Toronto city council has voted unanimously in favour of moving forward to regulate ride-sharing services like Uber.
Advertisement
Its spokesperson, Lucas Seale, says a regular metered taxi trip from Rosebank to Oregon Tambo worldwide Airport costs just over R400 against Uber’s R200. Last week, the company suspended operations in Paris after the French government arrested two of the company’s executives and charged them with, as it was reported in the Wall Street Journal, “enabling taxi-driving by nonprofessional drivers, and other crimes against entrepreneurship”. An Indian court on Wednesday July 8, 2015, lifted a ban on Uber Technologies Inc.in Delhi, the capital of one of the ride-hailing company’s most important markets outside the United States.
As auto impoundments and the intimidation of drivers continue, Uber has an ongoing petition in Cape Town-now with 20,536 signatories-in an attempt to convince local authorities to grant licenses to Uber drivers and set out a clearer process for licensing.
Raging metered taxi drivers in Sandton said they fear they may end up jobless because Uber doesn’t adhere to the same rules as local cab drivers.
While the tussle over taxis and Uber appears to have come from nowhere, discontent has been brewing for some time. The reason Uber has taken off around the world is that it provides a better service to consumers at a lower price.
In Latin America, Uber drivers or their cars have been physically attacked or threatened by taxi drivers. In January, despite its ban, Uber went back on the roads in New Delhi, saying that it was applying for a radio taxi license.
Uber will have to pay the government 1,599 pesos ($101) per year to license each vehicle on its platform and give about 1.5 percent of domestic revenue to a newly created city transport fund under the plan, an official close to the capital’s transport secretary Rufino Leon, told Reuters on Tuesday.
But Uber’s popularity has seen some of its drivers being harassed by competing cab drivers.
In a statement, Gagan Bhatia, GM Delhi, Uber, said: “We have always had vast faith in the country’s judiciary and we welcome the order of the High Court”.
Colombian authorities have deemed the company illegal and police have impounded a number of cars offering services on its app.
Advertisement
Uber now accepts only credit cards for payment, except for a test programme in India.
