Hacker News Reader

Comment by colinbartlett | Hacker News Reader

It seems like Uber does this just for the headlines. They know they need to have laws changed in order to break past government-sanctioned taxi monopolies. And they know they're going to get in trouble for breaking the current laws.

The headlines always end up as The Government sticking it to The Working Man, and Uber eats that stuff up.

View on HN

Well, here, the PPA is deplored almost absolutely, for constant abuse of power. Over the weekend, an insurance company went bankrupt leaving about 1/3 of Philadelphia's taxi fleet without insurance. The PPA decide to allow taxis to continue to roll despite their insurance company being bankrupt[0] and then the next day did this to an UberX driver over insurance woes.

This is why it's a big deal here in Philly. The corruption of the PPA knows no bounds.

[0] http://mobile.philly.com/business/?wss=/philly/business/tran...

I think I'm the one person who likes the PPA (though I had no idea they regulated taxis before today). I don't usually park in the street, but when I do there's almost always a spot free because people actually move their cars when time is up. People hate getting caught, then transfer that hate to the PPA even though they should know the odds of slipping by are slim.

I don't know anything about the PPA, but that's not really a good comparison. The taxis that were without insurance were presumably working around the clock to get it sorted out, and had some communication with the PPA to let them know about the problem.

Uber on the other hand knew that what they were doing was illegal from the start, had been warned about it and had every opportunity to delay the launch of the service until the legal stuff was sorted out.

What insurance company went bankrupt?

First Keystone Risk Retention Group Inc. It's in grandparent's reference link (emphasis mine):

"The taxi owners contend their existing insurance continues to provide coverage for 30 days, despite the insolvency of First Keystone Risk Retention Group Inc. ... The insurance company was ordered liquidated Tuesday by a South Carolina judge at the request of the state insurance director"

I wouldn't say they do it just for the headlines. It's clearly also in their interest to offer service in major cities, and Philadelphia is one of them.

That said, I'm sure they're also aware of the possibility of good press from incidents like this. I don't have a problem with that.

I think they have to break the laws in order to have standing to challenge them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com