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The following is a Guest Post by Dave Ashton, co-founder of SnapCar<\/a>, a French startup providing chauffeur services via its iOS<\/a> & Android<\/a> application<\/em><\/p>\n Today, January 13th<\/sup> (and just like last year on the same day), there is a general taxi strike in Paris. 5000 angry drivers are using their idle cars to block the airports and roads throughout the capital, refusing to pick up passengers and stopping competitive private car services (called \u201cVTC\u201d in France) from doing the same. In certain cases they threaten VTCs with baseball bats to ensure that people can\u2019t get anywhere. The city is paralyzed.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one should be allowed to provide chauffeured car services except taxis\u201d, they say. And so while drivers for private car service companies showed up for work this morning, many couldn\u2019t actually do their jobs. This morning, one of our drivers had rocks thrown at his car with a client inside of it. Others threw eggs. Some of our drivers are afraid and it has left our clients \u2013 some of whom are young children whose parents trust us to get them safely to school \u2013 stranded.<\/p>\n On January 1, 2014 a new law went into effect in France solely at the behest of these unions: chauffeured car services like my company SnapCar can only pick up a passenger more than 15 minutes after a booking is made. Even if we arrive in five minutes, which is our goal.<\/p>\n In other words, if your mother calls SnapCar to pick her up and we arrive in five minutes, the law says she must wait in the rain for ten more before she\u2019s allowed in the car. Is that what your mother would want?<\/p>\n You would think that such a law would appease anyone looking to sustain a monopoly (never mind that we won\u2019t follow it). But like a child, angry that the sucker his parents bought isn\u2019t as big or as bright as he wanted, the taxi union is throwing a tantrum. \u201c15 minutes isn\u2019t enough\u201d, they say. \u201cNo one should have the right to compete with us at all. Transport is a protected market for us and we own <\/i>it. We won\u2019t stop until these \u2018disloyal competitors\u2019 are out of business.\u201c<\/p>\n In 2011 essentially zero out of every 20 chauffeured car bookings (i.e. taxi, limousine) was booked via the web or mobile application. Today it\u2019s nearly three out of twenty. In five years that number will be far higher. People are accessing chauffeured services from their devices because it\u2019s convenient and secure. They like doing it. As long as taxis refuse to embrace such technology directly, they will continue to lose market share.<\/p>\n Oddly enough the taxi companies are accelerating adoption of competitive services. In Paris \u2013 America too (for example in Las Vegas) \u2013 these laws are designed to give people no choice but to take taxis.<\/p>\n But French people are not stupid (and probably not Las Vegans either, although that is more debatable): enraged by anti-competitive behavior they are migrating in droves to VTCs because the service quality is high. They can rely on us. They appreciate that they have total visibility into their bookings, that payment processes are automated and \u2013 most importantly \u2013 that we are grateful to have them as clients, because we know we\u2019re in business solely because they value the service.<\/p>\n The VTC companies have tried to collaborate with the taxi unions and companies. We\u2019ve encouraged them to adopt innovative technologies that will improve their services and attract more clients, even as we work alongside one another in the market. They have refused. Keeping 100% of a small and increasingly irrelevant pie (booking by putting your hand in the air, or putting up with mediocre quality) is more important to some than improving the quality of the pie so that more people will want to take a bite of it. Frankly, some people you just can\u2019t reach.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a battle to the death at the moment between the entrenched taxi monopoly and the tiny but growing French private car service startups. But we know how this one will turn out; we\u2019ve seen it before: By 2019, 19 out of 20 chauffeured car bookings will be made via mobile applications and the web. The taxis will eventually embrace technology to advance their business models. The market will be shared between companies like the VTCs and the traditional taxis, who provide a valuable service that people want. Different levels of service will begin to flourish in the chauffeured car\/taxi market, overall quality will improve due to competition, prices will fall due to increased supply, and greater demand will create lots of new jobs. The result will be an ever-so-slight improved standard of living for a whole society.<\/p>\nWhy would they do this?<\/h4>\n
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It\u2019s a strategy destined to backfire.<\/h4>\n
Isn\u2019t that what makes any company grow? Provide something people want, need and love, and price it fairly.<\/h4>\n
Everyone wins.<\/h4>\n