It’s odd that the Government of Saskatchewan has made a big show of being nice to ride-sharing services in the recent throne speech, especially Uber. Odd, entirely because they’re coming at this right as many other places are starting to turn on the ride-sharing giant and boot them out of their own cities or entire countries.
They were just kicked out of the city of London, and the entire country of Italy is against them. Bulgaria alleges unfair business practices and as a result kicked Uber to the curb. They pulled out of Austin, Texas after being required to do background checks on drivers.
While there has been much controversy surrounding Uber thanks to its business practices, the real reason for a lot of resistance to the company is the risk to existing jobs in the taxi industry.
Ride-sharing, as a concept, is not a bad idea for Saskatchewan. In rural areas especially, it would be an easy solution to have a taxi service, especially in markets where you could really only sustain one or two drivers at any given point.
That is also partially why Uber itself isn’t a great idea for the province’s needs. A rural ride-sharing service needs to be less tethered to the smartphone, because when you’re the only taxi game in town you have to be able to service everyone – and that includes people who don’t generally use smartphones, like elderly people. Saskatchewan ride-sharing somehow needs to allow low tech people to take part. If you could tie it in so someone can telephone into a number to connect to a nearby person offering ride-sharing, that would be perfect, though I don’t have a solution to how that would work on a technical level. It should also offer a way for small rural taxi operations to take part, and everyone should be free to set their own fee.
The other reason why Uber isn’t a great idea is that it’s Uber. The ride-sharing giant is shedding CEOs and board members like a snake sheds skins, after allegations of shady business practices, driver exploitation and a culture of sexual harassment have dogged the company. Even an advocate for ride sharing has to wish that the service was provided elsewhere.
Instead of hitching to the Uber wagon as it gets slowly lit on fire, we should instead figure out a solution that makes more sense for Saskatchewan itself, and is perhaps home-grown rather than tied strongly to an outside of province company that is as famous for shady business practices as it is for the actual service it offers.
