People around the world love Uber and it’s plain to see with the company working in 60 countries around the world. However, some countries don’t like Uber quite as much, as it is banned in several countries, including the Netherlands, Spain, Thailand and Taiwan, and the list is growing. A majority of the protest comes from taxi drivers, with London’s Black Cab drivers filing a lawsuit this week against Uber. Their main arguments are that Uber’s insurance is not up to scratch, the company doesn’t pay tax like it should, its practices are unsupervised and unsafe and that driver and passenger data isn’t safe.
Image One: Taxi drivers demonstrate against Transport for London (TFL) outside the organisation’s offices in London, Britain May 26, 2015
Safety is a common argument brought up in the fight against Uber around the globe but it is as valid as it seems? It’s very hard to tell as there are many statistics and the media has potentially skewed the view. As Uber uses its app and no cash is actually transferred, it is not possible to have illegal Uber cabs. Furthermore there is little to suggest that there are any more assaults from Uber drivers than there are from regular drivers.
As previously mentioned, a main problem for Uber is insurance as many of it’s driver’s are signing up believing that they have the right type of insurance when they don’t, resulting in multiple lawsuits, with more coming Uber’s way.
Canada’s stance is mixed, with cities like Toronto embracing Uber, who has 500,000 customers per month, whereas Vancouver is on its way to banning the company from operating there. The outcome of this battle is yet to be seen.
Sources
http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-everywhere-uber-is-banned-around-the-world-2015-4