At Milan central station drivers refused to take fares with the exception of the elderly and people bound for hospital in opposition to the new Uber service, which they say is in violation of laws setting out the roles and characteristics of taxi drivers and chauffeur car rentals.
Based in California, Uber allows users to to see where the closest participating car is and book it after agreeing a set fare paid by credit card.
In other parts of the city drivers remained divided in their response, with some continuing to work as usual and others abstaining in protest against what they described as "unfair competition".
"We don't have any other way to protest against something that is illegal. Illegal, you understand?" a taxi driver told ANSA.
"Do you know that the drivers who register with the new service can be private individuals with their own car? What if they have a criminal record? What if their car insurance is not up to date? If they haven't had their vehicle checked?" he continued.
"The thing that makes us angriest is that none of the people who demand rules and checks of us has supported us".
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New York
Ashwini Chhabra, the deputy commissioner for policy and planning at New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission, is joining Uber as its first head of policy development and community engagement, according to a report in The New York Times.
A spokesperson for the commission confirmed to Mashable that Chhabra is no longer with the organization, but did not indicate his next move. "He was a valued colleague at the agency and that we are sorry to see him go," the rep said.
Uber did not immediately respond to our request for comment.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission initially put up some resistance to Uber in late 2012, noting that it hadn't yet authorized ride-hailing apps to operate in city taxis. The following year, however, the commission signaled its approval for Uber and other similar apps.
This wouldn't be Chhabra's first time working at an up-and-coming business. In between stints working for city government, he served as a practice manager at Axiom in 2008, a legal services company that was less than a decade old at the time.
Uber now operates cars in more than 100 cities, but the startup has run into regulatory issues in a number of cities in the U.S. and abroad. Chhabra's hire could be useful in helping the company navigate these hurdles going forward.
Uber is reportedly in talks to raise a new round of funding at a $10 billion valuation. The company is on many peoples' short lists of tech companies that may go public in the not too distant future.
UPDATE Tues. 12:15 pm E.T.: Uber confirmed hiring Chhabra as its first head of policy development and community engagement in a statement emailed to Mashable:
"Ashwini Chhabra joins Uber as our first Head of Policy Development and Community Engagement," a rep said. "Uber is growing at an incredible rate and we asked Ashwini to join us to focus on turning complex policy questions into smart answers and scalable solutions."
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Jailed 'Romeo' taxi driver phoned teen girl 8,900 times
May 20, 2014 16:10 By North Wales Daily Post
Court heard Colin Robinshaw, 36, befriended girl, 14, and showered her with gifts before coercing her into sexual activity.
A taxi driver who considered himself to be a Romeo sent a photo of himself, naked from the waist down, to a 14-year-old girl’s mobile phone, a court heard.
Colin Robinshaw, 36, bombarded her with thousands of calls and text messages and tried to arrange a sexual encounter.
A court heard today how he rang her 8,900 times over a four-month period and, on one occasion, took her to a secluded spot in his taxi and groped her.
He also persuaded his victim to send him explicit photographs of herself.
Mold Crown Court heard how he set about grooming her and he called himself Romeo in text messages and asked her to call herself Juliet, telling her he wanted to be with her.
Robinshaw, of Cambrian Terrace, Tywyn, was jailed for three years after he admitted charges of sexual activity with a child, causing a child to engage in sexual activity, and attempting to arrange the commission of a sexual offence by encouraging her to engage in sexual activity.
Judge Niclas Parry – who said Robinshaw failed to appreciate the seriousness of what he had done and regarded it as “fooling around” – ordered him to register indefinitely as a sex offender.
He was also made the subject of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) under which he must not stay in the same house as children and he must never contact the victim.
Prosecuting barrister Karl Scholz said Robinshaw was first challenged when a “love letter” he had sent to the schoolgirl was discovered by a member of her family.
The letter described his love for her and how he also wanted her in his bed.
He went on to send her a photograph of himself naked from the waist down and he showered her with gifts including a iPod, a mobile phone and a necklace.
Between the beginning of October 2012 and the end of January 2013 he made 8,900 phone calls to her and she had contacted him 4,500 times.
She felt more and more under his control and after initially refusing, agreed to send her photographs of herself.
The taxi driver told her to use aliases when sending texts – and said he would call himself Romeo and she should call herself Juliet.
Mr Scholz said before his arrest, Robinshaw messaged her telling her to delete all texts she had received from him.
The hard drive had been removed from his computer and could not be found, and he got a new phone the day before his arrest and police never found the old one.
But messages were found, after her phone was analysed.
Judge Parry said that the defendant had spent months grooming the girl with his intention of obtaining sexual gratification at her expense.
He befriended her, they exchanged phone numbers and he then “literally bombarded her” with text messages and phone calls. She was spending up to three hours a day on the phone with him.
The 20-year age disparity and his controlling behaviour were aggravating features and it was obvious that he had no comprehension of the gravity of the matter.
Mr Scholz said the defendant was a man of good character at the time of the offences but he had since been convicted of groping the breasts of a teenage girl at a party.
Simon Rogers, defending, said that his client’s greatest mitigation was his early guilty pleas which had prevented the need for the girl to give evidence.
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