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Republican Governor Charlie Baker signed the nickel fee into law this month as part of a sweeping package of regulations for the industry.
Ride services are not enthusiastic about the fee. "I don't think we should be in the business of subsidizing potential competitors," said Kirill Evdakov, the chief executive of Fasten, a ride service that launched in Boston last year and also operates in Austin, Texas.
Some taxi owners wanted the law to go further, perhaps banning the start-up competitors unless they meet the requirements taxis do, such as regular vehicle inspection by the police.
"They've been breaking the laws that are on the books, that we've been following for many years," said Larry Meister, manager of the Boston area's Independent Taxi Operator's Association.
The law levies a 20-cent fee in all, with 5 cents for taxis, 10 cents going to cities and towns and the final 5 cents designated for a state transportation fund.
The fee may raise millions of dollars a year because Lyft and Uber alone have a combined 2.5 million rides per month in Massachusetts.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Francis on Monday August 22 2016, @10:38PM
I'm sorry, but you're full of shit here.
You don't have the freedom to pay less, as I've already outlined we have these regulations because the lack of regulation led to all sorts of unsafe situations. If you're seriously looking to save money, buy yourself the cheapest car you can find and don't bother to maintain it. I'm sure before too long you'll have the price below what you would be paying for a cab anyways. Somebody I know is selling a used stick shift car for $500. It wouldn't take that many trips for it to pay for itself.
My state isn't immune to bribery, but there's no evidence to support the belief that this is the result of bribery and not a response to what happens when you have unlicensed cabs operating. This has existed since well before the era of legalized bribery started and exists for a good reason. Just look at other countries where the unlicensed cabs run the range from perfectly safe, albeit cheap, to run by kidnappers looking to turn a buck on ransom.
BTW, what you're advocating for here is more or less analogous to theft at the least and slavery at the worst. Regulations are one of the things that stops the race to the bottom where cabbies are under enormous pressure to charge less than the cost of providing the service in order to get people to agree to use them.
I've rarely found cabs to be affordable, but they are necessary to fill in gaps that mass transit leaves and the regulations are part of what allows them to continue to operate.
Uber could have gotten the rules changed by going through the normal process, but instead opted to pretend that the law didn't apply to them and in the process abused the hell out of the drivers. I take it you didn't notice the class action suit against them that just finished up over the way they classified the employees.