LETTER: Taxi company's owner wants even playing field

I am the owner of Glacier Taxi. When I first started the taxi company 2 1/2 years ago I wanted to create something that would last and provide a service that people would be able to depend upon. For the most part we have been able to do what we started out to accomplish.

Trust me, it hasn’t been without its ups and downs. We have made mistakes, but we are new and growing and are still striving to gain the public trust after so many taxi companies have failed.

Now, though, it seems as though the whole world hates taxis. Uber this and Uber that. Even the latest article by Seaborn Larson is touting Uber as the savior. We at Glacier Taxi are a local company, all the revenues that we acquire are spent locally whether that is in wages or repairs vs. UBER, a multinational company who will probably not put anything back into the valley. Last I heard, that company has a cash bank of about $60 billion.

The Daily Inter Lake did get one thing right when they spoke about the vote by PSC Commissioner Bob Lake. He said that Uber has an unfair advantage. As I write this, the fees that I have to pay to the airport, the city of Whitefish, the Public Service Commission and the state are not duplicated for Uber. They basically have a free ride, which makes me wonder why the people who wrote the bill to allow this out-of-state entity hate taxis so much.

If they really wanted to create an environment where there were more options available for rides, they would have either made rules for Uber the same as for taxis or decreased the regulations on taxis to match those of Uber. —Randy Cowger, Columbia Falls