Memo to Taxi Services: Stop Complaining, Innovate and Evolve

The past nine months or so have brought us a surge of ride-share and taxi-like services in many major metro locations like San Francisco, NYC, Boston. See Uber, Lyft, Zimride, GroundLink, Limos.com. One thing I like about these services, among other things, is they challenge the norm. It’s that saying of “find a need, fill a need.” Ok, so maybe my kids were recently watching that animated Robin Williams movie Robots, where this idea was a story-line theme. Ah, but lets not digress.

My point is there’s a need to evolve in the point-to-point transportation industry and taxi services haven’t picked up on it. There have been many stories how these services are (or will) crush the taxi service industry as we know it. I would hate for these drivers to lose their jobs, but instead of complaining they can innovate and evolve. I’ve talked to my share of cabbies who are very smart and entrepreneurial by the very nature of what they do. Sure there are miles of red tape to chop through, but these startups are trudging through the same thing.

So, the challenge is there for you ‘ol reliable taxi service industry. Stop the complaining. The only thing squeaky wheels get are greasy or replaced.