Uber drivers fear for their life in Istanbul, taxis retaliate
A UBER driver keeps a metal rod close at hand during his daily drives through Istanbul.
Alarmed by violent attacks in recent weeks allegedly carried out by angry yellow cab drivers who want Turkey to ban the ridehailing company, Levent says he’s even considering carrying a gun and asked that his last name be withheld for safety reasons.
“I work with the fear of getting physically assaulted by cab drivers every day,” he said inside the van he drives, a Mercedes Benz Vito, popular among Istanbul’s Uber ilk.
He’s among the more than 5,000 Uber drivers in the city of 15 million waiting to learn their fate as an Istanbul court considers two legal cases, filed by taxi associations, arguing the app-based service undermines competition and breaks the law.
Yet while Uber is fighting for survival in cities like London, which revoked its license last year, discontent has rarely taken as aggressive a turn as it has in Turkey’s largest city.
On Mar 10, shots were fired at an Uber vehicle on its way to pick up a customer in the crowded Istanbul district of Kucukcekmece. Local media have reported incidents where groups of taxi drivers posing as customers gang up and assault Uber drivers after hailing them to quiet street sides.
“My drivers are scared. Cab drivers harass and attack them everywhere in Istanbul,” said 56-year- old Bekir Cambaz, who owns 52 Uber vehicles and two yellow cabs. “One of my drivers was just hospitalised due to brain concussion after getting beaten up at the main bus terminal.”
In many ways, it’s more of the same for Uber. In Europe and North America, traditional cabs are the most virulent critics of the service, which expanded quickly beyond its home base in San Francisco partly by disregarding local regulations.
My drivers are scared. Cab drivers harass and attack them everywhere in Istanbul...One of my drivers was just hospitalised due to brain concussion after getting beaten up at the main bus terminal.
This has spurred protests by cabbies-including some in Paris that turned violent- and led to run-ins with national authorities and new laws aimed at reining in the gig economy.
Fed up with what they deem unfair competition, hundreds of taxi drivers protested outside the Istanbul Palace of Justice on Monday to call for an Uber ban. One of their primary gripes is that Uber drivers dodge the hefty fees they pay.
Istanbul has issued about 17,000 taxi licence plates, a figure that’s barely changed in two decades.
They’re a hot commodity, now costing about 1.69 million liras ( RM1.6 million) each, according to the website of Kale Ticaret, which trades them. Cabbies rent licences for 7,000 to 8,000 liras a month, so they need a steady stream of customers to make ends meet.
“My profit fell by 30 per cent since Uber started its operations in Turkey” in 2014, lamented Mehmet Yavuz, who paid for his cab licence by selling land he’d inherited from his parents. — WP-Bloomberg
Bekir Cambaz, who owns 52 Uber vehicles and two yellow cabs