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Uber Facing Ban In Turkey After Erdogan Backs Taxis (sbs.com.au)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from SBS: Uber faces being banned in Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the ride-hailing app was "finished" on Saturday following an intense lobbying campaign from Istanbul taxi drivers. Erdogan's comments, in a late-night speech Friday in Istanbul, came after the government agreed new rules that are expected to severely complicate Uber's operations in Turkey. Drivers of Istanbul's yellow taxis have over the last months waged an intense campaign to have Uber banned, saying the company is eating into their business without having a proper legal basis for work. "This thing emerged called Uber or Muber or whatever," said Erdogan. "But this issue is now finished. It's over now. Our Prime Minister (Minali Yildirim) made the announcement. We have our system of taxis," he said.
"Yildirim's government last month issue a directive sharply hiking fines and threatened to blacklist companies whose vehicles illegally work as taxis," reports SBS.
"Yildirim's government last month issue a directive sharply hiking fines and threatened to blacklist companies whose vehicles illegally work as taxis," reports SBS.
Taxi regulations are outdated and under the thumb of some of the most corrupt organizations in the world, operating under the barest hint of legitimacy. Uber, et al result in more money flowing to the company and drivers, and less to unions, local governments, insurance companies, and the myriad middle men sanctioned by the traditional taxi ecosystem.
Antiquated and corrupt laws and the resulting parasites ramp up the costs and piss poor customer service, and lower the quality of traditional taxi services all over the world. Fuck all that.
No, Uber is a web company whose business model involves screaming loudly they're not a taxi service, and not subject to the rules and regulations of a taxi service.
Me, I said fuck uber.
Where I live, cabs drivers have extensive background checks, have to have vehicle inspections and commercial insurance, and by law have a camera at the driver's rear-view mirrow ... the cab drivers initially refused them when a cab driver did something to a passenger, but when one of their own was robbed, they were suddenly in favor of them.
Uber is an illegal cab company, with insufficient licensing, background checks, and insurance.
More places need to be saying hey, if you don't have a commercial license and insurance, and don't follow the same protocols as a cab, then fuck off an go away. The idea that a cab company gets to have the pretense they're not a cab company because they say so is bullshit.
The one time I was in an Uber, the driver was downright scary and incompetent. With a real cab, I have a plate number I can file a complaint against.
With Uber, somehow I'm supposed to believe that a fucking app on my phone is capable of reporting dangerous, illegal, incompetent, under-insured, and un-inspected people.
Fuck Uber and they're "we're not a cab company we're magical unicorn shit". Sorry, no, you're either a legal cab company, or an illegal cab company. Since you refuse to be the former, I have no other choice than to treat you as the latter.
I don't wish to be driven anywhere by someone too stupid to realize they're not being paid for their time and depreciation, and instead are funding the profits of a large corporation out of pocket, while that company continues to pretend it's every bit as good as the cab companies it's trying to sat it's just as good as ... all while failing to have any of the things which allow me to have some confidence in an actual cab company.
Tell you what ... oh, golly, I'm not a bank, but if you give me money I'll hold onto it ... of course, you get none of the protections of a bank, but I'm going to loudly remind you I'm not a bank, so if I steal all of your money, that's your problem.
Uber is a company built on wishful thinking, and bullshit.
It doesn't have to make sense. Erdogan is a despot who at this point can pretty much do what he wants. And he is a populist pur sang... banning a disruptive foreign company fits exceedingly well in his playbook, whatever the actual rights and wrongs of the matter are.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...