Uber to favour ownership qualifiers

30 May 2016

Application-based taxi service Uber, which has a three-month waiting list for partner-drivers wanting to join the platform, says it will give preference to its existing drivers who have since qualified to own or lease a car.

The platform has signed up 4,000 partner-drivers and is looking to increase this number to 15,000 over the next two years. Some of the drivers on the platform do not own the cars they drive. However, there has been an increase in drivers qualifying to own cars. "We see a large number of drivers who were previously working for another party who owned the vehicle now qualifying for a maintenance lease or another form of finance, where they now are obtaining their own vehicles.

"And we want to give preference to those individuals who have been working on the platform for someone else, who are now becoming their own entrepreneur," said Uber GM for subSaharan Africa Alon Lits.

He was speaking in Rosebank, Johannesburg, at the launch of Uber's cash payment option. Earlier in May, Gauteng MEC for roads and transport Ismail Vadi officially launched a new registration process that would allow Uber driver- partners to obtain operating licenses, like all public transport vehicles. Cape Town already allows Uber taxis to register and operate legally. Vadi's announcement angered metered taxi drivers, some of whom went on to launch a physical attack on the MEC at the department's offices in Johannesburg on the day.

Operators of metered taxis have been up in arms at Uber's entry into the market and want Vadi's decision reversed. They have called on Gauteng Premier David Makhura to intervene. Speaking on behalf of the metered taxi industry, Western Cape Metered Taxi Council spokesman David Drummond said yesterday the industry was concerned about the number of permits being granted to Uber in the Western Cape.

A proposed amendment to the National Land Transport Act tabled before Parliament in March did not make room for Uber, but did make reference to the metered taxi industry, said Drummond.

Source: Business Day

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