John Tory has tabled his own motion that not only wants to make it ok for cabs to use surge pricing (the one thing about UBER that everyone HATES), something that cabs do anyways when they refuse to take your fares because they aren't going far enough.
He also wants to drop the cost of the taxi plate licenses by 75% (good) but he also wants taxi plate owners (the real reason why cabbies don't make any money) to be "compensated for their de-valued investments"...despite the fact that those plates were never meant to be generational investments.
He also wants to make training OPTIONAL!!!!
Did I mention the "non-compete" clause so cabbies can't leave one shiity brokerage for the next?
I can't with this guy anymore.
BTW, it's important to know this bc cabbies pay upwards of 70% of their daily income to the the actual plate owners. They cry poor bc of UBER, but really they are poor bc of the share cropper model of the taxi industry.
A model that only exists because our city created an artificial secondary market, limiting taxi plates and driving up their value. Those plates sell for anywhere from $100,000.00 - $350,000.00...the cost to start your own taxi Brokerage? $425.
City is afraid to go this route bc they don't want to fight all the plate owners who "bought those licenses" on spec, assuming the price would never go down. Too bad, so sad.
Anyways, if you guys want to keep up with what's going on in your city...go on Twitter and follow the hashtag #TOpoli
KB