ATHENS – Greek taxi drivers who got Prime Minister and Radical Left SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras to put punishing conditions on Uber and ride-sharing services said they will strike for 12 hours across the country on Nov. 8 to protest chauffeuring services too as they try to keep a monopoly despite a reputation for occasionally cheating customers, especially tourists.
The strike will start at 4 a.m. and end at 4 p.m. with cabbies saying that the government has failed to implement regulations against the chauffeuring services.
The day of the strike coincides with the hearing of a lawsuit filed by the ride app Beat against the head of the Greek taxi drivers’ union, Thymios Lymberopoulos, for defamation.
In April, Uber suspended its Uberx service in Greece in the wake of the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA-led coalition helping cab drivers who feared competition.
That came after the government imposed conditions on the ride services essentially making it impossible for them to operate, such as limiting how many passengers a day they could take and finies.
“New local regulations were voted on recently with provisions that impact ride-sharing services,” Uber said in a blog post, Reuters and the business newspaper Naftemporiki said in reports on the service’s suspension.
The new regulations require each trip to start and end in the fleet partner’s designated headquarters or parking area, something Uber does not do. A digital registry of all ride-sharing platforms and their passengers will also be created.
The company launched in Europe in 2011, angering some local authorities and taxi drivers who said it did not abide by the same rules on insurance, licensing and safety, said Reuters.
UberX launched in Athens in 2015 and more than 450,000 people have used its smartphone app to book a ride, the agency said. The crackdown to protect the taxi drivers set off protests last year from Uber riders who signed a petition launched by Beat – a Greek local ride-sharing service which has also been hit with restrictions.
UberX drivers have to be employed by fleet partners such as car rental companies or tourist agencies and their cars could not be more than seven years old.
The data registry and return-to-garage requirement will only apply to ride-hailing services like Uber and Beat, while taxi drivers will be able to use cars that are up to 22 years old. As earlier reports said Tsipras, whose popularity has plummeted in polls after reneging on anti-austerity promises, wants to keep the voting bloc of the taxi industry.
In March, taxi drivers walked off the job for nine hours to protest the ride-sharing service Uber, which they claim has been tacitly supported by Greece’s bailout creditors.
Tsipras’ government earlier had reportedly agreed with them and to put a heavy tax and fines on taxi competitors to let them keep a monopoly amid claims of overcharging and rigged meters.
Read more at thenationalherald.com
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