UBER at SFO: GEO FENCE? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING GEO FENCE!

According to the SFO ruling granting temporary permits to the TNCs, "All TNC Vehicles not actively loading or unloading passengers shall be parked in the designated staging area ... TNC Vehicles may only enter enter the Airport terminal if carrying an Airport-bound passenger or if a ride request has been accepted from a customer at the Airport."

In addition, there is supposed to be a "GeoFence" around the "Polygon" or perimeter of SFO where the TNC Apps won't work – call it a TNC dead zone. This means that the TNC Apps should only work in the TNC staging area and not anywhere else in or near the Airport.

But, in fact, the SFO doesn't appear to be enforcing its ruling and, of course, Uber drivers are paying little or no attention to it. The following sequence took place on November 16, 2014 between 9:18 pm and 9:28.

Photo One Shows an Uber cruising at the lower level of SFO with its App open and seeking a ride.

Photo Two show that this Uber has accepted an order.

Photo Three show the Uber meeting its customer on the upper level of the International Terminal

Photo Four shows the customer climbing into the faux taxicab ... er... TNC.

This was not an isolated incident. Quite the opposite. These photos were taken by limo and cab driver Douglas O'Conner and he sees more Ubers either hiding out on the top level of SFO or cruising with the app open ever time he drives through.

12-14-2014 An Uber cruises with App available.

12-21-2014 An Uber cruises with the App open. The driver spent half an hour circling the upper level.

1-11-2015 An Uber hangs out on McDonnell Road after the driver spotted Doug following him.

1-22-2015 An Uber hangs out on the upper level of SFO.

For Uber watchers this is hardly shocking. If Uber has ever shown any indication that it intends to obey any rule or regulation I'm unaware of it. This, after all, is a venture-capitalized corporation that is run by a CEO that has never heard a lie that he didn't want to tell himself. This is a corporation that lies to every customer and driver that downloads their App, unaware that they're signed away their rights to collect liability in case of negligence. This is a corporation that refuses to fingerprint or train its drivers. This is a company that makes agreements simply to get regulators off it's back.

And, they've succeeded admirably at SFO. I drove around with Doug on December 14, 2014 and we saw dozens of Ubers hanging out at various places on both the upper and lower levels but we failed to see one single SFO cop checking to see if the Ubers were there.

I recently ran into an Indian cab driver who said that America had become the most corrupt country in the world. He's got a good argument. The Indian government shut down Uber and even issued an indictment against CEO Travis Kalanick. And, China chased them out of the country for not obeying the rules.

Here, in California, the powers-that-be reward them by lowering or eliminating safety standards – let the public be dammed – and Uber still doesn't bother to pay any attention to what weak and pathetic rules they have agreed to follow.

And why should they? Here the long arm of the local law reaches out, not with hand cuffs, but with palms up and wide open.

Jamming the Streets with Lyft, Sidecar, Uber & the Illegals

Taxi Services investigator Eric Richholt invited me to ride with him and his partner Andres Martinez so I could photo & videograph the gridlock caused by a couple of thousand unregulated, fake cabs on the Friday and Saturday nights.

"You wouldn't believe it," he said. "People should see this."

"Is it worse than last time we went out?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah."

CPUC Chooses Venture Capital Over Public Safety

To hardly anyone's surprise, the CPUC chose to validate the operations of Lyft, Sidecar and Uberx. That this would be their decision has been obvious from the moment the CPUC lifted their cease and desist orders against Lyft and Uber – before the hearing on legalizing ridesharing even started.

The members of the commission gave a lot of lip service to public safety and a little bit to helping the cab business but the decisions they've made will inevitably lead to shafting both taxicab drivers and the public.

More later – I need to take a woman I met in my taxi to lunch. Then, I need to drive my hybrid taxi tonight so I can make some money while it's still possible.

Analysis later. But first a preview.

I told one of President Peevey's assistants that personal insurance companies won't write policies for people who drive for Lyft et al.

She said, "We know that – the insurance companies will have to adapt."

And, indeed they will.  Insurance companies don't loose money. They'll pass the bill on to the public and raise the personal insurance auto rates for everybody in California.

Enjoy your lunch.

I think this links to latest version of the proposed decision.

NOTES:

I wrote this piece in about 10 minutes and naturally left much out.

1. In the original version, I said that the CPUC had "legalized" the operations of Lyft, Sidecar and Uberx. This was incorrect. Only the California State Legislature can change these laws. It would have been more correct to say that the CPUC proposed legalizing ...

They will have a fight on their hands.

I'd like to thank Barry Korengold of the SFCDA for pointing this out. I'd also like the thank him for pointing out my  many typos and grammatical error over the last years. I'm a horrible proofreader.

2. I was unable to find the name of Peevey's assistant on the CPUC website but, while I didn't misquote her, I did leave her next sentence out.

She said, "We know that – the insurance companies will have to adapt."

I said, "Yes – the insurance companies will raise their rates."

She said, "No – we're already talking about a commercial lite policy with Geico."

There is much to said about that but here I simply have a question,

Why is the CPUC spending tax payers money bending over backwards to help these companies out? They keep claiming that they don't want to interfere in the TNC's business. Having been handed over $400 million in venture capital, they can probably afford to look into this for themselves.


The Phantom