Taxi drivers turn violent against Uber in Paris
January 16, 2014 Leave a comment
Taxi drivers turn violent against Uber in Paris
January 13, 2014 7:15 pmby Tim Bradshaw
The taxi industry’s war on app-enabled chauffeur services such as Uber has broken out into physical combat on the streets of Paris. During a strike by French cab driverswho are protesting against the rise of what are locally called “voitures de tourisme avec chauffeurs”, several drivers and limos who crossed the picket line were attacked, with windows smashed and tires slashed.The incident was first reported on Twitter by Kat Borlongan, co-founder of French open-data company Five by Five:
“Unfortunately, we can confirm this morning’s incidents in Paris. We strongly condemn this severe violence with which Uber riders and partners were confronted,” Uber said in a statement. “That taxis chose to use violence today is unacceptable, that they chose to strike is their business.”
Ms Borlongan, who was not seriously injured in the incident, told the FT via Twitter:
“We were on a freeway. Parked cabs blocked several lanes to filter traffic, singling out car services and cab drivers not on strike… They were set up more like checkpoints than picket lines… I don’t have numbers, but they were targeting what we call VTCs inFrance: Uber but also similar car services and motortaxis.”
Companies such as Uber and Hailo have been arguing with regulators all over the world for years now. Taxi drivers and their unions have been leading the charge that these e-hailing apps create unfair competition because they sidestep the rules that regular cabbies must adhere to.
That has led to a patchwork of regulations, one of the more unusual of which came into effect in Paris on January 1, 2014: car services (but not licensed taxis) must wait 15 minutes after receiving a request before picking up their passengers. (Uber’s average pickup time in other major cities is around 5-10 minutes, according to its support pages, with some high-density places such as San Francisco often as low as 3 minutes.)
Uber has said it plans to challenge the regulation but the French taxi unions want it to go further still, accusing limos of picking up passengers from the curb, despite rules prohibiting them from doing so. Hundreds of Parisian taxi drivers went out on strikeagainst VTCs on Monday, which have grown since a government cap was relaxed in 2009, and in protest at an increase in VAT.
A similar battle is brewing in neighbouring Belgium, Tech.eu reports, where Uber wants to launch despite the now-familiar combination of regulatory hurdles and taxi union opposition.
But in other cities, such as San Francisco, Uber and their competitors have been able to get the go-ahead from local governments. Overall, the arguments have not prevented Uber from achieving rapid growth: the company said in November that its revenues were growing by 20 per cent a month and the service now operates inaround 70 cities.
About bambooinnovator
Bamboo Innovator 