I
T HAS been less than ten years since
The lockdown following the first crashing wave of Covid-19 hurt all of these apps badly: people simply were not travelling, and were certainly not travelling in close proximity to a stranger in the driving seat. But the circumstantial challenges were only part of a range of problems, many of which were structural and institutional. After a host of court battles,
Now on busy London streets we see how low ride-hailing apps have been brought. Waiting times have increased many times over, drivers frequently cancel, and unavailability is now a real problem. In an attempt to sweet-talk drivers into signing up,
While the votaries of the
Does it have to be this way? Are we content to live in a financial and technological ecosystem in which, sooner or later, innovation is simply squeezed out of the market by regulation?
In fact the principles which underlie ride-hailing services are laudable and ideally suited to the world of the 2020s. They encompass efficiency, autonomy and personalisation.
Efficiency because, in crowded cities, it suits many people not to own a car, with the attendant costs and responsibilities, but still to have instant access to the transport capability of a car to go from door to door. Try hailing a black cab on a busy street, or finding one in a suburban outpost. By contrast, an app that can bring one to your home, and allow you to monitor its progress, is digital beating analogue in front of your eyes.
Autonomy because drivers can work when they want. Increasingly we expect, want or need to have a range of economic activities, and part-time taxi work requiring only a sat-nav and the
Personalisation because we live in a world in which innovation is allowing us to operate a much more bespoke existence. We listen to Spotify rather than the radio, and algorithms monitor us to deliver new content it is reasonably certain we will like. Amazon is the greatest recommender of all, and huge amounts of work go into refining that process so that it is accurate and authentic.
Why should personal transport be any different? We should be able to go where we want and have a mutual relationship of assessment with the drivers: I rate you, you rate me.
So here's the challenge for policymakers and legislators. We know
Remember the three principles: efficiency, autonomy and personalisation. These should be central to how we regulate and monitor as well as assist and encourage.
We've learned lessons from the problems of
The principles underlying ridehailing are laudable: efficacy, efficiency and autonomy
(c) 2021 City A.M., source