Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to free up congested roads

Re:Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to free u... by dragonwriter on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @06:43PM (#19259509)

> Are there plans to tax traditional cabs by an amount commensurate with their cruising time?

Traditional taxis already pay a steep annual franchise fee to the city (even after it was cut down on recent years, probably in part because less-taxed rideshares reduced the level of franchise fee that was supportable).

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Re:Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to free u... by manfredo on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @06:47PM (#19259533)

Franchise fees also benefits the taxi companies. It constrains the supply to taxis, thus shielding the taxi companies from potential competition. They're paying for protection from competition.

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Re:Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to free u... by dragonwriter on Tuesday February 26, 2019 @06:54PM (#19259587)

> Franchise fees also benefits the taxi companies.

In the presence of a substitute service not subject to them, they do not.

Actually, since there seems to be both a non-automatic approval process and a franchise fee, they don't really even without such competition; the approval process shields them from competition, the franchise fee is a pure cost. (Of course, there is a linkage between the two, but as long as the process is in place, incumbent taxi firms benefit from minimizing the fee.)

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