Uber faces harassment in South Africa from local cabdrivers

New Delhi, July 08 (ANI): The High Court has set aside the Delhi government’s order by which cab service provider Uber’s application for licence was rejected.

The proposed regulation bans Uber and companies like it from accepting cash payments from customers, offering prepaid plans or using taxi stands.

The request follows recent protests outside Uber’s offices in Johannesburg, where dozens of taxi drivers gathered Friday to demand that the same license legislation for metered taxis be applied to Uber, which is also embroiled in a licensing dispute in Cape Town, where traffic officials have impounded more than 200 of the company’s vehicles.

If the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi is not satisfied with the response, it will give Uber one opportunity to clarify its stand.

Uber’s Johannesburg GM Alon Lits, on the other hand, has expressed his frustration with the system, saying that the company has been in talks with government for nearly a year.

The dispute with Uber drivers began a week ago but tension has been simmering for months.

So no, I do not feel that the city is adequately regulating the taxi industry in Ottawa.

After a brief halt during which it lodged an application for a radio-taxi license, Uber resumed operations, arguing that the ban was improper. The company pointed to the same regulators approving the license of a local ride-sharing service named Ola. Many in Paris welcome Uber as a welcome innovation in a city where hailing a cab is cause for endless frustration.

The heavily-regulated taxi drivers, whose organization stems from South Africa’s days of apartheid and black citizens’ inability to find available taxis, object to Uber’s capability, through its cellphone app, to undercut taxi fares in the city.

The Mexico City provision, however, could set a new precedent for Uber in Latin America. Uber will also need to pay 1.5 percent of its domestic revenue to a new city transport fund, according to Reuters.

Mr Moloi, who was retrenched from his job as a credit controller in 1999, said: “We are exhausted of being treated like third-class citizens in our own country”.

Despite the regulatory hurdles, there is no shortage of investors who want to partner with the company.

Lits says the “outdated” legislation was adopted long before advances in smart phone technology made Uber’s business plan possible.