Saturday, September 13, 2014

Atlanta taxi cab drivers have filed a lawsuit against Uber

Atlanta drivers are suing Uber because they are false advertising.  First of all most of their cars are unmarked you do not know it is a taxi for one thing.  The San Francisco national based company has cabs in every major market in the United States this includes Alaska.  Uber operates in Anchorage, Mat-Su Borough and Eagle River.  They claim they are a ride sharing service when the truth they are a taxi service they should have to apply for a municipal taxi cab permit.  They also have a sliding fee scale for cab fares.  If the traffic is higher and more demand they charge more for the fare.  The taxi cab fare could be from Anchorage Airport to Muldoon could be up to $90.  Most taxi cab in this nation charge a rate and it is displayed on vehicle not Uber cab in fact they not even marked.  Here in the cab industry we call these gypsy cabs.  Anchorage though they had trouble with Alaska E-cab that is nothing compare to this free willy no respect for local laws they serve.  You can say these Uber cars are like cockroaches they multiply.  Please Uber when you enter a market respect the local laws or get sued.  I hope the Atlanta cab drivers win in Fulton County Superior Court.

All municipalties should require their cab drivers to have good hygiene

Every municipality in the world cab drivers should be required to take a shower.  If they do not take a shower the local taxi enforcement officer or transportation inspector or their staff can require them to take a shower or have good hygiene before they take another fare.  I can tell you when I was a dispatcher between 2004-2011 at Alaska Yellow Cab I would get hygiene complaints all the time.  I would have to tell the cab driver to take a shower before taking the fare.  Dispatch companies if they get more than two complaints should have the authorities to not give any more dispatches until the cab driver comes to dispatch and they smell clean.  Clean cab drivers give you more tips and Dirty ones get complaints usually make less than a clean one.