Brisbane detectives have charged two men over assaults on Uber drivers in Brisbane, a police spokeswoman has confirmed.
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Even so, Uber and its subsidiary, Raiser, expanded into Jefferson Parish within a few months, recruiting drivers and picking up customers.
The group of men punched the driver in the face and ripped off his side mirror before stealing his phone.
“They were friendly with all the other taxi drivers”, he said.
The police investigation is ongoing.
Pramil Patel initially lied and said he wasn’t an Uber driver when he was approached by the group.
They specifically suggested “geofencing”, by which Uber drivers’ phones would not receive requests for rides made from inside certain boundaries.
Mr Patel said the group broke his vehicle mirrors while shouting ‘You are f***ing Uber.
Alex Ihaia was also ambushed by a group of men at about 3am in Kangaroo Point and was struck over the head as he tried to escape.
‘There was a lot of blood.
Five men were allegedly involve in the attacks.
The alleged assault happened early on Monday morning.
He said the attackers told him he was “ruining their business”.
Taxi Council Queensland’s Benjamin Wash condemned the attacks on Tuesday saying the perpetrators needed to be prosecuted.
Inside the council meeting venue, the taxi drivers lined up to voice their frustrations.
“Unfortunately our attempt to bring them to the table for those rules is when they walked off, so at this point we have no option, we can no longer wait for them to come to us, we’re going to have to cause them a few pain”, said Foshee.
The victim said he saw the group get into a maxi taxi after he was attacked.
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Although the parish recently sued several individual Uber drivers and filed for an injunction seeking to ban the service from operating in unincorporated areas of Jefferson, the cabbies want officials also to consider somehow blocking locals from using the mobile app with which the company’s customers purchase rides.
