Saturday, April 20, 2024
How can you say “good-bye” to that face? All photos: Mike Murchison
On the Road with Mike Murchison

It’s not work when it’s a labour of love

Mike Murchison

I love my brother. He’s worked hard all his life: Truck driver, Maintenance Supervisor; over a decade working in the frozen lands of Siberia, and the hotter-than-hell outback of Australia doing the oilpatch shuffle.

He’s been good to me.

So, when I received a message from him with a photo of a 10-week-old female St. Bernard pup along with the request to “pick her up,” I had to smile.

My brother lives on Cape Breton Island. I live in Southern Alberta. The pup, named “Bella,” was born two hours away from me, and about 3700 miles from where my brother lives. You can see the challenge.

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Historically, most Taxi companies have been happy to have air conditioned offices with bathrooms for two genders. The idea of taking money from the very narrow profit margins available to put the name of a cab company on a downtown building has never been a Taxi industry budget item, ever. Photo: Taxi News
Feature/ProfileOpinion/Column

The Big Lie that keeps the Uber bezzle alive

Guest Contributor

Here’s how that proposition worked: Uber loses a lot of money on every ride. But someday, it will corner the market on transit (not just taxi journeys, but all transit), and it will be able to raise prices and cut wages and recover all those loses and turn a profit.

Obviously, this is stupid. Even if Uber manages to blow through its investors’ billions in habituating us to rideshares over cabs and buses, even if they manage to bribe or bully cities into allowing takeovers by unlicensed cabs, even if they manage to rewrite labor laws so they can treat their employees as contractors…

Even if all of that, then what? Then you have a market that is structured for dominance by unlicensed taxis driven by misclassified employees – that anyone can enter. The (mythical) day Uber attains dominance and profitability, someone else can start a competitor that provides exactly the same services, with exactly the same drivers and exactly the same passengers. The only difference? That new service won’t be $31 billion in the hole, unlike Uber.

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Opinion/ColumnTrucking

The Ripple Effect

Mike Murchison

    In the US, American truckers are getting registered for a protest convoy to Washington, where military-grade fencing barriers have been placed around the Whitehouse and the capital building. No doubt, this is a precautionary measure due to the January 6th 2021 insurrection.

   With truckers planning a Freedom Convoy to Washington, and the protests here in Canada winding down, I can’t help but ask myself: will it matter? Will the American Freedom Convoy have the impact that the Canadian convoy did?

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Opinion/ColumnRide Hailing newsTaxi industry newsTrucking

Trudeau humiliated as even Senators he appointed were poised to vote against Emergencies Act

Lindsay Prescott

Trudeau was about to lose a vote in the Senate which was needed to ratify the Emergency Act, invoked to disperse a peaceful protest by the truckers Freedom Convoy in Ottawa. In addition, thousands of Canadians moved their bank accounts and investments out of the country fearing that their money might be frozen by Trudeau.

Senator David Wells from Newfoundland said: “The Government saw the writing on the wall and pulled the plug. Cabinet ministers and the government Senate leader started calling senators to assess support for continuation of the Act. The numbers weren’t looking good… That’s when the decision was made.”

The morning before Trudeau backed down, Pierre Dalphond, a Senator Trudeau himself had appointed from Quebec said: “I have decided to vote against the motion to authorize the continuation of the state of emergency, out of concern about the lack of judicial oversight in the freezing of assets,” because he believes it violates “the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.”

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NewsRide Hailing newsTaxi industry newsTrucking

Trudeau revokes Emergencies Act as bank accounts close, before Senate vote

Rita Smith

At 4:10 pm on February 23, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revoked the Emergency Act for which he argued passionately only 48 hours before.

Liberal insiders and observers tell Road Warrior News there were two pressing reasons for Trudeau’s about face: first, the damage being done to the Canadian banking system through the credibility lost when Canada began seizing and freezing bank accounts with no court orders.

Second, is the idea that the Senate might actually vote not to support the Emergencies Act, or might vote “yes” by such a small margin it would embarrass Trudeau.

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NewsRide Hailing newsTaxi industry newsTrucking

Ontario to launch police use of automated plate recognition technology, eliminate license renewal fees for non-commercial vehicles

Rita Smith

Ontario is investing in Automated Licence Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology, it announced February 22nd.  An ALPR system can read thousands of licence plates per minute allowing officers to process more information on licence plates. It also has the capability of capturing vehicles of interest such as amber alerts, drivers with a suspended licence, and stolen vehicles.

Automated/automatic license plate recognition systems capture computer-readable images that allow law enforcement to compare plate numbers against plates of stolen cars or cars driven by individuals wanted on criminal charges. The devices are mounted on police cars, road signs or traffic lights and capture thousands of images of plates.

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NewsRide Hailing newsTaxi industry newsTrucking

How are protesters’ bank accounts “unfrozen?” Senator Batters asks during debate

RWN Staff

Today, Canadian Senators begin their second day of debate on Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act.

As noted last week in Road Warrior News, because a large number of Senators are not ostensibly not considered to be affiliated to a political party, there is a slim possibility that the Senate could vote to block use of the Act.

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