Furious French taxi drivers stage UBER protest!
France’s interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the service was “illegal” and has ordered police and prosecutors to enforce its closure and banned US based low cost UberPOP after a day of nationwide protests by taxi drivers, as some stranded travellers had to walk along the side of the motorway to reach the airport.
US rock singer Courtney Cobain was caught up in the unrest, who tweeted her frustration, saying her taxi had been ambushed as she left the airport. Major highways around Paris were blocked as tyres were burned and cars overturned and others had their windows smashed with bats, during the day-long strike. Barriers also appeared around Marseille and Aix-en-Provence in southeast France.
Aeroports de Paris, the operator of the French capital’s Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Orly airports, warned passengers to travel by train, saying “access by road is completely blocked.”
Taxi drivers also blocked access to Marseille and Aix train stations and protested on the main access to Marseilles-Provence airport.
France’s taxi drivers – who have to pay thousands of euros for a licence – say they are being unfairly undercut by UberPOP.
France’s licensed drivers have lost between 30% and 40% of their income over two years because of the growth of UberPOP, Mr Morghad said.
UberPOP is a car-sharing service offered by Uber, which brings together customers and private drivers at prices lower than those charged by both traditional taxi firms and even other Uber services.
The nationwide protests saw violence in Marseille as well as Paris
San Francisco-based Uber says it has a million users in France, including 250,000 for UberPOP. Uber also operates a luxury service which is not banned.
Uber has faced similar teething problems in cities all over the world, with traditional taxi drivers protesting against being undercut by the unlicensed company.
But licensed taxi drivers have been criticised for being slow to adopt the app-based geolocation technology behind Uber’s success.