Uber sputters in Morocco as furious taxi drivers play spoiler
Cabbies pose as passengers to detain banned app’s drivers CASABLANCA // As their smartphone screens lit up with ride requests last month, Uber drivers in the Moroccan city must have thought that business was booming. Instead, they found themselves surrounded by irate Casablanca taxi drivers, who forced them from their vehicles and handed them over to the police, the latest in a string of protests in the kingdom against the controversial travel app.
“After the tramway, illegal drivers and now Uber, they are trying to kill us off,” said Abdelouahed, who works for a small taxi firm.
Uber launched in Morocco’s economic hub in 2015 but was banned by the authorities after a month.
It has recently found itself the target of increasingly brash protests organised by owners of Casablanca’s famous tomato red taxis. “When you open Uber on your phone, you see drivers swarming around you like a virus,” said Nordine, a taxi driver in his fifties. “And like a virus, you need radical solutions. Trap them.”
In one protest last month, dozens of taxi drivers posed as passengers, flooding the app with requests before forcing the Uber drivers from their vehicles. The management of taxis in Morocco usually falls to local government. The transport ministry has kept quiet as to why Uber continues to operate in Casablanca.
“Our position hasn’t changed,” said a senior official from Casablanca’s local administration. “We view Uber as an unauthorised and illegal company.”
Local media said that as many as 30 separate protests against the app’s drivers had been held, ranging from threats, car chases and even ambushes such as the one last month.
Meryem Belqziz, Uber’s director general for Morocco, insisted these were isolated incidents. There are now more than 250 taxis working for Uber in Casablanca, and the app has had 15,000 users in the past three months, she said.
Ms Belqziz said that Uber and local taxis could operate sideby-side, but admitted her firm’s legal status needed clarifying. “With every important change you meet resistance. But with time, people get used to new modes of consumption.” she said.