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The Vancouver Sun reports that a Kamloops BC Yellow Cab company is threatening to outsource their dispatch operation to Pakistan. They blame the ruling Liberal government who, in a flurry of pre-election giveaways, decided to let Uber open shop in the province.
In a telephone interview with KTW from Pakistan, from where he emigrated decades ago, [Abdul] Rasheed placed blame at the foot of Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone, the province's transportation minister for the past four years.
The B.C. Liberals have pledged to bring in legislation and measures so ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft can operate legally before Christmas.
"Looking at that, I knew a small company like us can't survive a multi-billion company," Rasheed said, noting he is forced to look at his costs. "We're looking at all infrastructure," he said. "Overhead is high."
The Liberals have promised measures to help taxi companies compete with ride-sharing firms, including putting in $1 million to develop a competing smartphone app and attempting to level the playing field for insurance and driver qualification.
Some night dispatch for Kamloops Yellow Cabs is now being done out of Pakistan, what Rasheed, who is in the South Asian country working on the program, called it an experiment to determine if it is practical.
There are about four dispatchers who work for Yellow Cabs.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday May 01 2017, @03:15PM
The actual government price is generally quite low, but basically they are "scalped".
You'll find the "correct" people are doing the scalping. Those who made the right donations of freely given gifts expecting nothing in return of course.
Thats really the sore spot about Uber and the like. We got a system here that gets the right people money and power, and heres some damn app from the other side of the country messing up our thing.