Taxi drivers attack Ubermen

From the very first day of its existence, Uber has figured in a lot of controversy and discussion. The appearance of the company thundered like a bolt from the blue for the traditional transport business. The development of a startup and a set of revolutions, coupled with multimillion-dollar investments, led to the fact that the service grew just instantly to a global scale, and transport offices (mainly taxis) around the world recorded an incredible decline in profitability.

Recently, waves of protests have swept across Europe, and Uber drivers have been targeted by local taxi drivers. Protests were often extremely aggressive. Last weekend, in Brussels, drivers of the company's transportation network (TNC) threw competitors with eggs and flour. Also, according to Uber general manager in Belgium (Filip Nuytemans), cases of theft of smartphones by Uber drivers and attacks on passengers ( as in the good old days ) were recorded .



On the contrary, the president of the Brussels Association of Taxis, Constantin Tsatsakis, calls the report exaggerated, adding that “there was no aggression,” despite the recognition that there were still eggs and flour, and the phones were just “ confiscated ”, - as if such actions are akin to sanctions and differ from ordinary theft.

For all the time, at least one Belgian taxi driver was arrested and admitted to throwing flour in an attempt to prevent passengers from getting inside the vehicle. Incidents of this kind took place in many cities around the world, but in Brussels were of the most fierce nature.

Today, Uber has a bone in the throat of traditional transport companies and existing transport laws. Today, Uber is winning, having squeezed many competitors out of the market due to low prices, global ubiquity of service and ease of use, but revenge is possible, as legislative initiatives can cause significant damage to the service’s activities. And at the moment, no one doubts that industry lobbyists are standing in lines of various government agencies. So the confrontation continues, to be continued ...