While Uber operates primarily in the taxi industry, Uber is definitely a major disrupter to this marketplace and has altered the taxi industry permanently in a detrimental fashion. The taxi industry has traditionally been heavily regulated requiring expensive licenses to operate (). The licensing process has been strictly limited and taxi licenses could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in urban locations, such as New York, Chicago, or Paris. Limiting licenses has been a product of robust taxi lobbies that worked to create high barriers to enter as a means of protecting their market place. However, through the rapid growth of Uber, and some of its smaller competitors, there has been significant reduction in the value of taxi licenses, as ride sharing initially operated with minimal regulations. Leading resistance to this model of business has been the taxi drivers themselves. Having invested significantly in their licenses and functioned in a legal restrictive environment, the backlash stems from a …show more content…
Consequently, while an Uber driver might earn more per hour than an average taxi driver, they are not entitled to basic employment safeguards (). For example, should they be injured while working they cannot collect disability. They are not provided health insurance or a guarantee of minimum wages. Filing taxes, contributing to social security, and other payroll related functions must be maintained by the driver. Courts in both California and Florida have recently declared that Uber drivers are, in fact, actual employees and as such Uber should be contributing to unemployment benefits on their behalf or compensating them for mileage driven in personal vehicles (). The legal, economic, and political environment of ride sharing is definitely evolving