ribeirasacra

read about it here:
http://newsroom.uber.com/amsterdam/n...netherlands-2/
So this means only licence taxi drivers can be used via the remaining UBER apps (uberX and UberBLACK)
These cars, by law in The Netherlands must have blue registration plates. All taxi drivers in the country have to be trained and licensed.

hetismij2

It has been illegal in the Netherlands for a long time. They have only just admitted defeat.

Dukey1

I really wish some of these avid Uber users would find some other way to save money besides taking jobs away from people.

Christina

I'm pretty sure that's what the law is in Paris, also. DOesn't seem to be a problem, there are still plenty of Uber drivers who have licenses in Paris. Makes sense to me, why on earth you'd allow someone to make money driving people around without proper licenses and insurance, I don't know, but in the US, I believe many cities do. You couldn't run a restaurant without being licensed, though (or you'd be shut down). I think people are disingenuous when calling this the "sharing" economy when it's someone making money by a service, they aren't just sharing. Running illegal businesses isn't sharing, in my book. I'll admit I really can't stand the CEO of Uber, either. This guy doesn't care about women's safety in Uber cars, for example, and actually had a promotion to hook men up with attractive female drivers in France (as well as bragging about how easy it was for him to get women now).

But I think it's okay if they are licensed, have insurance and pay proper income taxes or whatever taxes there should be for car services. I have no fondness for taxi companies having monopolies just because of their name and I think those drivers have to pay them a huge amount of money to drive one of their cabs.

Bedar

Exactly, Dukey !!

PalenQ

I really wish some of these avid Uber users would find some other way to save money besides taking jobs away from people.>

exactly not - the absurdity of this statement - folks working taking jobs away from people - Uber drivers ain't people?

Cartels breed high prices for the consumers - let the free market apply as in just about any other area?

Why are taxi drivers special? Should restaurant and cafe workers be hoyle only if trained and licensed? Supermarket workers?

why is Connex and private bus companies taking jobs away from state-run entities - somehow folks consider Uber some dastardly thing but it's the free market baby.

Protectionism breeds high prices and poor service often.

PalenQ

Everyone should be able to be licensed like cab drivers - not just a chosen few.

sandralist

>>Why are taxi drivers special?<<

Here in Italy, especially in small towns and villages, taxi drivers -- whose per-km rates are set by local government and who live in the town -- pay an indispensable and irreplaceable role in the community, providing a public service. Taxi drivers where I live routinely take seniors to doctor's appointments and wait for them, they carry heavy groceries upstairs for those unable to, wait for children to be picked up at school. Some will even feed the cats of people away for short periods. They accept deliveries. They get paid for these services, but offer them at discounts. The only thing that makes it possible for them to do this is the fees they charge for airport runs, other normal taxi services.

People who have no conception of how small towns survive in many parts of Europe bellow a "free-market baby" mantra, as if it actually was a guarantee of an improved life. But so much of what makes people wish they could live in Italy or other small-town European communities is precisely the resistance to the race-to-the-bottom, beggar-thy-neighbor ruthlessness and ultimately pointlessness of the "free market".

Yes, Uber founders will get rich and be admired for it, but they will corrode and destroy community bonds, living wages and leave everybody else the poorer for it.

There are many ways in which traditional ways of doing things in Italy become ossified and in need of restructuring for the betterment of all. The one-size-fits-all blindness of free market ideologues (many of whom could not survive without their Medicare and Social Security) is just one more destructive and stupid set of ideas that is destroying the planet and creating wide-spread misery.

PalenQ

Uber drivers could do the same thing as taxis for less probably - or does the Italian government subsidize these charitable runs from their licensed taxis on community service?

But we're talking mainly about big cities like Amsterdam and Paris not small rural areas with a different need, etc.

Lots of folks are making hard-needed moneys by Uber - the unemployment rate may be lower and they also pay taxes presumably on income to the government.

Let's license and control the number of every work - cabbies are not special IMO.

menachem

No they don't. Uber doesn't "have" drivers, in the sense of "employing them". That's why Uber drivers are without rights whatsoever. NL has pretty good legislation protecting workers on the payroll, protection that doesn't extend to drivers who make use of Uber.

Uber pays taxes on income? I think not. That's exactly what they're trying to avoid by pitching their platform as a ride sharing thing.

There are occasions when people have a real need for taxi rides, when Uber ups its fares, where regulated taxis aren't allowed to. So far for being "charitable".

Taskrabbit: the same. Glad we don't have that here in Europe.