The city of Portland is responsible for the demise of cab companies. The city regulates the fee structure for a cab ride. The fees were set in 2010 and haven’t changed since, according to the July 3 Sunday Telegram article (“No fare: The taxi business sees the end of the road.”)
Do you suppose the City Council members haven’t had a pay raise since 2010 – of course not. The result is you cannot support a business on 2010 fees. This sort of thing happens when governments try to manage wages and fees rather than let the market determine the fees.
People change jobs for better wages, companies go out of business if they don’t have reasonable rates (too high or too low). Uber-type companies came into being because the cab companies charged high fees for rides – except in Portland – here the cabs are gone because they can’t make any money.
Kevin O’Brien
Wells
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.