Flywheel Amps Up Together with the MTA

Cab drivers are worse gossips than small town sewing circles so let's start with a few rumors.

One had it that Uber had bought out Flywheel. A more recent canard claimed that Flywheel changed its name from Cabulous to get "cab" out of the title because they intended to begin a peer to peer taxi service ala Summon.

I spoke with CEO Steve Humphreys (photo left) about this and he said that Uber would buy Flywheel "over my dead body." He also said that he had no interest in starting a ride-share operation because he thinks that taxis will win out in the long run. Insurance and the superiority of trained taxi drivers over untrained amateurs, in his opinion, will carry the day.

Humphreys, a man with an engaging smile and infectous enthusiasm, agreed with the thought that once the accidents start adding up, "the other options won't look so attractive."

Flywheel Partnering with the SFMTA

Starting tomorrow, June1, 2014, Taxi Services will be running a series of advertisements boosting the taxicab business in which Flywheel will get prominent mention.

This, course, is the brainchild of Director Christiane Hayashi who was the person who first introduced Flywheel (then Cabulous) to San Francisco taxi drivers almost four years ago.  Humphreys has been working closely together with Hayashi and Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin to make the marketing effort pay off.

The promotion will go at least through June and possibly longer.

ETA??? The Universal App???

It's hard to know what's going on right now with ETA and the Universal App except that the "haves" want to make sure that the "have nots" get even less than they have now. But isn't that just the way of the taxi business - and the world?

The squabbling reminds me of a conversation I had over a beer last year with former cab driver and Taxi Advisory Council member Bill Minikel (photo).

Bill said that the way cab companies were reacting to Uber reminded him of a science fiction movie where the earthlings were so involved fighting each other that they didn't notice a gargantuan space ship hovering above the earth about to wipe out civilization.

An even better analogy today. The invaders have already zapped half the planet and our fearless leaders still think that the only way to fight them is to pursue the same self-indulgent policies that attracted the aliens in the first place.

Divided and ready to be conquered.