RIDEGURU
I am not sure I agree with the basic premise of this article, but nevertheless it is an interesting viewpoint. Some key points that are useful:
There are just approximately 13,500 medallions in New York City today, and they were once considered one of the best investments in America. A source of retirement for many taxi drivers, individual medallions were valued in 2013 at $1 million; today they are worth between $150,000 and $250,000.
The influx of ride sharing services has completely destroyed the value of medallions. Today, 130,000 vehicles compete for the same set of fares within the city. Uber alone has a fleet of 70,000 — a monstrous number when compared with the capped 13,500 yellow cabs.
Comments
The quote that the title comes from is this:
Uber recently released a statement on the suicides, saying, “Drivers who own individual medallions have been left behind by change and exploited by lenders, and we support action that eases their financial burden.” This infuriated Desai: “They are now using the suicides as a way to buy out the medallions so they can essentially monopolize.”
"using the suicides" is the new "trying to help"
Wait, are they buying out medallions? For real? I haven't heard this. Does anyone have more information?
His claim that they are "using suicides" to buy them is a bit ridiculous in any case.
Yeah I'm not sure where this person gets that from. Uber isn't buying out those medallions. And even if they were, if they are doing it at a fair price, isn't that a positive for these guys?
This situation is messy as all get out. Local governments need to be held accountable.
At this point the city should just buy back those medallions. AT A PEAK MARKET PRICE. Medallion was worth 800K a few years ago at it's peak? Fine. Pay the owners that. Let them invest their money elsewhere. The city created this situation and allowed medallions to be sold on the secondary market. they need to deal with it. It's time to accept that the taxi industry as it was once known is DEAD.
hear hear
The quote in the title is so stupid. How can two separate competitors be buying themselves into a monopoly? Does this idiot not understand what a monopoly is????
I wouldn't say they are bullying more like innovating. They made a better product, people saw it was a better product, people want to use the better product. If innovating is now considered bullying this world will never advance forward. People are so sensitice these days.
I mean you have to feel bad for a dude who commits suicide because of his medalliaon crashing... but come on. this is what happens when government regulates an industry, and then fails to prop it up when it is disrupted. Takeaaway here is don't invest in stuff that is only valueable because the government made it.