Business
Uber returned to Spain on Wednesday after being kicked out by judicial order at the end of 2014. The courts had objected to Uber’s previous use of unregulated drivers, but to skirt that the firm is now using professionally-licensed drivers with its UberX service.
Unlike taxis, Uber drivers are not authorized to pick up fares on the street, which represent the vast majority of rides. And the firm is aiming smaller this time -- only Madrid for now, with a fleet of some 350 vehicles compared to the city’s 15,000 taxis.
Uber says the savings it brings to customers on common routes will be 30% compared to taxis, and up to 40% on trips to the airport. Carles Lloret, Uber‘s director for Southern Europe, said the firm hopes that with its aggressive prices it will win over consumers and convince politicians to revise Spain’s regulations. “I think that Spain is ready,” he noted, but “there are services which cannot yet be launched because the regulation is not sufficiently agile.” Lloret added that Uber wants to be open and transparent with the government about regulation, which if changed would enable the firm to create 30,000 jobs in Spain.
But as is the case in so many countries around the world, cabbies in Spain have been up in arms against Uber’s low-cost expansion, which threatens their livelihoods (and circumvents the high costs of buying a taxi license). Likewise, Uber has yet to enter Argentina but news of its interest in doing so has already provoked raucous protests by the taxi drivers’ union in Buenos Aires.
The demise of traditional taxis as the only game in town looks inevitable in many cities around the world. The bottom line is that the alternative options --Uber is the best-known one, but other ridesharing or technology-powered transportation startups include Lyft, Cabify, and BlaBlaCar – provide major cost savings to consumers. That will ultimately prevail over the protectionist protests of the comparatively-small taxi syndicates, even though there will be bumps in the road getting there.
