ETF and the International Road Union (IRU) signed a joint statement in November 2014 with the title “Taxis – for a level playing field to support innovation and ensure quality of service to customers, good working conditions and the competitiveness of the public transport chain anytime, anywhere”.
Basically ETF and IRU are denouncing the unfair business practices of Uber and similar platforms and calling on decision makers to act.
We are drawing the attention of international, European, national and local policy decision makers the unfair competition on intra-city mobility markets. We see this particularly from self-proclaimed “ride-sharing” platforms, which are in fact illegally offering their “ride-selling” services on the taxi and hire cars market. This is ultimately detrimental for the interests of workers, citizens and visitors, including citizens with disabilities. At the same time these platforms avoid paying taxes and social security, thus destroying the fair and efficient functioning of entire segments of the public transport market. This could have potentially disastrous consequences on mobility, passenger safety, legal jobs, decent work and social conditions.