SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
After a period of consideration, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has decided that Uber is a transport service, just like any other taxi company. There is lot to say about Uber's use of untrained, non-professional drivers and other abusive practices.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) Declares Uber a Transport Service
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 62 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Everything is worth precisely as much as a belch, the difference being
that a belch is more satisfying.
-- Ingmar Bergman
(Score: 4, Insightful) by janrinok on Wednesday December 20 2017, @08:00PM (6 children)
The 'huge proportion' that you talk about is only a small fraction of those using road transport facilities. All of the other facilities are regulated particularly with regards to passenger safety and fair practices for both drivers and passengers - which are also things that people here want. If there had been a vote in Europe in which the majority had voted to permit Uber or Lyft to operate outside of these regulations then you might have a point in challenging the democracy that exists in Europe. But you haven't provided any evidence - other than your claim that a 'huge proportion' want what you believe to be the case - that people in Europe want unregulated transport.
And if you just want to snipe at Europe then best you check that all is squeaky clean in your own neighbourhood first - we think that we are doing OK in comparison, but that discussion if obviously off-topic here.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday December 20 2017, @08:17PM (5 children)
A small fraction [statista.com] appears to be 42 million Europeans win 2017, and expected to go up to 62 million in 2022. That's a lot of people to screw over.
(Score: 4, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday December 20 2017, @08:25PM (3 children)
Europe total population: 743.1 million.
62/743=8.3% Nope, not enough to impose on the rest of 90+% the (lack of passenger safety) rules the rest of 8.3% are Ok with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 21 2017, @01:45AM (2 children)
That number is growing rapidly at 2-3% increase in the total population over five years. Also most people don't use taxis either. I can't get ridership numbers for taxis in Europe, but in the US, the ride sharing/hailing sector has taken more than a third [businessofapps.com] of the overall US market (including Uber at 29%, but not including its competitors which are almost a third more share) for supplying rides or vehicles (including taxis and rental cars). Taxis meanwhile are about the same, meaning that ride hailing and sharing services like Uber have about half the overall market. There's no reason to expect that Europe will turn out much differently on the road. They still have the same travel needs and the same competition issues.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday December 21 2017, @09:37AM (1 child)
At 3% / 5 year grow rate, to get to the 42mils now to 350mils required for parity, it will be something like 80+
years. I promise you I'll worry then, if I still can. Until then, not much to fuss about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday December 21 2017, @02:33PM
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday December 21 2017, @12:14AM
Im one of that 42m, and I want Uber to continue to be regulated. In the Uk it is. Vehicles are held to higher standards, drivers have to pass criminal record checks, they are limited to the number of bourse. Uber is far safer than your typical minicab firm, and it proves out - the figures show that Uber drivers are responsible for less crime per passenger than minicab drivers as a whole (I don't recall hackney carriage ones)
There are some obsolete regulations that should be removed - minivans can't pick up in other councils, taxi drivers in London have to pass these aincent tests from before the days of maps, and drivers who spend too long behind the wheel aren't penalised properly, but ultimately the system works just fine.