More On How _Not_ To Implement GPS Tracking

Here we go again. gosh it pains me to have to write about this yet another time. But I can’t let the issue just drop … for two reasons.

I’m a GPS professional. I believe in commercial use of the GPS and am fully in favor of using GPS to bring profit to a business’ bottom line. Even when the business is a one man or one woman business as so many taxicab operations turn out to be in this day and age. There is no excuse except greed or stupidity for the situation in Philadelphia and in many other cities to have reached the boiling point.

Secondly I can’t ignore this situation because I am an American citizen and a former businessman. If you think the plight of taxi drivers being run down in the streets by their own government is not worth reading about, I suggest you humor me and follow along, just for a few minutes. Because the next time an apparently illegal agency decides to decimate a business it might not be taxis … it might be your business.

By definition (and for the convenience of taxi cab companies who thus don’t have to pay any benefits) the majority of taxi drivers in Philadelphia and most other US cities are “independent contractors”. This means they lease their cabs, usually on a daily basis, pay all expenses, take all the risks both business and personal, and, if left with money at the end of each day,. pay twice what salaried employees pay in taxes. This is fine with me .. if the system didn’t basically work, then there wouldn’t be independent drivers.

But you can not have it both ways. Many laws, especially the US Tax Code are quite specific about the difference between employees and independent contractors. One of the primary “tests” which determine a “contractor’s” legal status is that he or she must not be directed is specific performance of the contracted work. If an agency directs the contractor what equipment to use in his/her business, what routes to take in driving to a destination and what forms of payment s/he must accept I believe the person is no longer an independent contractor at all, and must be considered an employee … and therefore given benefits and tax advantages due an employee.

I’m not going to fill page after page on this issue. I already have written about the apparent malfeasance of the Philadelphia parking Authority Does GPS Tracking Have to Involve Crooked Dealing? , the Parking Authority’s reluctance to deal with either citizen or driver complaints And The Beat Goes On — To A Drummer Out Of Time ,the forming of the Taxi Worker’s Alliance … Who The Heck Is Ron Blount And Why Should You Care? and probably a few other times here as well.

Here’s a few current articles from the mainstream press which point up many of the same issues: Convenience comes at a price for cabbies , Philly cab companies struggle with a new dispatch system. Backseat Battle: City’s Plan to Require Costly Computer Screens in Yellow Taxis May Lead to Strike and I have no doubt you can find plenty more. The New York situation has already lead to the very brink of a strike as I reported on the GPS Bus blog. You can also learn more at the Taxi Alliance website .

Just what country is this? Sounds suspiciously like the former Soviet Russia, or perhaps Shrub’s President Bush’s hand-holding best friends, Saudi Arabia, the ones who publicly flog and behead people for protests and minor crimes. Makes me sad.