who'll actually need a driverless car to take them to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted February 16, 2017 Author Share Posted February 16, 2017 11 minutes ago, workingpoor said: A hackney plate costs about £25 from the local council but the going rate is about £30,000 when they change hands. Never knew that. Is that kind of thing common across the UK with taxi licences and firms? In South Wales there seems to be lots of firms who have cornered the taxi business but I have heard it said that it is, allegedly, probably best not to try and go into competition with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted February 16, 2017 Author Share Posted February 16, 2017 1 minute ago, SNACR said: I think by the time driverless cars get here there'll be a lot less people with jobs who'll actually need a driverless car to take them to work. Yes, the potential for poverty going forward is shocking. Hence why we are beginning to hear about governments talking about a universal basic wage - i.e. you get paid a salary even if you do nothing. And why we hear stories about billionaires buying up NZ and building airfields and 'retreats' on them. Friends of mine in San Francisco tell me that the poverty there now is frightening, especially when seen in contrast to the the Tech rich kids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
This time Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 About 15-20 years ago in Dublin, taxi plates were more expensive than houses (which were pretty damn expensive at the time) and you'd have to queue for over an hour to get a taxi home from the city centre on a Friday or Saturday night. When the council announced they were going to issue a load of new taxi plates the cabbies kicked up a fuss for months. Nobody had any sympathy since the new plates were clearly needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlyme2 Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Mass adoption of driverless/rental electric cars would kipper, mechanics, parts distribution, car sales, car dealerships. Paint and body shops might be ok if software crap though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChewingGrass Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Thats the biggest thing I dislike about uber, apple, google, driverless cars etc. Its that one large corporation corners the bulk of a market by using short sighted/tight/gullible/tech obsessed punters to put in place a system that eliminates the competition and can then skim cash to its heart content for little if any outlay. Same principle is going on with cashless payements etc etc etc. Think apple pay, apple cars, itunes etc etc. The 0.01% get richer from leaching from every one else and what business they have left. Its verging on legalised criminality on a global scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNACR Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 6 minutes ago, onlyme2 said: Mass adoption of driverless/rental electric cars would kipper, mechanics, parts distribution, car sales, car dealerships. Paint and body shops might be ok if software crap though! I don't really buy the idea that once driverless cars come along everyone will use, what are in effect, pool cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlyme2 Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 47 minutes ago, SNACR said: I don't really buy the idea that once driverless cars come along everyone will use, what are in effect, pool cars. Car tax and insurance will rocket, already started (new car tax). We'll be down to one personal car per family and rest hire very quickly if tech is doable and rollout can be down quickly, as no. of private cars fall govt will just charge more to try and make up the lost tax from the declining private car count. Younger generations just won't drive at all, already financially mutilated, so they won't miss it.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spunko2010 Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 I never realised people got taxis so often. I think I've only been in around 20 taxis in my entire life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpectrumFX Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 30 minutes ago, spunko2010 said: I never realised people got taxis so often. I think I've only been in around 20 taxis in my entire life. There's a lot of day time taxi journeys ferrying about oap's with mobility problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNACR Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 I fancy taxi driving. I'd put the music from Long Good Friday on full blast and tear off as soon as my fare gets in the door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StainlessSteelCat Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 This podcast is worth a listen. YMMV. I thought it was highly plausible. http://a16z.com/2017/02/08/transportation-as-service-autonomous-cars-cities/ Apparently, Uber realised early on they would have problems and have invested amounts in lawyering up as well as hiring Obama's political strategist for a senior management role. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Hovis Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 4 hours ago, spunko2010 said: I never realised people got taxis so often. I think I've only been in around 20 taxis in my entire life. Usage is entirely down to circumstance. I haven't used one for ten years but must have easily beaten your twenty when I had a client in Switzerland for a couple of years. Ten years in London was maybe twenty again, a couple of times a year. I had one prattish manager there who, when anyone suggested getting on the tube, would always boast that he hadn't been on the tube for many years and we would leave him stood in the rain trying to flag one down as we headed down in the dry station. I can only think he believed that it made him appear posh. It didn't. I also see taxis as the big use for self-driving cars as they'll be much cheaper. I wouldn't buy one but I'd happily hire one as I live in area where public transport is at vanishingly low levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 Wonder if this will take off. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38967235 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted February 17, 2017 Author Share Posted February 17, 2017 1 hour ago, winkie said: Wonder if this will take off. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38967235 Hope not as the skies will become like roads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 15 hours ago, spunko2010 said: I never realised people got taxis so often. I think I've only been in around 20 taxis in my entire life. My neighbours get loads more than I ever have. Their daughter does too. What's wrong with walking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Hovis Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 30 minutes ago, SarahBell said: My neighbours get loads more than I ever have. Their daughter does too. What's wrong with walking? That's for poor people I had a quick Google, the New York taxi licences were selling for a million dollars each a year ago and have now dropped to half a million with a lot further to go. There are going to be a lot of bankrupt NY cabbies soon. http://www.odwyerpr.com/story/public/6471/2016-03-08/uber-lyft-cut-new-york-city-cab-medallion-price-half.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
workingpoor Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 Yes Portsmouth city council deregulated the hackney plates overnight a couple of years ago, making them worth the original £25 admin charge when they were changing hands for up to £30,000. Southampton city council has not deregulated yet and there are a lot of "Mr Big" types running fleets with immigrant drivers. A recent taxi trip i took, i asked the driver where he was from "Afghanistan" he replied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.