The Victorian taxi industry’s decision to change its tactics towards Uber from confrontation to seeking negotiation and regulation is a welcome burst of common sense from an industry that hasn’t displayed a great deal of it so far.
The industry’s attempt to ban a company — indeed a whole new economic practice — and one that has proven wildly popular is a measure of how arrogant and out of touch monopoly control has made Big (Yellow) Taxi.
Head of the Victorian Taxi Association David Samuel has said that the industry now seeks the public’s views, and has launched a public relations blitz (which has mostly backfired) under the hashtag #yourtaxis. If they have a swear jar handy, none of them need ever drive again.
But the arrogance of this former monopoly industry and the ease offered by Uber shouldn’t blind us to the fact that the Uberisation of the economy represents a huge challenge in Australia.
Uber-like work remains unlicensed piecework, a very old form of exploitation disguised by its mediation through an app. In a society that wants to avoid the destruction of such social security as exists through fair employment laws — including guaranteed minimum wage — the growth of Uber and other companies like it requires vigilance.
Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.
“Uber-like work remains unlicensed piecework, a very old form of exploitation disguised by its mediation through an app.”
Unlike Taxi Drivers who get a salary, sick pay, super ?
indeed a whole new economic practice
Dear me, this Uber-worship gets tiresome.
Uber is nothing more than a fancier booking system for hire vehicles. The only “new” thing they bring to the table is a lack of verification that those who drive for them are legally allowed to.
“A whole new economic practice — and one that has proven wildly popular”. Yep that’s what it looks like to me and my sole experience with Uber was a bad one pushed on me by a friend.
It’s also a problem for the union movement because of the atomisation of work via the internet. When people work from home or privately, piecework is the ONLY way it can be done. The main challenge is to control the franchisor middlemen. A way must be found to do that, probably through competition.