Drivers for Internet ride-sharing company, Uber, must now be licensed to operate as metered taxi operators in South Africa, a regulation the Internet-based Uber has fought since its 2009 inception.
a new transport bill that treats Uber operators as metered taxi operators was approved by the South African Cabinet, News24Wire reports.
Internet ride share app, Uber, has been in conflicts with traditional taxi operators and government regulators in many countries. Most taxi operators claimed their profession is in grave danger because Uber has been operating under an unfair regulation on the part of their host government.
South Africa’s Cape Town traffic officials impounded over 200 Uber cars because drivers did not have metered taxi permits.
In 2015, Gauteng metered taxi drivers protested against Uber and cars belonging to Uber claiming that Uber drivers have an unfair competitive advantage because of a lack of regulation.
Uber said it welcomes a new bill, which will make transport safer for everyone.
San Francisco-based Uber was launched in 2009, it operates by allowing users in select cities to call and pay for rides using their Smartphone app. Uber doesn’t provide its own vehicles or operators, but works with existing licensed drivers. Riders can track their dispatched drivers using GPS, and also rate the drivers.
Traditional taxi companies have called on state and local regulators to declare Uber illegal, in violation of decades-old laws often based on technical definitions of “meters,” “dispatch,” and “taxi,” according to Forbes.
Uber and other ride-sharing competitors like Lyft and Sidecar, on their part, claimed that they are not taxi companies but are technology companies, Salon reported. In arguing against regulations that govern taxi companies, they said they only act as intermediaries, connecting drivers with passengers. As mere software brokers of a deal between two separate parties, they shouldn’t be regulated like a taxi company.
They don’t own cars, the argument goes, so how can they be a taxi company? In fact, when Uber was founded by Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, it changed its original name, UberCab, to Uber Technologies to provide regulatory cover, according to Salon:
The South African Cabinet rejected Uber’s request to include a transportation category, “transport network operator,” for operators using technology to solicit customers.
Uber, on its part, is calling the new South African regulations “progress.”
In an emailed statement to News24Wire, Uber Africa spokeswoman Samantha Allenberg said, “Uber respects the key role the national government plays in ensuring that South Africans have access to safe, affordable and efficient transportation options and we welcome this positive outcome.“For over two years we have been actively working with regulators across South Africa to adopt appropriate regulations to accommodate new technologies that can help solve many of the current problems with urban transportation – safety, accessibility and lost productivity at work.
