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French Cabbies Say They'll Block Paris Roads On Monday Over Uber
mrspoonsi writes Parisian taxi drivers have vowed to block roads leading into the French capital on Monday to protest a court's refusal to ban urban ridesharing service UberPOP. Like their counterparts in large cities across the globe, Parisian taxi drivers are fed up with what they see as unfair competition from Uber's popular smartphone taxi service. UberPOP, which uses non-professional drivers using their own cars to take on passengers at budget rates, has 160,000 users in France, according to the company. A commercial court in Paris ruled on Friday that a new law making it harder for Uber drivers to solicit business could not be enforced until the government had published full details of the restrictions. "It's the straw that breaks the camel's back," said Ibrahima Sylla, president of France Taxis, whose organisation has joined several others in calling for the early morning protest on Monday. They have urged taxi drivers to gather at the northern Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport and the southern Orly airport at 05:00 am before slowly converging on the city in a bid to block arterial highways. "This is a fight against Uber. We're fed up. Allowing UberPOP means leaving 57,000 French taxis high and dry, and thus 57,000 families. And that is out of the question," said Sylla.
That seems to be the standard type of protest in France. It's a popular pastime among the French farmers to block roads with manure as one example.
Don't get me wrong - some things should be protested - but some thinking about _how_ to protest could lead to better results for everyone...
Uber drivers must pay for their own vehicles/insurance/maintenance, Uber gets their percentage before drivers are paid.
N.Y.C. medallion cabs are usually rented from the medallion owners. Drivers typically will pay $150 for the cab before starting their day, and need to continuously hustle their ass for the next 12 hours in order to make as much as possible, take home is $100 to $200 per shift.
No cab company is run like another. Some drivers truly care about their customers 'experience'. When you had a good cab driver tip accordingly, tips can make or break their profit. Some cabdrivers are sociopaths, a good cab company will try to weed them out when made aware of unacceptable/unsafe drivers.
calling B.S. on you, ten miles from airport $14.50 Uber vs. $40 local taxi
For the unaware, the USA has no official language.
But English is the official language of California by ballot proposition and constitutional amendment (Article 3 Section 6).
That shouldn't be hard -- obstructing traffic is against the law. They can just arrest the cabbies after they refuse to move when requested and have their cabs towed.
It is like you don't even know France..
I suspect you don't. Obstructing traffic is against the law, but also a thing that happens routinely as a part of demonstations. Usually it is farmers though.
That's what they would do if they had a functioning police department or legal system in France, but they haven't had that for many years. You might remember that they had a plague of thugs setting cars on fire a year or so ago, and the cops didn't even try to arrest any of them.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
As we are talking about a strike in France, you may be interested to know that it really does not work like this in France. Actually, there are basically three different kinds of taxi drivers:
- Drivers on a payroll (3%) - working for a company who bought the taxi plates. They are paid at a percentage of income.
- Renters (11%) - they rent the car with a taxi plate. They keep all the income, but have to pay the rent of the car each month.
- Independant workers (86%) - who bought a taxi plate (from 100 000 to 200 000 €). They keep all the income.
So in France, most of the taxi drivers are independant workers who took out a loan to buy their plate - and intend to sell their plate at a high price when they retire.