Rodney Hide: Cops give taxi group rank treatment

Our police force could learn from Uber's peer-to-peer business model. Photo / Janna Dixon

The police last week kicked a DJ, Tim Phin, out of a car. His crime? A capitalist act between consenting adults.

He and a mate had used Uber to hire a ride. I imagine it was going well. Phin and his mate were getting down the road, their driver providing good service and making money.

But, unfortunately, Mr Plod out on patrol had nothing better to do than use his Plod power to end the ride.

Plod then charged the driver with using a "form of meter"- ie a smartphone - to set a fare rather than an hourly rate or set fee.

Uber says Plod was wrong. Uber claims it is fully compliant and has laid a complaint against the police.

There's a clash over the rules but the real clash is the future colliding with the past.

Until now, we have relied on the police to regulate taxis. Politicians have piled regulation upon regulation, pushing up taxi fares and making it ever tougher to run a cab.

The Government even requires cameras in cabs and has police patrolling to ensure the correct camera is installed and that it works.

Technology and Uber blow all that away.

Uber hire cars are cheaper, better and more efficient. Bureaucrats and regulation can't beat the power of peer-to-peer business.

Uber's algorithms assign a driver whom you deal with from start to finish, not a dispatcher, and every ride allows you to assess the driver.

Customers give drivers a star rating out of five, which is public.

Too many negative reviews and you no longer drive for Uber. The discipline is fast and quick. It beats any system of government-mandated licensing.

Think of Trade Me. It enables peer-to-peer buying and selling. Uber does the same for a ride home.

It's a whole new way of doing business. It disempowers bureaucrats and puts customers and drivers in charge.

I love it. The public transport of the future won't be clapped-out trains but driverless cars and Uber. It may happen much quicker than we now can possibly imagine.

We won't own a car. A driverless car is always just a minute away, ready to whisk us to our destination.

Government should not use police power to stomp on the future. It should do what government should always do: get out of the way.

Uber is not compulsory. No one has to use the service. No one is being hurt by it. Sure, existing taxi companies are feeling the heat. But that's always the way with new technology and new ways of doing things. Progress is always disruptive.

I am looking forward to peer-to-peer policing.

Imagine the feedback we would give cops who toss us out of our ride home and ping us for travelling 1km over the speed limit.

And who wouldn't give feedback on their couldn't-care-less response to our complaints of burglary?

The police shouldn't stomp on Uber. They should learn from it.