I look back with embarrassment at the time when I had any sympathy or support for Uber. It is no underdog, it is simply a cutthroat business. It is always trying to get brownie points for being a startup and innovator, when undercutting fair players and circumventing laws is the only business model it has.
The Kansas legislature just passed a law http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2015_16/measures/sb117/ that requires two simple things of any taxi operator in their state. First, when a personal vehicle is operated as a taxi, the taxi should have insurance as per commercial vehicle norms. Second, the drivers need to be verified by the KBI. Uber threw a hissy fit, as it is want to.
Uber took no responsibility for its complicity in the recent rape incident in Delhi. At that point, I was naive enough to support them - if our law enforcement system is broken, how can Uber fix it? In Delhi, it said it did get police verification, and the cops did a bad job. But in Kansas, it is saying that getting drivers verified by the Kansas Bureau for Investigation will actually put it out of business!
I have a proposal to fix some of the problems we have in India with such unscrupulous companies. If a vehicle associated with a commercial transport company is involved in a crime, the company needs to compensate the victims very very heavily. Something to the tune of crores of rupees.
Large trucking lines, bus operators, the railways and taxi companies, have so far blamed drivers for all traffic/criminal incidents, and gotten away with it. The worst that happens to them is their vehicle getting impounded for a few years. Now, they will need to pay up. The only way to handle this risk will be to purchase insurance. The premium of this insurance is going to be very high, unless they can demonstrate to the insurance company that they are taking effective measures while selecting and training employees.
Enter third party agencies, as are already employed by the likes of software companies and good security agencies. They will verify addresses, look up police records, conduct driving and psychological tests, verify degrees and licenses, take feedback from past employers, etc. The ecosystem for this is already in place, it doesn't have to be created. I often receive requests for the verification of former software employees. The most damage a software engineer has ever done is crash a spacecraft in outer space. Commercial drivers kill... I don't know, a couple of lakh people every year easily.
Does the "pro-business" government at the center have the will to legislate a "pro-consumer" legislation of this sort?
The Kansas legislature just passed a law http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2015_16/measures/sb117/ that requires two simple things of any taxi operator in their state. First, when a personal vehicle is operated as a taxi, the taxi should have insurance as per commercial vehicle norms. Second, the drivers need to be verified by the KBI. Uber threw a hissy fit, as it is want to.
Uber took no responsibility for its complicity in the recent rape incident in Delhi. At that point, I was naive enough to support them - if our law enforcement system is broken, how can Uber fix it? In Delhi, it said it did get police verification, and the cops did a bad job. But in Kansas, it is saying that getting drivers verified by the Kansas Bureau for Investigation will actually put it out of business!
I have a proposal to fix some of the problems we have in India with such unscrupulous companies. If a vehicle associated with a commercial transport company is involved in a crime, the company needs to compensate the victims very very heavily. Something to the tune of crores of rupees.
Large trucking lines, bus operators, the railways and taxi companies, have so far blamed drivers for all traffic/criminal incidents, and gotten away with it. The worst that happens to them is their vehicle getting impounded for a few years. Now, they will need to pay up. The only way to handle this risk will be to purchase insurance. The premium of this insurance is going to be very high, unless they can demonstrate to the insurance company that they are taking effective measures while selecting and training employees.
Enter third party agencies, as are already employed by the likes of software companies and good security agencies. They will verify addresses, look up police records, conduct driving and psychological tests, verify degrees and licenses, take feedback from past employers, etc. The ecosystem for this is already in place, it doesn't have to be created. I often receive requests for the verification of former software employees. The most damage a software engineer has ever done is crash a spacecraft in outer space. Commercial drivers kill... I don't know, a couple of lakh people every year easily.
Does the "pro-business" government at the center have the will to legislate a "pro-consumer" legislation of this sort?