Taxi drivers hold demonstrations to press Quebec government to declare UberX

Taxi drivers are staging a day of protest on Tuesday – but they are denying rumours that they will be blocking bridges.

Taxi drivers gathered at Montreal’s Technoparc.

The taxi industry says its 22,000 workers in Quebec need to be better protected and want tighter regulations for ride-sharing services like Uber. Accompanied by police escorts, a parade of about 50 taxis is driving to the downtown office of Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard.

UberX is a car-sharing service where people can pay the driver for a ride.

In Chicago, Uber pays a 30 cent tax per ride to the city.

The drivers called on the government to clarify its position on the new service, which allows users to hail a vehicle using an application on their smartphone.

The aim of the protest is to get the provincial and municipal governments to take a harder stance against Uber – and to reduce the fees paid by taxi drivers.

Unlike a municipality like Vancouver, Montreal doesn’t face any of issues of scarcity.

Montreal’s Taxi Bureau has seized 200 UberX driver cars since the beginning of the year.

So while Uber’s complicated relationship with Quebec drags itself forward, the distance between it and the law narrows as Quebec’s politicians struggle with folding the sharing economy into the official economy.

It had been reported that taxi drivers, citing falling number of passengers and ever-increasing operating costs, had been moving over to work with the TNCs.

Due to the Tues.