Taxi drivers have complained that Uber has hit their business unfairly as it has expanded rapidly over the four years since its launch. The venture-capital backed firm valued at $18 billion now operates in 25 European cities and has sparked legal cases and taxi protests from London to Rome.
Dubbed UberPool, the service will be added to the Uber mobile phone app in the often traffic-clogged French capital, offering rides from non-professional drivers in their own cars.
But the new service comes only one week before a court challenge brought by rivals over whether it is legal for Uber to offer rides from non-professional drivers in a service known as UberPop.
The Paris Commercial Court is expected to decide whether UberPop, and by extension the new UberPool shared ride service, competes unfairly with rivals such as taxis.
"We obviously take legal processes seriously, and we will respond when needed to court decisions in the countries where we operate," said Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty on Thursday, Uber's head of Western Europe.
"But we will never accept to make changes that are against our customers' interests unless we are forced to."
Courts in Berlin and Hamburg have banned Uber's classic limousine pick-up service UberBlack as well as UberPop, the newer service that links private drivers with passengers.
As a result, Uber, which operates in 250 cities worldwide, dropped its UberPop prices in Germany to comply with local rules that say people can share rides but not for a profit. Since that led to fewer drivers being willing to take riders, Uber recently decided to allow regular taxi drivers to book fares on its app.
Gore-Coty acknowledged that UberPop had basically been rendered unattractive in Germany by the courts. "The court decision disincentivised drivers so we are bringing in taxis in a way to solve that problem and show that we are an open platform."
Uber is also bending to another court demand there by applying for an official operators' licence, he added.
In France, another showdown is brewing over a taxi and car service law passed in mid-September. The law banned Uber and other car services from using GPS technology to display where cars and customers were located, a key feature of the apps, and said such an approach could only be used by licensed taxis.
It also required drivers of car services to return to their despatch between fares.
To face the challenges ahead, Uber is flush with $1.2 billion raised from investors in June, including Google Ventures and Black Rock Inc. among others. The Financial Times last week reported that it was in early talks to raise another $1 billion.
The company's deep pockets allow it to recruit top lobbyists. In September, it named Mark MacGann, the former head of government affairs for NYSE Euronext, as its representative in Brussels, and U.S. President Barack Obama's former campaign manager David Plouffe is on the payroll in Washington D.C.
Gore-Coty said he was optimistic that some countries such as the Netherlands and Spain were taking a more positive view of Uber and other shared-transport schemes.
"The situation is not dark everywhere in Europe as it may seem," said the executive. "Where you have most tension is where the taxi industry has been the most protected, but we are starting to see things move positively."
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/uber-tests-french-tolerance-car-share-scheme-195324971--sector.html#qJpLdeS
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Taxi customers in Hitchin are being warned of a second strike from 5pm to 10pm today following Saturday evening’s walkout which involved more than 50 owner drivers in town.
The dispute centres on North Herts District Council’s decision to reduce the drivers’ flag rate from £3.40 over the first 0.7 miles of a fare to £3, which will come into force on December 1.
Taxi driver Shamriz Khan, who helped lead Saturday’s strike and is supporting today’s action, told the Comet: “No more than eight drivers out of 50 or 60 turned up for work in Hitchin on Saturday night – which is testament to the fact the council has simply not listened to a word taxi drivers have said to them.
“We also know around eight to 10 drivers in Letchworth also didn’t go to work, and we have plans to spread it throughout other towns in the area if the council continue not to listen to us.
“I’ve been driving taxis for 14 years and have never had a customer complain the tariff was too high. Owner drivers are losing 25p to 30p per fare. It’s unacceptable – anyone who has had two wage cuts in two years would feel this way. We’re all family people but we are far worse off now than we were five years ago in terms of drivers pay.
“The message we are trying to send the council is we don’t want an increase in fares, but we don’t want a reduction either – we just want them to leave it as it is.
“We don’t want to inconvenience the public but the council isn’t listening to us. We are printing 1,000 leaflets to give to as many commuters as possible on Thursday to tell them of our plans. Many of our customers have already asked us how they can support us. None of us want to take strike action as we lose a day’s pay – but the council are acting like a dictatorship in pushing through these plans without consulting us.”
Councillor Bernard Lovewell, responsible for Housing and Environmental Health said: ‘We remain committed to working with the local taxi trade, however we also have to take into account the needs of their customers. The decision to reduce the current taxi fares from 1 December 2014 to bring them more in line with national and regional averages, was based on balancing the need for a viable local taxi service against ensuring taxis remain affordable for all sections of the community, particularly the elderly and vulnerable.”
Muktar Thind, manager of Boxhall Taxis who helped hand out leaflets to commuters at Hitchin Railway Station said: “We need to make the public aware of what we are doing, We don’t want to inconvenience anyone but we need to let the public know about the cut in wages taxi drivers face.
Roger Lafferty of Castles Taxi in Hitchin said: “The council never listen to us, they are destroying the taxi industry in Hitchin. I feel sorry for the independent drivers here because the council is asking them to take a pay cut – didn’t some people at NHDC receive an 18 per cent pay rise last year? “So how can they then tell taxi drivers to take a pay cut? I broadly supported the strike and I made sure none of my drivers picked up from cab ranks.
“I don’t think the council fully appreciate the service we provide in the community, as we help a lot of people on unsocial shifts get to work including nurses and carers. The council are crucifying the taxi trade in Hitchin.”
Hitchin commuter Stewart Scott from The Ridgeway told the Comet: “As someone who commutes to London every day, and as someone who occasionally has after-work drinks and gets later trains back to Hitchin I do use taxis to get home from the station. I say good luck to the strikers as no-one wants their wages cut do they?”
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Durham
A TAXI driver can remain in business on the road after overturning a licence revocation.
But a judge warned Branislav Kobylan over his future behaviour if he wants to retain his licence, following several brushes with authority in recent years
Durham Crown Court heard he was considered, “an irritant, a pest and a nuisance”, by some traffic control and police officers, plus other cabbies.
The court heard he could be argumentative and abusive in clashes with other drivers and enforcement officers, often for obstructing the highway.
Kobylan was previously cautioned, having been found with a CS gas canister and three samurai swords in his vehicle, which he said was, “for protection”.
Other incidents followed leading to his licence being revoked by Durham County Council in March, a decision upheld at a subsequent hearing before North Durham magistrates, in Peterlee, in July.
But as Kobylan, of Christchurch Place, Peterlee, lodged an appeal against that decision, the revocation was suspended pending the outcome of today’s (Thursday November 13) appeal hearing.
David Comb, responding to the appeal on behalf of the county council, said two incidents in four days last December “triggered” the revocation.
In one he offered a traffic enforcement officer a £5 bribe and some sweets after being asked to leave a loading bay. He later claimed it was “a joke”.
Four days later he clashed with police, including an inspector, when asked to move on, twice in 75 minutes in the early hours in a congested Claypath.
Mr Comb said Kobylan initially refused, becoming, “angry, argumentative and confrontational, in unpleasant exchanges”.
Jamie Adams, for the appellant, said: “There are a limited amount of taxi ranks in Durham, fought over by too large a number of drivers.”
Mr Adams said the 35-year-old Slovak national had suffered racist abuse from other drivers, telling him to go back to his homeland, in previous clashes.
“Clearly there has been some antipathy with other taxi drivers.
“But he now accepts he should address complaints through the correct channels.
“He tells me he does respect the police and council, but he accepts, in the past, becoming frustrated and argumentative when he should have just moved on.”
Mr Adams added that none of the complaints were from fare-paying customers over the standard of his driving.
Upholding the appeal, Judge Robert Adams, sitting with two magistrates, said the council licensing committee was right to revoke the licence.
“Let me make it absolutely clear your appeal has succeeded based entirely on what we have heard today.
“You must recognise how wholly inappropriate your behaviour was, in 2013.
“Make sure it’s not repeated.”
A costs order was made for Kobylan, but only covering the appeal, and not for previous hearings.
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/
Court is expected to decide whether UberPop, and by extension the new UberPool shared ride service, competes unfairly with rivals such as taxis. http://www.privatecarserviceparis.com/
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