Judge could shut down Uber, Lyft in Tampa
Here we go again. Another local government bureaucracy is doing its dead-level best to squeeze Uber and Lyft out of the marketplace. This time it’s for your “safety.”
From WTSP:
Drivers for Uber could be arrested if the company loses in a Tampa courtroom and the company, which lets you use a smartphone app to hire a driver, may have to shut down in Hillsborough County.
Friday, a faceoff between Uber and traditional taxis was about your safety and the future of how we get around in Tampa Bay. But, it could take weeks until a decision is made.
Millions of people around the country are using ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft, but that could end in Hillsborough, depending on what Judge Paul Huey decides.
…Customers who like Uber often say it’s cheaper and more convenient than a traditional taxi. But Uber is not as safe as a traditional taxi, the agency that regulates taxis in Hillsborough says, and that’s why they’re hauling Uber into court.
That agency, the Public Transportation Commission, is suing Uber. The PTC wants a judge to order Uber to meet tougher safety standards – the ones taxis have to follow:
- More thorough background checks for drivers
- Mechanical inspections on their vehicles
- More broad commercial insurance in case there’s a crash
In court, the judge could rule that Uber is not a taxi service – that it’s actually a different, new kind of business – so it cannot be regulated by the county’s taxi agency.
Did you catch that? It’s technically not even the taxi companies that are suing. It’s the government agency responsible for regulating taxis. But I digress….
Is anyone actually naive enough to think that this lawsuit is about safety? If so, I have some land to sell you.
Here’s what it boils down to. Taxi companies and the government bureaucrats responsible for regulating them really don’t like Uber and Lyft. And why should they? No doubt Taxi revenue is way down since rideshare popularity exploded. But that’s not a good enough reason to bring a lawsuit. Just as Burger King can’t sue McDonald’s because they have yummy fries, a taxi company can’t sue Uber because it’s better.
So they have to contrive an ostensible reason for a lawsuit. In this case, they’ve chosen the ever-nebulous, old catch-all, “public safety.” The great thing about that particular term is that it can really mean anything the government wants it to mean and since everyone wants to be (or at least feel) “safe”, public safety laws are generally rather popular. After all, other than councilman Jamm, who’s really against public safety?
But it’s all a distracting strawman. Not only does everyone want the public to be safe, but as I stated earlier, it’s not even the reason for the lawsuit.
Look, I get it. The Taxi companies don’t want to go out of business. That’s fine. Who does? But propping up failing industries by regulating competing companies out of business is not the right way to do it. It’s not only unethical, but it stifles innovation.
And besides all of this, the real reason it would be a travesty to criminalize ridesharing is that it would be yet another massive blow to liberty. When I open up the Uber or Lyft app and book a ride, I am making a personal and private contract with someone else. The terms of this private contract, made by two, consenting individuals, is none of the government’s freaking business.
Exit thought: I truly hope that this will be a great object lesson for millennials on how government overreach stifles creativity and innovation and makes our lives worse as a result.
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