With Uber, Lyft and Sidecar now fair game at San Francisco International Airport, taxi and SuperShuttle drivers might be SOL at SFO. Nonetheless, each group of workers staged protests in the past two days.
On Sunday, about three quarters of SuperShuttle drivers serving San Francisco International Airport (along with Oakland International Airport and Mineta San Jose International Airport) didn't arrive for work, reports the Examiner consulting with a senior vice president of SuperShuttle's parent company.
SuperShuttle, made up of several franchisees, must comply with regulations from the California Public Utilities Commission. As a result, drivers said they must pay more to provide service to fliers (in part because of a clean-air-vehicle requirement and compliance with the American Disabilities Act.) According to a spokesperson for the company, SuperShuttle is back at full capacity as of today.
And last night, as the Chron reports, cabbies caused gridlock with their own SFO protests. From 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., cabs blocked lanes and refused to pick up fliers, instead distributing literature on Transportation Network Companies (a.k.a. ride-share companies) and posting signs on their vehicles such as “This vehicle has full-time insurance, 'TNCs’ do not!”
Taxis, previously thought to have declined by 65 percent in ridership between March 2012 and July 2014, have corrected this figure to between 20 and 30 percent, the Examiner noted yesterday.
