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Click on these links to read Part One and Part Three of this series. *** by David Anderson As stated in part one of this series, a union’s purpose is to balance the needs and desires of the corporation and
Read MoreClick on these links to read Part One and Part Two of this series. *** by David Anderson Canada once understood what it meant to be fierce, to defend sacred boundaries. The good life and relative peace existing for generations
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A 40 per cent increase in accidents and fake driving schools: could there be a connection?
During July’s “Operation Safe Driver” week, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) shared an alarming graphic indicating that collisions involving commercial vehicles have increased by 40 per cent over this time last year.
“The collisions account for 22 per cent of OPP-investigated fatal roadway collisions and mark a 40 percent increase in transport truck-involved crashes over this time last year. Twenty-nine (29) of the collisions were fatal, resulting in 40 people being killed,” the accompanying OPP media release indicates. It cites careless and aggressive driving as the causes or contributing factors in the majority of the 4,274 collisions that have involved a large commercial motor vehicle this year.
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Uber’s gleeful lawlessness is proving to be its Achilles heel. This was obvious to anyone with common sense while Toronto was re-writing its vehicle for hire by-law for Uber last year and SHOULD have been immediately apparent to the politicians we pay to make our laws. It was not.
On June 21, in an article entitled “Uber can’t be fixed; it’s time for regulators to shut it down,” Benjamin Edelman wrote in the Harvard Business Review: “The company’s cultural dysfunction, it seems to me, stems from the very nature of the company’s competitive advantage: Uber’s business model is predicated on lawbreaking. And having grown through intentional illegality, Uber can’t easily pivot toward following the rules.”
“Having built a corporate culture that celebrates breaking the law, it is surely no accident that Uber then faced scandal after scandal. How is an Uber manager to know which laws should be followed and which ignored?” Edelman asks.
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Before Uber arrived in Toronto, the City had a viable social contract with the individuals willing to invest $60,000 or more in an Accessible van customized to transport passengers with wheelchairs and walkers.
Now, in 2022, the last fleet of Accessible vans purchased before Toronto shredded its social contract with Taxi drivers is aging out, and many of the owners have no plan to re-invest.
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I was up in the Oregon hills a few years back on the way to California. It was a beautiful day. Sun was shining, the air was clear. I surmised that by the time the sun went down, I’d reach my destination of Sacramento.
Now, I was just coming into quiet, quaint little town about to descend down a not so big hill, when I saw that at the bottom of the hill a not-so-big pickup truck was starting its ascent up the hill.
As we drew closer, I could see this wasn’t an ordinary pickup. No, sir; this was
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Taxi drivers are owed giant apologies by so many groups, it’s hard to keep track any more.
I have read so many ridiculous, misguided, inaccurate and plain pathetic media articles about Uber in the past 4 years, I am at risk of becoming inured to the lunacy. I’ve lobbied politicians and pleaded with cops. I’ve debated family members and friends. I’ve pestered media members until they ran away from me.
Their minds are impenetrable; people want so desperately to believe you can get something for nothing, you can’t overcome their magical thinking.
We should never give up thinking skeptically, though, and challenging the lunacy; because what happened to taxi drivers could happen to anyone in any industry. The corruption and massive breach of business and political ethics that have infected the vehicle for hire industry can – and will – affect EVERY industry in future. Uber’s business model and philosophy is a cancer that must be removed from commerce.
Cabbies, unfortunately, have been the canaries in the coal mine. I’m so sorry.
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Clearly, the Uber Files offer a platform for politicians to issue sweeping statements about how perfectly fine their behaviour was 10 years ago. But here’s where doubts creep in: their behaviour wasn’t perfectly fine then, and this story didn’t end 10 years ago. It’s happening right now, today. What if the Uber Files are nothing more than a cue for Uber and the politicians that enabled it to claim they are putting the past behind them and lull everyone back to sleep?
In Toronto, for example, Uber’s influence over the law didn’t end when Mayor Tory brought a motion to Council which offered ridesharing companies preferential rules, generously handing them a massive competitive advantage.
Uber’s influence is still as plain as the nose on your face in, for example, the situation occurring right this minute as Toronto’s Licensing division is lackadaisically moseying along in its third year of attempting to roll out a training program for Vehicle for Hire (VFH) drivers.
Read Moreby Harvey Spiegel. Q.C. Superior Court Of Justice Toronto,Ontario, Retired On Nov. 18 2014, at a press conference announcing the City’s application to restrain all Uber operations in Toronto, Tracey Cook, the executive director of Municipal Licensing and Standards Division
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