Cabbies are Contractors, not employees, Court holds

Massachusetts’ top court says taxi drivers may be treated as independent contractors rather than employees.  This ruling should come as no surprise since taxi drivers have been being paid and treated as independent contractors almost everywhere for decades.  

The decision, reported by BetaBoston.com, is in response to a suit against traditional taxi companies. The report suggests that a different rule may apply to new wave companies like Uber and Lyft. Uber at least, is being sued in California, successfully so far, for denying employment benefits to its drivers. Uber has argued in response to that suit that its drivers -- partners, it calls them-- are also not employees.

The decision itself is here.

Blind Suing the Rich

Uber is facing a new legal challenge: a lawuit by blind passengers accusing it of violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act because it will not transport guide dogs. U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins in San Jose, California, said the plaintiffs could pursue a claim that Uber is a “travel service” subject to potential liability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Abuse is only the beginning

In what may be a classic case of an everyday event becoming news simply because it was caught on video, a New York Police Department detective was forced to apologize when his angry exchange with an Uber driver went viral. The detective, Patrick Cherry, was placed on modified assignment. He also faces suspension, reassignment or loss of his clearance.

"I was just angry, at that moment, for that exchange." Cherry said. "If the conversation initially went differently, we probably would have shook hands at the end of that encounter."

According to a report by CNN.com, The altercation began after the Uber driver gestured to a detective in an unmarked car to use his blinker after he was allegedly attempting to park without using it.

The video picks up seconds after the detective began yelling at the driver and mocking his accent, and also shows the unmarked car with lights flashing pulled over behind the Uber car. 

In the video, the detective tells the driver he has committed "three traffic and law violations" and then becomes irate and uses expletives toward the comparably calm driver. 

A visibly upset Police Commissioner William Bratton on Wednesday said the detective was placed on modified assignment pending an investigation. 

'No good cop can watch that without a wince,' [Bratton] told reporters. "As all good cops know ... the officer made their jobs a little bit harder. That kind of anger like that is unacceptable in any encounter; discourtesy like that and language like that is unacceptable. That officer's behavior reflected poorly on everyone who wears our uniform."

According to CNN, the Cherry added: "I've got news for you. The only reason you're not in handcuffs and going to jail and getting summons in the precinct is because I have things to do. That's the only reason that's not happening. Because this isn't important enough for me. You're not important enough. Don't ever do that again."

While the video makes good television, it highlights at least two larger, more serious issues: Cab drivers are continually subject to abusive language (and much worse) both from passengers and from law enforcement. If they retaliate or respond in kind, they face penalties from taxi regulators. Even worse, at least in New York, if a cab driver is arrested, his license may be immediately suspended, regardless of the circumstances, the paucity of evidence underlying the arrest and without regard to the driver's record. This last policy is being challenged in a federal lawsuit called Nnebe v. Daus.

Annie sang: "Tomorrow, Tomorrow, you're always a day away!"

And so it is with the Taxi of Tomorrow.

The planed rollout has been delayed again by a ruling by the New York Court of Appeals. The court, the state's highest, granted a stay in a continuing appeal over the vehicle.

The puts efforts to phase in the Nissan NV200 as the only acceptable New York yellow taxi on hold  while the court decides an appeal brought by a a prominent taxi owners group. The NYC TLC  had April 20 as the date after which most taxi owners would have to switch to the new vehicle when they retire their cabs.

The Greater New York Taxi Association has opposed the NV200, arguing that the Bloomberg administration exceeded its authority by trying to force drivers to buy a certain vehicle. Traditionally, the TLC had established standards for taxicabs, but allowed any car that met those standards to be used as a yellow cab. The TLC's long-delayed plan does not apply to livery cabs or black cars, which now outnumber yellow cabs. 

Chicago bites back after cabbie's case is dismissed

The City of Chicago has billed a taxi driver for $10,000 in court costs after the driver’s suit claiming that the drivers should be deemed city employees was dismissed.

The driver, Melissa Callahan said, “That was a big shock,” and she is pursuing an appeal. Callahan will need lots of luck. Cab drivers have, for years, rarely been deemed employees of taxi companies. How they might be considered city employees is unfathomable.

An overview of 'the Dirty War'

Bloomberg business has a feature on what it calls "Big Taxi's" war on Uber. Its thesis: "These firms want to kill the young juggernaut—or at least buy themselves enough time to develop rival car-hailing apps." 

But: 

“Probably no amount of media spin will win this one for Big Taxi. Uber is a textbook example of what happens when an aggressive newcomer enters a business that’s gone unchallenged for decades.”

Later, it describes Uber’s winning strategy as based on defiance of the rules, followed by capitulation by regulators:

In the U.S. and abroad—where most transportation regulations dictate things like minimum pricing and advance booking times—Uber’s strategy has been to launch services regardless of the rules and then leverage its popularity to force regulators to adapt. So far, that approach has succeeded in about 30 markets in North America, including Colorado, Illinois, and California, where new laws on licensing and safety have been created for so-called transportation network companies like Uber, or are in the process of being approved.

Seems like the war is a two way street, 

Uber Getting Huger in New York

Uber says it plans to add 10,000 cars to its existing NYC fleet of 13,000 all in 2015, according to a report in Crains New York Business. It will also bring some of its engineering operations to the city. Meanwhile, the company is saying that that it wants the TLC to grow to better handle the volume of new licensing requests from Uber drivers.