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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.
Doesn't Erdogan only speak in rhyme?
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
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.
Uber Facing Ban In Turkey After Erdogan Backs Taxis
Initial skim: "Uber Facing Ban In Turkey After Evading Back Taxes".
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
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...
Except he's not the only one to say that Uber is a menace, which they are.
Uber might be cheap and convenient, bit it's a pestilence on the sustainable transport industry.
Turkey is also blocking Wikipedia and blaming a candy manufacturer for fomenting a coup.
Basically, you're arguing that a double rainbow and a new star appearing at the birth of Kim Jong Il doesn't make sense from meteorological OR astronomic point of view.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
It's ok, it's not like this is the first country that Uber has been declared illegal in (Thailand being one) and yet you can still get an Uber quite easily in Bangkok. And I would trust any of the Uber drivers farther than the tuk tuk scammers or taxi drivers that don't use the meter.
That being said, Uber as a company has a toxic culture and deplorable tactics, and given a reasonable alternative, I'll take the alternative.
How single individuals get the power to determine the lives of well, millions or billions of people, defining how their individual lives turn.
This ongoing game has not changed for ? 1000's of years.
It needs two parts - the allowing and the demanding side and as always, the allowing number of individuals is by far the much larger number.
Maybe there are some niches where this system has somewhat changed to benefit a larger part of a population. Overall, it is the same and the mechanisms to uphold this imbalance getting more and more refined.
Has it to do something with upbringing, where behavioral patterns are formed and kept or is it genetically imprinted?
If you look from a more distant point, it is just weird. There is some different opinion about a point and then starts this prancing and breast pounding and vassals are sent out to measure up their skills under the risk of getting injured or killed, now from very remote and safe places..
Who benefits? It seems to just create more and more trauma in people where the opposite event, less trauma could lead to more happiness.
On the one hand, Uber did its usual thing of going around local laws to offer their service, so they naturally got stopped at some point. I won't even attempt to make a case on whether taxi protection laws are good or bad, my hunch is that the answer is "it depends", but in any case rarely have we seen companies with as little regard of local laws as Uber. ;)
On the other hand, the neo-Sultan is obviously not worried about poor taxi drivers, he built the narrative he wanted: one or two sentences after the "Uber / moober" populist joke he asked where they got Uber from, and he answered "Europe of course". Which is completely wrong, it is an American company that started in San Fransisco, but he wanted to dish on Europe because the EU leaders don't seem to appreciate how he is cleansing his nation from "dangerous anti-democratic elements"...
In general, Erdogan seems to know how to win the people, I was aghast when I saw him get the audience to applause while he was bad-mouthing Kemal Ataturk, who for Turkey is more than what Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson and Roosevelt are combined for the US, but represents the opposite of the current course (Kemal established a democratic & secular nation). I can think of other leaders who had the same charisma in the past, fortunately Erdogan controls Turkey and not Germany
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
But not for long. We might be able to get him in for reelection in 2020. But most of us are still banking on Hillary.
The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
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.
Sort of, but Turkey is a large country and still subject to the international markets. And when he says things about being against interest rates and taking control of the central bank, there are consequences. Turkey's currency is crashing (similar to what Obama did to Russia in 2014 but self inflicted) and this will cause significant issues with their ability to finance large projects and importing foreign goods becomes much more expensive. And considering food is one of the things Turkey imports in large amounts, this is a big problem. Its just that Erdogan doesn't seem to know this so he's just gone power mad and started just making proclamations that seem like they will have consequences in the near future for him and Turkey.
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
Uber is a per trip car hire service. It is not metered like a taxi.nor do uber drivers wear uniforms nor do they work
full time like Taxi drivers do.
Uber charges passengers and pays drivers based on time and distance. The only modifier to a standard cab fare is the surge rate that acts as a multiplier on the fare.
So yes, they act exactly as a cab company in most respects save the "for hire" status that a licensed taxi can provide.
... is just the way you do things in Turkey and you're so content with that corrupt system? Always overcharging, taking detours from/to the airport, trying to extort money out of tourists at any occasion. Not to mention spying on your fellow Turks who visit Turkey.
Other cities Taxi drivers may overcharge you but in Istanbul they will literally steal money out of your wallet. Its a common trick. They will halt by the side of a main road ,instead of your destination saying their is construction ahead. While you try to quickly get down and pay the fare you will be hit by the second part of the plan - a highly overcharged fare which just jumped in the last 30 seconds. At this point you already have your money out of your wallet and stuck trying to figure out how the fare jumped so high. At this point they will reach into your wallet , take out a 100 and swap it (using sleight of hand) for a 20 and then say to you Ok you gave me 20, give me the rest. You as a tourist are in shock at this point and cant even argue.
Erdogan is a populist who gets his votes from thugs and hoodlums so I am not surprised he supports Istanbul Taxi drivers.
In comparison Uber works fantastically well in Istanbul.
**Life is too short to be serious**
I'll see myself out...
Same goes for the Armenian Genocide.
Uber is a predatory company. They took a great idea and turned it to shit. Uber gets no sympathy from me. Erdogan is far worse. He created a fake coup and led a countercoup to cement power, arresting thousands, firing thousands. He is a despot.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
hard to know who to cheer for in this argument. On one hand we have a brutal dictator that is sending his country back to the dark ages. Then you have a wholly corrupt taxi industry (yes for Turkey this really is the case) Then you have Uber, a company whose business model is ignoring local laws and regulations to undercut local industry and suckers people to work as underpayed drivers.
Are you telling me that declaring something as illegal does not stop people from doing it? What???
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.
You have to realize that people's experience will vary a lot by locale.
In the city where I currently live, Uber does not operate, but there exists a local Uber clone (seriously, the app is almost identical...). Unlike Uber however, they have found a way to operate legally from the beginning. Looking through the laws on the books, they realized they could register as a car-hire (limo-driver-hire) service without being a taxi...but with the app, essentially operate like a taxi. The taxi drivers are furious of course, however so far the authorities haven't found anything illegal in the venture (which might change since the taxi drivers are lobbying hard to have the laws changed and the "loopholes" closed).
Now the comparison: the number of taxi drivers is fixed. Getting a license usually requires some kind of bribery...the city sets the maximum price, so theoretically anyone can offer a lower one...but this is very rare as the taxi associations have a cartel-like agreement not to undercut each other. Most of the taxi associations are run by people who are essentially mobsters. The taxi profession has some unmerited tax breaks...dishonest taxi drivers that pray on tourists by charging double, triple, even 10 times the allowed maximum rate operate with impunity. Most taxi drivers are rude, they are careless drivers, and some of them are down-right scary folks when you see them. The population of the city almost universally loathes them. A lot of them drive cars that shouldn't really be on the road, yet "somehow" they pass inspection. Every time a government tries to get them in line a bit, they protest and block the city traffic during rush hour with their cars. Oh, and they always bitch if you don't have exact change (paying by card is available in only a very small number of vehicles).
On the other hand, all the drivers of the Uber-like app that I've met are nice, cultured, friendly normal people who seem to care about doing their job...and drive properly with care. Cars are usually in better condition....and the prices are 20-40% less than with the taxis. You can pay by credit card, so you don't care about change...everybody who has used the app almost universally comments "what a refreshing change! Nice drivers!" and so on.
In Turkey, if it walks like a dick, talks like a dick, and acts lick a dick, it's Erdogan.
How many teen age girls are on this site?
This is Slashdot, so obviously not one.
This seems kind unsurprising, there have been plenty of stories about how part of Erdogan's power base is construction companies owned by cronies who get a ton of government contracts. I think part of the whole dictatorship toolkit is crony capitalism, make sure your loyalists hold control over at least key economic sectors if not all of them.
In Turkey specifically, making sure your loyalists control the taxi market makes sense on several levels. One, I'd bet a lot of drivers are part of Erdogan's core demographic -- low income, more traditionally minded religiously. Two, a well-controlled taxi system provides control over transportation -- who's driving, who's being driven, etc. Three, Uber is a western company and will suck some of the profits out of Turkey, something that Erdogan won't want when his economy does relatively poorly, and four, it allows for Erdogan's cronies to reap the profits of a controlled sector.
And I don't wish to be driven anywhere in a cab that requires a limited-quantity medallion which is owned by an investor and leased out to the driver. Which means the driver's labor is funding the profits of some millionaire investor.
By all means, force everyone to get a license, but make the terms of the license objective (training, insurance, vehicle) and impartial. The idea of "there can only be 4325 taxis in Chicago and not a single one more" ended up abusing the drivers and the public.
I know I've talked to some cab drivers in major centers and there was a valid route for them to work towards owning their own medallion. Don't discount all cabs and screw over hard working people who may actually get somewhere.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
I think it's screwing over their work to require them to work towards/purchase/lease a medallion, especially when they cost $500K-1M.
What's the big deal with saying that we require regulation, licensing requirements, insurance, vehicle inspections, background check and all that, and that every person that meets those (maybe stringent) requirements shall be entitled to operate a taxi?
We do the same for Doctors, they have to pass med school, do a residency, pass exams, have insurance and all the other (strict!) requirements. But there's no law that says "New York can only have 45 rectal surgeons and anyone that wants to practice has to replace an existing one". That's just bonkers. Same for lawyers and real estate agents and dentists and . . .
You're comparing the economies of a profession that almost everyone can do to a profession that requires an enormous amount of money and dedication to get into. If most people never make it to be a rectal surgeon, you don't have to limit the number of rectal surgeons. Furthermore, there is no physical limitation to the space that medical institutions have for rectal surgeons, but there is a physical limit to the space on the road.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
So yes, they act exactly as a cab company in most respects....
Except cleaner, safer, fairer, less smelly and more features. I agree Uber is a taxi service, but taxi monopolies are built on an outdated 20th century business model. Rather than force everyone back ott he 20th century, the better move would be to dismantle the taxi monopoly and allow real competition.
No, I'm asking for basic economic fairness by saying that regulations have to be neutral and objective.
What you are advocating is excluding the poor from operating taxis without paying a tribute to a rich guy that holds a medallion. I maintain that this is still bonkers.