Inside the revolt against Uber in Canada and abroad

[Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP]

Earlier this week, hundreds of taxi drivers slowed down early morning traffic around Montreal’s international airport to protest ride-hailing company Uber. It was the latest action by taxi drivers riled up about its UberX service. What has them particularly angry is that many believe the service provides unfair competition and risks the public’s safety.

UberX is available through downloadable apps for smartphones and allows private car owners to effectively act as taxi drivers by picking up and dropping off customers at locations much like traditional taxi cabs.

The service is often cheaper than cabs, but unlike taxi drivers in many markets, UberX drivers don’t pay the fees, undergo training or vehicle safety checks or have the specific insurance that taxi drivers are often required to have. And that has started a war globally with the taxi industry.

UberX is one of several services offered by Uber, and some of its other services, which use professional drivers and high-end vehicles and operate more like traditional taxi and limousine services, haven’t faced as much scrutiny.

San Francisco-based Uber got its start in 2009 as UberCar and has since expanded to 377 cities across the globe. It arrived in Toronto in 2012, and much like anywhere else it does business, it has encountered legal issues and fierce objections by local taxi cab drivers.

Uber supporters, however, say the company provides jobs and an alternative to taxis, which may be more difficult to get a hold of than an Uber ride.

Cities all over the world have been grappling with how to handle the Uber issue. Below are some of the notable Uber battles the company has faced here at home and abroad.

Canada

In addition to this week’s incident at the Montreal-Trudeau international airport, Uber’s presence has led to a number of other controversies in Montreal. The city’s mayor called for a truce between taxi drivers and Uber and stated that UberX should stop operating during that time. Quebec’s transport minister said the service is illegal and called for it to end permanently. Uber managed to even anger the provincial tax agency. Last year, 20 Revenu Quebec tax investigators raided two of Uber’s Montreal offices after they alleged Uber wasn’t abiding by tax laws. The city’s cab drivers have been so furious by UberX that earlier this month one driver smashed the phone of another taxi driver who was believed to be also driving for Uber in front of TV cameras with a hammer, and last August, a group of Montreal cab drivers pelted UberX cars with eggs.

Toronto may have dodged a bullet when taxi drivers cancelled their planned protest for the Family Day and NBA All-Star weekend, but that doesn’t mean things in the Big Smoke aren’t still tense. The city tried previously to restrict and ban Uber, but those efforts failed. Media reports say the City of Toronto is currently working on a bylaw to address ride-hailing apps like Uber, and the mayor is hopeful that something will be reached.

Ottawa hasn’t seen a dramatic resistance to Uber as other cities. The city does consider Uber illegal and has laid charges against Uber drivers, but one Ottawa taxi driver didn’t win over the city’s mayor with his efforts to expose Uber by secretly recording Uber cab rides and posting the footage on YouTube.

In hopes of modernizing and tackling the Uber threat, Vancouver taxi cab companies began using an app called eCab to mimic some of Uber’s functionality. The app has received a lukewarm reception by users in Vancouver. Uber stopped operating in Vancouver in 2012 due to the province imposing a minimum $75 fare for each trip, but it is fighting to return. A 2014 petition saw over 10,000 signatures in support of the company returning to Vancouver.

Toronto and other Canadian cities may be looking to Edmonton as a model of how to get Uber to co-exist with traditional taxi cabs. Edmonton became the first city in Canada to regulate Uber earlier this year. Uber drivers there must have approved insurance, inspect their vehicle yearly and undergo a criminal record check.

France

Uber has likely seen its fiercest backlash in France. Just last month, thousands of taxi drivers blocked roads and even burned tires in protest against Uber and related services. Police arrested 22 taxi drivers as a result. That’s all despite parliament passing a law virtually making UberPop (Uber’s brand for UberX in overseas regions where the UberX brand is equivalent to the standard Uber service) illegal in 2014. The company is challenging the law, and while initially defiant by telling its drivers to keep driving despite police hitting the streets to crackdown on Uber drivers, Uber decided to eventually suspend UberPop services after Uber cars were flipped over and burnt.

Germany

Uber shut down its office in Frankfurt after only 18 months. Frankfurt wasn’t the only German city Uber pulled out of; Hamburg and Dusseldorf also saw an Uber retreat, both after the company was in the cities for less than two years. Like most regions Uber operates in, licensed taxi drivers in Frankfurt were not happy the company used mostly unlicensed drivers who didn’t have to go through the same rigorous steps needed to become a licensed taxi driver for its low-end service. They also didn’t like that Uber’s smartphone app allowed people to get rides for a much cheaper rate than licensed taxis. UberPop was made illegal in Germany in March 2015; however, UberBlack and UberTaxi, which use professionally licensed drivers, were not affected.

South Africa

Despite arriving at a compromise after negotiating with Uber for several months, Cape Town police impounded over 30 Uber vehicles at the end of December 2014 as there was a disagreement in regards to what permits Uber drivers needed.

India

In an incident that drew shockwaves worldwide, Uber was banned in New Delhi in 2014 after Shiv Kumar Yadav, an Uber driver, allegedly raped a 25-year-old woman. The driver was also accused of raping another woman in 2011 when he was a cab driver. Yadav had a criminal history and was out on bail after serving seven months in jail when the 2014 incident occurred.

Prior to the incident, Uber made some aggressive steps to gain market share from existing services in the region by offering free rides for several days, launching Uber Go, another low-cost variant of Uber, and Wallet, a way for riders to pay using various payment options. The moves reportedly cost Uber a lot of money in the process.

As a result of the sex assault, Uber included a “panic button” in its app so users can alert the police and others of a possible emergency. Yadav was convicted of raping his Uber passenger in October of last year.

Italy

An Italian judge ruled UberPop provided unfair competition to existing services last May. Like in other regions, controversy stemmed around the fact that Uber drivers did not have to go through the regulation process and apply for a taxi licence.

United Kingdom

In late 2015, Uber got judge approval to continue its operations in London. The justice believed Uber’s app isn’t a traditional taxi meter because Uber calculates the cost of a ride differently than regular taxis. If Uber was to be banned from London, it would’ve lost one of its biggest markets.

The company has said it believes it can exist with London’s commonplace black cabs too as they provide special advantages Uber can’t such as the ability to pick up passengers who hail a cab or use ranks at places like hotels, airports and train stations that see a lot of traffic. Uber even modified its app to allow users to choose traditional London cabs as well, but some dismissed the gesture as a publicity stunt.

Uber continued its U.K. rollout in late January with UberAssist, a service geared to those with disabilities, in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield.

Despite the relatively smooth sailing Uber has had compared to other regions, it was still met with protests by some of the country’s cab drivers, and as of this month, cab drivers continue to protest it.

Spain

Uber suspended its UberPop service in Spain at the end of December 2014 after it got word that a court ruling banned its service in the country. The company said at the time that it was planning to appeal the ruling and work with the authorities.

Australia

Australia’s capital, Canberra, became the first region in the country to legalize UberX. In the process, it attempted to regulate Uber by enforcing numerous rules that make Uber drivers a lot like taxi drivers. Uber drivers in Canberra must do criminal, driving history and car safety checks. In addition to obvious requirements like being alcohol and drug free, Uber drivers need to have third-party and property insurance and training. Drivers also can’t accept cash if their car doesn’t have a security camera, and they must pay a small amount in fees yearly. When emergencies happen, fare prices can’t spike, and Uber must provide a way to accept customer complaints. Presumably to help traditional taxis compete, taxi licence fees were also dropped dramatically and will continue to drop in 2017 to $5,000, down from the $20,000 rate charged prior to Oct. 30, 2015.

Other regions in Australia haven’t been as welcoming to Uber. In December of last year, the state of Victoria made UberX illegal after finding a driver guilty of driving a commercial vehicle without a licence.

Much like in other regions, revolt from traditional taxi drivers isn’t uncommon. While some have peacefully protested Uber, citing safety concerns and lack of regulation as key concerns of the company, others have resorted to assaulting Uber drivers. In early October of last year, news broke that a group of taxi drivers allegedly damaged Uber cars, punched Uber drivers and stole an Uber driver’s phone.

Netherlands

Uber stopped offering UberPop in The Netherlands in November, months after a ruling said that Uber’s UberPop service broke the law stating that drivers needed a special licence. Uber continued its UberX and UberBlack services in the country.

United States
In its home country, Uber has been no stranger to controversy. In fact, you could probably write a book about all of the nightmares that Uber has found itself in the middle of in the United States. They range from an Uber driver choking a passenger, another driver spitting in the face of a passenger and slapping him, kidnapping and even a driver running over and killing a six-year-old girl.

Drivers aren’t the only bad apples, sometimes they’re victims as well. A New York police officer was caught on video verbally abusing an Uber driver, and a Taco Bell executive was caught on tape and fired after drunkenly assaulting an Uber driver after the driver asked him to leave when he couldn’t remember where he wanted to go. Uber has taken an unconventional approach to preventing future assaults. It made news earlier this year when it started an experiment with having drivers leave a Bop It, a 90s kids toy, in the backseat of cars as a way of distracting passengers from harassing drivers.

Uber’s relationships with governments hasn’t been smooth either. Uber was forced to pay $7 million to continue operations in its home state of California due to a data dispute. In Kansas, Uber suddenly shut down operations when lawmakers ruled that it needed to do driver background checks and carry additional car insurance in the state. It had better luck in New York City where the city backed off of capping the number of licences it issues to Uber.