Taxi!

The stale cabbage at a local grocery has more layers than the utterance of that very word; and is equally susceptible to rot.

Add Uber to the lexicon – made legal in Toronto by a city council vote Tuesday -- and the nose burns from the stench of an industry doomed to perpetual funk by our political class.

One is forced to stifle the snicker when listening to the new frontiersmen and women who embrace the app-addled world that continues to destroy jobs and lives. Indeed, today it’s you who bite the dust; tomorrow, it’s me.

As the cabbie who called in to Matt Galloway of CBC Metro Morning Wednesday, said, Uber X has ruined his life and years of investment in the taxi industry. He is quickly followed by a second caller who says, “Life is unfair; life is tough. You have to adjust.” Then, a third caller, a casual 10-hours-a-week Uber driver, said, you “can’t make a living from Uber” and the new rules will only make it tougher.

So, who wins here? Everybody. Nobody. How modern.

Is Toronto’s taxi industry toast?

Not destroyed, but certainly diminished – to the point of despair for many who gave so much and received so little in return from the feudal system fostered and encouraged and enhanced and presided over by the city. It will survive. The core always lives on to re-invent itself. But even the most naive cabbie now knows for sure that city politicians are among their vilest enemies.

How do you look a father in the face, slap him with huge fees for a license, force him to go to taxi school, take CPR, have multiple inspections, drive a new car, pay big money for a cab license because you refuse to issue them in order to maintain an artificially high selling price? How do you maintain such a regime for years – only to change your mind and remove the requirements when a new, younger, hot shot driver shows up with a smartphone and ride-sharing app and demanding to be let in – rules and regulations be damned?

I know. Tough. The world is changing every day. Progress. Adapt or die. Besides, who feels for cabbies when, one night, a cabbie turned down my fare because I wasn’t going far enough to make it worth his while. Or got lost. Or had a dirty cab. Or was on the phone for the entire ride. Or smelled bad. Or can’t even speak English.

They are not a lovable lot; these cabbies.

Yet, they are people, too. The drivers bought into a system set up by the government on our behalf and the government has suddenly changed the rules to allow a new shiny toy.

And, so, cabbies must and will take legal action. And, using our money, digging into the deepest pockets, the city will defend its tenuous and immoral position for an interminably long time. And if the city loses, and has to pay out damages, maybe long after some of the victims forgot the fight, it will be we, taxpayers, who will lose.

Across the globe, in industry after industry, old business models crumble. But this, too, is certain. Uber will be Ubered some day – maybe sooner than we think.

Uber X apparently has thousands of drivers in Toronto. Other similar companies will enter the market – all chasing the same dollar. The city is to release hundreds more cab licenses in a free-for-all. Theoretically, consumers should benefit from the competition. Prices should drop. Wait times should evaporate into instant response. What’s there not to like.

But already the seeds of demise and discontent have been planted. City council did not want to tell Uber that it cannot impose surge pricing – the scandalous practice of charging passengers whatever the company chooses in an emergency or period of high demand. Critics shamed the politicians into “levelling the playing field.” Instead of doing the right thing – ban surge pricing and protect the consumer -- council has now allowed the taxis to impose surge pricing as well.

So, the market forces will reign.

Taxis are allowed to impose surge pricing, but only on fares booked on an app? How long before cabbies ignore regular street hails and phone requests – during high demand periods – so they can cash in on higher fares during surge periods.

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Despite city council’s much-anticipated vote on the future of ground transportation in Toronto, the new landscape is much like the old. There are many changes leading to many questions, concerns, angst and always, increased risk to consumers.

We rush headlong into oblivion, because, seemingly, we must.

Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca

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