Monday, June 16, 2014

European Taxi Drivers Uber-challenge: Beat them at their own illegal tricks


In a bizarre twist of karma, Taxi Drivers throughout Europe staged a strike to express their dismay with potential passengers, who, in their opinion, are not respecting the law. Uber, the car sharing app was launched in Europe, but no one knew about it until the taxis decided that passengers actually paying the right price for trips around town might threaten their monopoly on shaking down customers outright.  
As one taxi driver put it, "Are you kidding me? They pay only about 30 bucks to hop all in one car from the airport.  We charge over 100 for that kind of service - and with it, we give you a tour of all Milan or Rome before getting you to your destination. Beat that, Uber!"
In Italy, taxis were on strike, but no one even noticed, since they sit at their stations all day instead of actually carting passengers around town like in many other metropolises.  Another driver put it simply, "We can sit around all day if we like.  We just keep raising the rates. You know, it helps us offset the lack of passengers - we don't know why they'd prefer low-cost, heck, even air-conditioned vehicles. That's not what urban mobility is about, ya know what I mean?"
Another added, "Look--I make my living out of cheating customers. It's just how it's done. Foreigners? I double the meter. Sometimes I turn it off altogether. Or tell 'em it has to be a fixed rate for short distances. Bags, extra. Inside the city, outside the city, if you can double the meter at least three times a day, you're making it good. But it's not that easy. You think we're going to let these guys come in and provide a fixed low-cost price list for transport services?" 
UBER is a pusher in corrupt Milano - Outlaws
(irony not included)
But UBER, had the last laugh. I had no idea 'til today that the service even existed in Europe. Post-European wide strike, subscriptions went up by 850%. And just to show the taxis that they are a company well-versed in supply & demand, they even decided to lower their tariffs by 20%.  After all, everyone knows that taxi cab advertising garners the greatest number of hits. 

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Italy's Prime Minister Renzi and the Million Euro Giveaway!

Well, make that 80 euro. But, if you multiply that figure by the number of people who received some extra dosh in the mail, well, you're pretty much feeling like the recipient of a Nigerian Prince's bounty. But in the interest of Par Condicio, since I took Berlusconi to task for the same practice [See Burnt by the Tuscan Sun's - Buying Votes with Public Money], I thought I'd give you the inside scoop on what, exactly, is going through Renzi & Cos. minds after conjuring up the Big Giveaway (of course, after counting the votes up that'd he'd get in response):
Photo by Bern as published in
Libero Quotidiano
80 Euro! Do you know what you can buy for that...!  Why, you can buy 10 pizza pies -- that's nearly one per month! That'll really get the economy rolling...

80 Euro! That's nearly a one-way trip on a super-fast (well, okay..not-so-fast) train from Rome to Milano.  Too bad, you won't be able to get out, but the 80 would take you as far as say...Parma! And, they have terrific prosciutto to boot.  Imagine the taste of that prosciutto after you've been buying lowcost counterfeit prosciutto from Albania all these years just to save a few bucks.  It'll melt right in your mouth.

80 Euro! Well, since I'm about to raise the garbage tax and a few others...it actually, will come out in the wash...but, don't tell anyone I said so. Especially that guy Grillo. He'll go ballistic.

80 Euro! By my calculations, that's roughly one and a half tanks of gas.  Now, that may not sound like much, but think about it--In those terms, you'll start riding a bicycle and that's good for the environment! So, it's a Win-Win-Win kinda deal...I win election, the environment wins, and you win too - as long as you don't spend it on gasoline...that is.