The political decision process on Uber

Today at the hockey arena in downtown Tampa, all of the local Tampa Bay state representatives and senators gathered  for the transportation hearing. What was first and foremost on the agenda was the subject of uber and its relationship to the Tampa Bay community. Both sides offered their reasons many of them anecdotal in nature. (Senator Jeff Brandes from St Petersburg, the one Center in the picture, came across as an arrogant asshole. He was rude and belligerent and combative with all speakers. This is an example of someone who bullied his way into a political position, no doubt. Sorry for the sidebar).


State senator Arthenia Joyner was the best of the lot. She asked the most pointed questions and dug deep into the real issues. She pointed out to the room that seemed surprised to find out that all of the fees that apply to the cab companies by regulation uber has none of that.

There are insurance requirements, licenses and fees, and fees associated with the airport authority, most of these adding cost of upwards of 2 million dollars a year for the operation of the taxi companies in Tampa. Uber skates on these issues.

Senator Joyner pointed out that United and Yellow cab pay monthly fee of $14,000 to the airport just for the right to serve them. In addition, when the cabs are at the airport they have to follow strict rules. Ubet follows NO RULES and picks up at baggage handling (taxis are babanned from there) for their hugh payment,  cabs must pick up on the fringe of the terminal.  airport welcomes Uber for free yet still charges the taxi companies this outrageous fee. This is wrong, and is unfair anti-competitive practices.

 It was also brought out that Ubet Driver pass no level 2 background investigations. Their drivers are not fingerprinted by law enforcement therefore, their true identity can never be known for sure. Just go on the internet and search uber drivers arrested and you will see it happens on a daily basis. Uber only does a Google sesearch on drivers.

It seems dangerous people are driving uber. We know drug dealers in Tampa are using / as a Mill for their drug operations. It's the perfect decoy to pull up to somebody's house. Anyway, I had enough of listening to all of this so after 5 hours I left side hurt enough.

For the first time, I think perhaps maybe some progress is going to be made at least some facts in reality was uncovered to a room full of blind people. Oh, I'm talking about the politicians at the table not to the characters that were in the room and insurance specialist.



Before I left, I went into the main auditorium where the Tampa Bay Lightning play hockey. It is quite an arena and I can visualize the Stanley Cup game being played in this building.

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