> Probably everyone who has used a Taxi in Germany in the past can tell you how professional, knowledgeable, and safe Taxis were there, and that came through very strong regulations.
If you required taxi drivers to have a PhD, they would be even better!
I don’t know how to read this comment. Assuming it’s about regulations potentially impeding the ability to scale, the (million people) city I grew up in did not seem to have problems providing enough taxis in any way.
As far as I’ve heard from my family member, taxi concessions were highly sought after, but from my experience there were always more than enough to serve the population well. Some taxi drivers were employees of actual owners of the taxis, some (like my family member) owned their own taxi(s).
Taxi medallions in New York used to be traded for more than a million dollars in 2013.
Taxi customers effectively had to pay for the labour of the driver, the actual cost of running a car, and for the cost of capital to finance the medallions.
Taxi medallions set a cap on the available supply of taxi services. Demand was driven by the market. Cost of labour was driven by what drivers could earn in other industries. We can treat the actual cost of running the car as approximately fixed.
Because of the fixed supply of taxi services and high demand, prices were high. But the extra profit went all into inflating the cost of the medallions, because labour costs were essentially determined by competition for labour from other industries.
After Uber and friends entered the market, the cap on supply was effectively lifted. Prices of medallions crashed, because with extra supply and approximately the same demand curve, the market price for taxi services dropped to just above the cost of labour and car.
> [...] but from my experience there were always more than enough to serve the population well.
Whether you interpret the pre-Uber era of New York's taxis as 'enough to serve the population well' is up to you. But keep in mind that the drivers themselves did not benefit at all, since the cost of capital for the medallions ate up all the excess income.
(Many medallions were rented out by investors, but some drivers were also medallion owners. So in the latter situation they benefited in their capacity as medallion owners, but were 'exploited' in their role as drivers.)
I don't know anything about the taxi industry in New York, or how well it is regulated. I have no idea whether NY medallions are traded in a similar manner to Germany's taxi concessions, or whether they are really related in any way. I was not bringing up New York at all, and whatever problems NY has with medallions either do not seem to apply to Germany, or at least do not seem to translate into customer effects, given that I was talking about how good, reliable, and safe taxis are in Germany. From what I can tell, they seem to be able to make a living.
Apparently, by requesting it from the state, and fulfilling a whole laundry list of requirements. Including exams, background checks, disclosing financial information, adding an alarm system to the car, and more: https://www-bussgeldkatalog-org.translate.goog/taxikonzessio...
This also mentions that a concession cannot be sold, but if an entire taxi business is sold, the concession can be sold with it. It expires after 5 years however.
I still don't understand how what is going on in New York has anything to do with taxis in Germany. Whatever Germany is doing seems to work, and whatever New York is doing apparently not? I don't know, I'm not familiar with NY taxis.
If you required taxi drivers to have a PhD, they would be even better!