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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.
The taxi drivers are arguing that if they can't be the ONLY ones to drive people to their destination, then NOBODY can. And then they wonder why fewer people want to patronize them.
The taxi plates cost money. FUCKTONS of money.
Therefore the people who buy them (invariably not the Middle-eastern/indian/pakistani drivers), are rich guys that can afford the plates.
And in the immortal words of Bill Gates on the Simpsons, you don't get rich writing a lot of cheques. So those rich guys hire the cheapest hardest working people they can find. People that will work 12 hour back to back shifts, on the lowest rates possible, and thank you for it. (Thats the middle-eastern/indian/pakistani mindset, work a shit job but thank god you aren't unemployed, and be nice to the rich man because he is the one that pays you). It is what happens when you live in a country of a billion people, full of the worst poverty you have ever seen.
If you have a job, you are fucking thankful, even if it is the worst job you could possibly imagine. It is better than living in a god damned junk yard looking for scrap metal.
It is all in an effort to try to pay off the huge investment the rich white guys made in the plates. Minimum maintenance, maximum driving, minimum wage to drivers.
You don't need a driver that can speak english, you need a driver that will drive the long way to maximise the "driving on the meter" ratio. You need a driver that will drive in the wrong direction as much as possible because they "don't speak english". And if they don't do these things, you fire them and get the next cheapest guy in the cab to do it for you.
And, it turns out working an 18 hour overnight shift means you don't spend a lot of time with your family, so you have to call them while driving.
I drove a cab in Australia for 3yrs, it's not the worst job I've had but it's certainly the worst paid job, think fruit picking money. Most cabbies don't own the cab or the plates (medallion). The cab owners are the ones who are understandably getting upset since if uber is legal the plates they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for suddenly become worthless.
Uber drivers are desperate for work and silly enough to run their own car into the ground for little more than petrol money, when it's dead they can't afford a new one and walk away in a worse situation than they started. Courier companies do the same thing here in Melbourne, they call you a "sub-contractor" get you to stick a "courier" sign on your own car then you drive it at your own expense until it falls apart. And if you're unlucky enough to fuck up without the right insurance, you will be paying for it the rest of your life.
From my experience with real cabs, sticking with a regulated taxi industry is the best thing any of us can do to stop uber exploiting desperate people in a race to the bottom.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Good luck to you if you think an Uber cab is going to be cheaper than a local cab service.
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.